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1

Health / what could be wrong with fluffy?

« on: September 16, 2011, 03:06:37 PM »

fluffy's nearly three years old and lives with her two daughters. i have noticed that there are crumbled pellets in their bowl but thought that maybe it came from the pellet bag as they are all eating hay and are keen on chews - demolish them without problems. then i saw her last week at the bowl, picking up nuggets, taking a few bits and then putting them back in and taking another one. thought she was being a picky girl!

yesterday fluffy seemed a little less active than usual so i got her out to look at her and she felt smaller. i weighed her and she'd lost weight but i am not entirely sure what her 'normal' weight is as she'd been pregnant twice (she was a boy who turned out to be a girl so when we found out she was a girl, she'd had triplets and was already pregnant with luella) so it was always pregnant/nursing/post nursing. still i think she should be bigger than she is now. she didn't want any chews but she had oats and alfalfa hay.

obviously my first thought was teeth - i checked her front teeth, they're fine and they're the right colour. i booked her in to go see the vet so her back teeth can be checked and anything else investigated if this is ok. she's going in on tuesday.

today her activity levels seem back to normal. i've given her a dried rose hip - these are quite hard so i thought if it's her mouth, she probably wouldn't want to eat that but she had it without any trouble. i also gave her a very hard compressed grass pellet and again, she chewed away.

so i don't know. if it is not her teeth - but this is to be seen - what else could it be?

2

Health / allergies?

« on: July 09, 2011, 12:05:07 PM »

has anybody ever had a chin with pollen allergies/allergies that would give them upper respiratory problems?

i adopted mae in october last year and she had a variety or serious health problems due to neglect. the ones that can be sorted out have been sorted out, she still has chronic bone infection which thankfully doesn't bother her and obviously she's not grown her leg back.

she's always had a funny wheeze in her upper respiratory tract - particularly noticeable when she gets excited and starts breathing faster - but it didn't seem to be giving her any trouble. she'd had a few respiratory infections while we were treating her for other things (she really wasn't a well chinchilla) but it was always her chest rather (as well as her upper airways) and these cleared with antibiotics.

about three weeks ago she started sounding a bit congested and the vet couldn't hear anything in her chest so she thought her upper airways were inflamed and she was given metacam. it didn't clear and after a week or so snot appeared so i started giving her antibiotics as well. still nothing in her chest though AND while she seems annoyed at the fact that she cannot breathe very well, she is not behaving in any way like she's sick. she's bright, runs around, eats (although this is somewhat annoying given she can't breathe and swallow at the same time) - when she's sick, she just lies there, wants to be stroked and doesn't want any food/chews/anything.

so, i'm thinking she may have hay fever? given this has appeared now that it's warmer and we have had to have the window open. we live in the country so the air is clean and she's not in front of the window. i originally thought that perhaps there was an odd draft and that was responsible but i think this would affect her chest - it always has in the past.
it was colder yesterday and we left the window shut to see if that made any difference and she got better the same day. there's no snot and while she's not 100%, she's a lot lot better than she was just a day before.

i have ordered her an air purifier but that's not arrived yet.

has anybody got any experience with anything similar? if so, how can i make her feel better?

3

Health / chronic bone infection

« on: May 01, 2011, 10:52:41 AM »

mae, my rescue girl has a chronic bone infection of her jaw bone. she must have had this for quite a long time before she came to us as she has a tusk - i originally thought this was elongated root - which was formed as a response to the infection. there's an opening in the surrounding tissue at the bottom of her chin and a small amount of puss comes out daily.

there are no drugs to treat this as medication to treat this condition in other species would upset chinchilla gut too much - she'd been on a high dose of antibiotics for a prolonged period for other health problems and this didn't touch it (we didn't expect it to but just thought i'd mention)

it doesn't bother her at all, it doesn't seem painful, she's happy for me to clean it. it flares up every so often (i've had her since october last year and she had one flare up) when more puss comes out and it's red and swollen - looks like an angry spot - but doesn't cause any problems than that.

however, i do worry about the area it's in (roots nearby!) and i'm wondering if anybody's seen this before?

