Chinchila Diabetes

Re: Chinchila Diabetes

Mark Rowland — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:12:50 GMT

[quote user="Martin Jones"]

(Yes, I know your argument re zantac and altering stomach pH - we do listen, after all)

[/quote]

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry

Re: Chinchila Diabetes

Martin Jones — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:36:23 GMT

So not just me then.

(Yes, I know your argument re zantac and altering stomach pH - we do listen, after all. Managed to get a calm, quiet look in the mouth without anaesthesia today, and certainly the teeth aren't right, so this will be first job, I think)

Re: Chinchila Diabetes

Mark Rowland — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:46:11 GMT

Perhaps the nurse was referring to degus which are used as a model for spontaneous development of diabetes melitus indicating that it is common?

Re: Chinchila Diabetes

Mark Rowland — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:46:59 GMT

There only a handful of reported cases (3 I think)

I think obesity is probably more implicated than anything else. Chins are often overfed in their first year. I think if you get the weight down it will go away.

Use the zantac if you want. Its not something i would jump to. Ive had this discussion before however.

I would want some head rads and oral exam to investigate the inappetance, followed by some bloods if the teeth were all ok

Re: Chinchila Diabetes

Martin Jones — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 23:19:22 GMT

Super advice, Mark. I thank you greatly.

Not so much a hard and fast case, as an owner who popped in with an inappetant / static gut chin, with the comment, 'oh, we think he's got that diabetes too'. I can't see any real evidence of this - quite the opposite, really - but when one of the SVNs, a chin owner, said 'Oh, they ALL have that', I had the same feeling of panic / shame as when I heard John Chitty talk about ferret hyperadrenocorticism and realised how little I actually knew.

Is this an emerging / long since prevalent disease that most/all chins will succumb to, or still an occasional disorder of poorly fed individuals?

(Giving this one zantac and rosehips, by the way......)

Re: Chinchila Diabetes

Mark Rowland — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:40:16 GMT

Edit, I assume we have had bloods/rads etc to rule out other causes of hyperglycaemia (dont forget stress). Do you have a suspected case? If so what are the symptoms and level of hyperglycaemia?

Re: Chinchila Diabetes

Mark Rowland — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:34:52 GMT

Treatment of the condition can be challenging

1) Regulation of the diet may arrest the disease. I suggest feed that is high in fibre and protein, low in fat, and high in complex carbohydrates
2) Reduce the chinchilla’s weight slowly if it is obese, many of them are.
3) Diabetic rodents (and rabbits) rarely develop ketoacidosis
4) Insulin is rarely required to treat the hyperglycemia. I find insulin is more likely to kill a hystricomorph rodent like a chinchilla. I avoid using it unless there is a ketoacidotic crisis. Hystricomorph (degu, coypu and guinea pig) insulins are highly divergent from those of other mammals.

Hope this helps for now

Goodluck