Chinchilla Care - Chinchilla Diseases

Enteritis: Enteritis can sometimes be a contagious disease and can cause secondary effects on other bodily organs. It is a disease that happens in the intestinal tract of chinchillas. What usually causes enteritis can be poor feed, poor hay, not enough nutrition in the diet, and infection.
Symptoms are:

• Diarrhea
• Constipation
• Impaction
• Rectal Prolapse

Some infections that may cause enteritis are:

• Listeriosis
• Pseudomonas
• Giardia

Listeriosis: Listeria is very contagious among chinchillas and can be passed to other animals or people even. Listeriosis can not only infect the liver, uterus, brain, lungs but also the intestine.
Symptoms:

• Head Tilt
• Diarrhea (very smelly, green, watery substance)
• Constipation
• Not drinking/eating

The cause of listeriosis can come from contaminated water, contaminated feed or another contaminated chinchilla.

Pseudomonas: Pseudomonas is fairly swift and quick with chinchillas. There will be either sudden death with chins or intestinal disorders.
Symptoms:

• Poor Fur Quality(fur falling out, or weak)
• Infections of eyes/ears/breathing
• Stillborn/weak kits

Pseudomonas is usually caused by many of the same issues of listeriosis and enteritis. Poorly kept feed/hay, water. It can also be passed from other chins who have it. Poorly kept cages, and ont cleaning the cage pans well enough can also cause this bacteria to grow and harm your chinchilla. Like listeriosis, it can also be passed to other animals or people.

Giardia: Giardia is in all chinchillas but in small numbers. It's when they get stressed out or live in a dirty enviroment or poorly kept feed/water is given to them, that it can become a problem. Giardia can also be a secondary problem to another, like the illnesses mentioned above.
Symptoms:

• Diarrhea/Constipation
• More Intake of Food Than Normal
• Less Active and Playful than usual

Basically if you cannot clear up the diarrhea or constipation over a number of days of trying, it is always best to get a fresh fecal sample to your vet to be looked at.

Uterine Infections: With females it might not be always obvious they have an infection. When the infection becomes worse is when you will notice a discharge.
Symptoms:

• Discharge from the vaginal area that is not the normal color(yellow, green or even bloody mucous)
• Matings do happen with the female but yet there is no babies produced from the matings

This can be caused by many things, such as being spread the infection from one female to many females in a run (courtesy of the male servicing them). Dirty unkept cages. Staph infections or pseudomonas infections.

Respiratory Infections: Bordetella Bronchiseptica, Streptococcus, and Pasteurella are all respiratory infections that could be in chinchillas.
Symptoms:

• Discharge from the nose/eyes
• Wheezing
• Lethargic
• Lack of eating/drinking

All of these can be caused from many things, from other infected animals, unkept enviroment, etc... Sometimes a chin can carry some of these illnesses up to 30 days before showing symptoms. Please go to a vet as soon as you see symptoms.

Bloat/Rectal Prolapse: These two illnesses are common in young when they are weaned or beginning to eat solid foods more.
Rectal prolapse will be very obvious, as the intestine will poke out. To avoid infection you need to clean this right away, and take to a vet. If you think you are able to take care of it yourself, clean it, and insert the intestine back in. Very seldom does this work, but there have been miracles happen from owners being quick to insert it back in, in time.
Bloat is caused by gas building up in the intestinal tract. Very common in kits, sometimes it can happen with adults too.
Symptoms:

• Swelled Belly
• Lack of Eating
• Constipation

It can be caused my many things, aside from young kits. With adults or kits, it can come from moldy or poor feed. Not enough fiber in the diet, imbalance of the intestinal tract, lack of exercise, and overcrowding.
If you can let your chinchilla run loose in the beginning of this(if it is caused of lack of exercise) this will help relieve some gas and may prevent your chinchilla from passing on. If it is caused by other issues, it is best to go to your vet asap for medication.

Cryptosporidium: Cryptosporidium is contagious to people, other animals and chinchillas. It is very highly contagious. It is one of the most difficult to cure, as it is not susceptible to bleach like many other parasites.
Symptoms:

• Dehydration
• Weight loss
• Diarrhea

It is more often a waterborne disease, and can be passed from infected animals to people or other animals. Always use filtered or boiled water with chinchillas to avoid this.

With all the above mentioned, the main way to keep your chins from having any of these issues is to prevent it. When bringing new animals home, quarantine them in a completely different area of the house for at minimum one month.
Always provide fresh clean properly milled feed, and good hay to your chinchillas. Boil or filter the water your chinchillas consume.
Always keep a good eye on your chins and be able to recognize when one is not his or herself. If you notice an issue, please keep the chin quarantine from the rest of your herd. Always go to a vet or a rancher if you need help. Never leave it, till it is too late. Some of these diseases need to be given immediate attention or the chinchilla will pass away.
One of the first things, chinchillas will stop doing when ill, is not drink water, so always keep an eye on the water bottle, make sure your chin is drinking plenty. Same with food.
If you think your chin has an issue, please please get it to a vet and do not waste any time in doing so. If your chinchillas have no problems, then please find a vet in your area ahead of time, who knows chinchillas, has experience with them and can help you. This way, it will avoid you having trouble in finding a vet that knows chinchillas, when an emergency comes up.
In emergeny situations, you don't have time to locate that perfect veterinarian.





A forum for just chinchillas & their owners. Register now!

Handmade genuine gemstone jewelry.