4

Q & A / reintroductions after neutering

« on: March 15, 2011, 01:32:37 PM »

how long after neutering can you start reintroducing boys to girls? i thought it was six weeks, j's heard four and i have just googled and found a website that recommended eight. sooo... which one is it?

5

Health / vaginal discharge

« on: March 10, 2011, 03:43:45 AM »

mae didn't look happy yesterday and i took her out to be weighed and to check her tummy. i noticed she had a small dark clump on her fur near her bits and it turns out she has a brown discharge, as well as some clear discharge.

she has not been happy for about a week, on and off, i took her to the vet last thursday when she seemed a bit off and her tummy sounded gassy so we thought that was the problem given her history with stasis. but now i'm wondering if she'd had this and we just didn't see, or possibly the discharge wasn't present.

yesterday, she was doing this thing that very much looked like when a chin is giving birth standing up, mae very rarely stands up because she only has one back leg but she was doing it yesterday.
she's not pregnant, i've had her for more than 111 days and even though there are boys in the room they don't have access to her, she's been to the vets so many times and had her tummy checked and listened to and i think one of us would have noticed. she has no other symptoms of pregnancy either. i don't think she's in heat.

i called the er vet last night who told me to give her septrin and come to see the chin vet tomorrow (so today - i will call them as soon as they open)

i am worried. i've read that these type of infections are not common in chins.

has anybody seen anything like this before?

6

Health / spots on base of tail

« on: December 25, 2010, 10:54:51 AM »

do beiges have spots on the base of their tails? my rescue girl has a few spots (look just like her ear & nose freckles) at the base of her tail. her fur is a little thinner there - it's not a bald spot as such, i would imagine it's where the tail rubs on the floor/fleece etc, given that she's missing one of her back legs, i think she uses her tail against the floor more than if she had a full set of limbs.

so the thinner fur doesn't concern me really (plus her coat, even though it's improved a lot since i brought her home is nowhere near my other chins) but i'm wondering about the spots. they're not bumpy as far as i can tell. i tried spreading her fur on the rest of the tail to see if she has them anywhere else but i think they're just at the base. i have four more beiges but they don't have freckles yet.

also, talking about freckles, when do freckles develop? i don't know how old this girl is but she has a full set of freckles on her ears and nose. the rescue seemed to think that she's about 18 months but they have lost the paperwork and they're really not sure. i wonder if she's older than that. 

7

Health / gi stasis/bloat

« on: December 15, 2010, 01:12:09 PM »

some of you will be aware of the rescue girl with teeth problems i've been talking about lately. well, after she had her teeth pretty much fixed, got her pooing sorted and got her to start eating hay, all looked dandy.

on monday night, we were rushing her down to the emergency vet with gi stasis. she was given injections, was happily eating critical care, moving about and even started pooing good looking poos. she got another lot of injections yesterday, was full of beans last night, even started eating nuggets by herself. this morning though, she looked really uncomfortable - she didn't want critical care and her tummy felt quite large. i gave her a tummy rub and she squeezed out 10 good looking poos, then she proceeded to poo out 20 more in the space of the following three hours. then we went to the vet, she got another lot of shots, the vet said her tummy is really quiet still. we got home and i stayed with her, rubbing her tummy every so often.

she started to make this funny noise, which sounded like geiger counter and she opened her mouth a little when she did it. i took her to the vet again - she of course didn't do it there but they said they would not expect her to given it's an unfamiliar environment - they checked her chest which was ok and thought perhaps it was pain response and gave her a shot of a stronger painkiller. the girl must feel like a pincushion.

i've spent the day in the chin room and i'm starting to think it's a 'leave me alone mother i normally sleep during the day yet you keep disturbing me!!!' noise because she stops every so often and when i left the room and turned the light off, she wasn't doing it when i came back.

