seizure in chinchilla

[em]

I am contacting you for some advise if possible regarding one of my chinchillas. Last night after being out of her cage for approx 30min when put away within in minutes she lay on her side went to move and my brother said she was limping.

When we looked it appeared she had either had a stroke or seizure, it then happen again and she started to what i believe seizure consecutively from 11.45pm to approx 2/2.30 am.

We assumed that this could have been due to the warm whether so we emidiatly put fans around the cage opened windows and doors to the house. We also placed cold slate slabs on each level of the cage but kept her to one level and put containers of ice close by.

During the time stated i think she had at least 20 seizures some small some what i would consider bad, her body would contort, her head moving towards her tail and her tail towards her head. Her breathing was laboured at points and she was appeared to be dying, i did have her on my knee with a container of ice at some points as when i placed her in the cage she kept falling over to one side and looked like she could not walk properly.

She has always been a quite chinchilla and is around 2 years old, she is with her sister who has not had any of these symptoms.

I have stayed up with her during the night and she had not had any seizures from at least 2.30am and was managing to manover around the cage has had a bit to eat and drink, if we had not been up at that time seeing her today i would not have realised there had been anything wrong, maybe just a bit quieter than normal.

Any suggestions and advise would be appreciated.

Thank you

Emma

[deguconvert]

WOW!! I'm sorry that no one has replied as of yet, if even just to say that we don't have any moderators that know anything about chins or active chin specialists here, and haven't had for some time. I would highly recommend that you take her to a vet. I would think they can do blood work at least that should show if there have been any any strokes. This sounds like a terrifying series of events! How is she doing now?

[moletteuk]

I hope you can get some help from the vet for her.

I think a couple of our degu people have chins, but in the meantime, here's a link to an active chinchilla forum www.chinchillaworld.com/forums/

[lovemychillas]

The same thing happened to my male chinchilla (krewkrew) a few months ago. I had KrewKrew & pumpkin(my other male chinchilla) out to play in my bedroom, away from anything that could hurt them to my best knowledge because I go over my bedroom and make it safe for them b4 I let them out to play. Well about a half hour or so I seen that KrewKrew was laying down really flat like in the floor, so I went up to him n he didn't move or anything so I touch him n he is very stiff like and wouldn't walk, his muscles started contracting and like you said, his tail bent up towards his head. He also at one point was showing his teeth because the seizure made him open his mouth really wide. It was so scary, I could only imagine how he felt. I thought maybe he got hot from running around and was possibly going into a heat stroke. I had my air conditioner on the hole entire time, & always make sure my room is the perfect temperature. I called an animal hospital luckily I got an emergency phone # for a veterinarian, he told me to give him children's Benadryl to calm him down because unfortunately I had to put him in a separate cage because Pumkin would not stop trying to over power him since he was weak. They are still in their own cage to this day & sadly never have been able to get along since. But luckily KrewKrew is okay he got through the seizures that night thank god and became healthier than I ever seen him when he was able to have his own cage, food, water etc. He is so energetic and is obviously healthy now. I wonder if he was being bullied by the other; not able to eat as much as he needed or bathe, at one point Pumkin wouldn't let KrewKrew is the dust bath. But we managed & things are alot better now