Diet

For the first few days Pazeley was not eating very well, then just stopped eating. One night one of my other chinchillas woke me up by chirping for me. I wasn't going to get up to see what his problem was but I am so glad I did. When I came back I turned the light on to check on Pazeley and she was drooling and could not move I rushed her to the emergency vets at 3.30 am, where the vet told me that her blood sugar level was so high she was on deaths door and she was unsure if she would make the night. She gave her some fluids and 2 shots of Insulin. Plus some antibiotics and kept her in a incubator. I came back at 7 am, because they would not let me stay with her, to see that she was improving very well.

I then took her to my regular vet, who is very knowledgeable on chinchillas. He smelt her breath and immediately knew that she was a diabetic. Her breath had a fruity smell to it. He took her temperature and it was normal but he also found a heart murmur. Out of a scale of 1 to 6 her heart murmur was a 3. He then proceeded to check her thoroughly. He told me that he has never had a case like this, but has had great success with cats and dogs giving insulin shots. He saw that she was going to have a very traumatic few months until they could stabilize her glucose levels.

I have a book, the same book my vet found the information in and came up with only one case of diabetes in a chin before. The chinnie was female, 5 years. old and overweight due to not enough exercise. Same description that Pazeley was. The chinnie was diagnosed with diabetes at 5 years old and they started her off on insulin. It worked for 2 weeks but they could not stabilize her glucose levels. She then went down hill very fast and they had to put her down. My vet was not sure of how or what would happen to her if we started the treatment. The treatments were going to be costly and twice a day. Plus if she crashed or needed insulin while I was at work we would be in trouble. I felt I was not able to take this on. It is not the financial end of things. I would and have gone to great expense for my chinnies and would do it again and again.

Pazeley has always had diabetes, it just took a traumatising experience like moving to a new home, having other chinnies around etc. for it to show up. The history, which I'm not sure of, seems to be in females about 5 years that have had an improper diet and exercise routines. I am so mad and upset that she had to go through this. I tried everything but did not want her to suffer. I just hope the this can help someone else one day.

The book that I have is A Practitioner's Guide to Domestic Rodents and the other I'm not sure what it is called but it gives information on Disease Problems of Guinea pigs and Chinchillas. The Diabetes Mellitus is what she had. I put her down because of this.

She was fed a pet store pellet and was not let out very often for exercise. Which I know is very important. My other 5 chinnies come out every night, and I mean every night for at least an hour at a time if not up to 4 hours if they please. Pazeley came from an owner who was not knowledgeable or had the time for her and because of that she is not here with me now. It is very sad to think she would of been fine is she had a proper diet and exercise. I hope this is helpful to someone. I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

This was in Canada Sept. 2000

If you wish to contact Pazeley's owner   email Bonnie