she's not keen on critical care still. she quite happily licks it off a spoon but she only eats limited amounts and obviously i need to get food in her if her tum is supposed to start up.

i went to feed her an hour ago and her tummy feels a lot smaller and softer.

i don't know what brought this on but i would suspect it could be eating a lot more than she used to - even though the change was really gradual over 2 months period, i guess if all you ate before was banana chips and a little chinchilla mix, then changed to pellets and hay and discovered you actually like that stuff...

has anybody had experience with anything similar? she's getting the shots, painkillers, she's also on lactulose (orally), i give her massages and warm compresses, she comes out of the cage and has a run around. she's active but she's not that keen on me at the moment. is there anything else i could be doing?

she seems well hydrated, she pees out good amounts several times a day.

8

General Chat / low temperatures?

« on: November 11, 2010, 10:12:07 AM »

hypothetical question. we have major winds predicted for tonight (80mph) and it made me think about what would happen if the electricity goes for a longer period of time.

all the heating options in my house rely on electricity - central heating is gas but obviously the boiler is electricity powered, there's a little oil filled heater in the chin room (electric) and i have an aircon for the summer that heats as well but that needs plugged in as well.

so.. what would i do? i can put a jumper on, they can't. i could cuddle them, but i've got six. and most of them don't like to be cuddled though they wouldn't really get to choose.

at the moment the forecast night temperatures are 8 degrees celsius (46 fahrenheit) but it will get colder in a few days time. their room is usually kept at 18/19 deg celsius in winter (64-66 fahrenheit). i know they deal better with cold than hot but how cold is too cold?

9

Health / best way to put weight on a chin?

« on: October 30, 2010, 03:54:01 PM »

I brought a rescue chin home yesterday. She has a very bad case of incisor root growing through her chin that's also causing an abscess. She only weighs 450g and she is not strong enough for an anaesthetic for an xray (let alone surgery) so I need to put weight on her, quick.

She can actually chew ok as the actual teeth are ok but she's been on fed very bad diet (chinchilla mix and banana chips) so she's not eating that much hay. She had 10 nuggets from about 7pm last night when we brought her home and 10am in the morning. I am syringe feeding her critical care (she won't eat it off my finger). She has alfalfa & timothy hay in her cage but as I said, she doesn't really eat that much of it.

I do not really want to change too many things in her diet at once but at the same time, it's critical she puts weight on fast so we can start the treatment. She's also on baytril & metacam and I think baytril can actually reduce appetite.

Any ideas? I'm thinking oats but is there anything else?

10

General Chat / i hate people

« on: October 30, 2010, 12:51:26 PM »

I got a rescue chin yesterday. She was brought in because, allegedly, the woman was moving and the new landlord didn't allow pets. I went to see her at the rescue on thursday and noticed she had an abscess and a large bump underneath her chin as well as being very skinny.
I went to see her again on Friday and brought her some things and ended up taking her home. I took her to the vets a couple of hours later and she has a incisor root growing through her chin. At the moment she's on meds and we're trying to put some weight on her as she's too skinny to go through anaesthetic for the xray, nevermind the surgery.

I've just been to give her medication and wash out the abscess and i could cry. I don't touch underneath her chin unless i have to because it must be painful and i seem to forget just how bad it is. I was washing it out and it's absolutely awful. how can someone let it get this bad. I understand you can miss it in initial stages when you can't really see this but it's sticking out a great deal now. I'm absolutely disgusted.

Sorry, I just really needed to vent.

11

General Chat / colour?

« on: October 29, 2010, 12:48:57 AM »

the chin i saw at the rescue yesterday - they told me she was grey, she's definitely not but i'm not sure what she is!

she does look like a beige to me (i have 4 hetero beiges) and she has very dark freckles on her ears. her eyes, however are definitely not red, they are dark (definitely not dark red). i don't quite remember what her tummy was like but i think it was white.

what colour is she?

12

Health / long hard bit underneath the chin

« on: October 28, 2010, 10:43:05 AM »

i've been to see a chinchilla at a rescue today - it's not a specialised chinchilla rescue (the island doesn't have one). she is very timid and not keen to be touched but i got her out to check it's definitely a boy - turns out it's a girl - but i also noticed there was something hard  underneath her chin. i took it off and it was dried puss and i a tiny bit of puss came out (i think it's a pretty much healed wound). i washed it out with hibiscrub and noticed that lower down, there's a long hard (felt like bone but it was thicker than a toothpick) bit that's sort of sticking forward out of her neck.

i asked them to take her to the vets - she had already seen a vet when she came in but the obviously didn't notice this.

any ideas what it could be? i was thinking perhaps teeth but it's too far down for incisors and i've never seen any case of malocclusion so i have no idea what it looks like.

she is very thin but i think she's probably not had the easiest ride.

13

General Chat / do you think this is cruel?

« on: September 28, 2010, 01:59:04 PM »

nearly six months ago, one of our 'male' chinchillas gave birth to three babies - two boys & a girl - we took the dad out as soon as we found them but they did manage to mate in the space of few hours and she gave birth to a lovely girl two months ago.

we had the dad neutered and he developed a massive infection and unfortunately had to have another surgery two months later which he didn't survive. i have loved him more than i have ever loved any animal and i just cannot seem to be able to get over it.

now, the baby boys, we separated them from mum & sister when they were 9.5 weeks old (ffynn didn't weigh enough to be separated at 8 weeks) and they lived together until just before 5 months when we split them into two cages as mum & sisters are in the same room.
we don't have another room we could have put them in - annoyingly, we bought a house just before they were born (and we didn't know they were on the way) & we bought a small two bed cottage, we were also looking at a 4 bedroom new built but decided we liked the cottage better and didn't need huge amount of space.

so, the original plan was to have the boys neutered and pair them with girls but i just can't can't can't do it after what we went through with chinchi...

each boy has a very large three tier cage with a saucer wheel and all sorts of fun stuff. they can see each other and they can also see the girls, the girls (they're housed together) are slightly further away. they haven't been allowed on a run out because of the possibility of fits in kits younger than 6 months but in a week, they'll be getting an evening run every day. at the moment, their mum comes out of the cage and goes to see each of them and they sniff faces and all. one of the boys, spock, is happy to be picked up so i hold him and let him groom his sisters' faces through the cage. ffynn's not at all keen on being picked up but he's happy to be stroked.

am i being cruel by keeping the boys by themselves? or can they happily live surrounded by other chins?

14

General Breeder Chat / could she still be pregnant?

« on: August 30, 2010, 01:43:48 PM »

guys, this sort of borderlines on miracles but...

fluffy (who we thought was a boy) gave birth to triplets on april, 6th - we took chinchi out as soon as we found the babies (same day) and had him neutered. he suffered a massive infection and despite all our efforts with medication, he had a puss capsule that needed to be surgically removed and he had a reaction to the anesthetic 

fluffy clearly got pregnant the day she gave birth and she gave birth to one baby on July, 27th.

now, fluffy's tummy is still really round - she never showed any obvious pregnancy signs like lying on her side - we did put her in with chinchi briefly a few times within the 6 week period after him being neutered simply because he was so sick and really missed her. we were always there to monitor them and i don't think there was any funny business going on.
we put chinchi in with fluff and the babies after six weeks - i know some people have had babies conceived 6 weeks after neutering.

i know this is highly unlikely and i did try to see if there's any movement in her tummy but i can't feel anything (although i could not feel any until about 2 weeks before the girl was born)
her weight is going up very slightly but then she didn't really put much weight on when she was pregnant with luella.
i'm just wondering about this very round tummy!

i know i'm panicking

15

General Breeder Chat / double pregnancy

« on: August 08, 2010, 03:09:59 PM »

just out of interest really, if a chin happens to get pregnant on two separate occasions, carrying different aged babies, once she comes to give birth, do both pregnancies come out or does the one that's not come to a full term yet stay in until it comes to term?