Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => Health => Topic started by: terezavictoria on August 29, 2016, 09:21:47 PM
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Hi there,
Passing by my chinchilla's cage I saw him laying down and noticed that his genitalia is really swollen and kind of in a dark pink colour.His penis was a litlle bit out.He doesn't appear to be in pain and I haven't noticed a hair ring,however his testicles have an abnormal size and are hanging down kind of "stretched".What can this be?Have anyone see this or experienced this?
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Update: I think that he may just have really huge ball sacs ::)
I say this because when tried to pick him up to take a picture he got quite stressed :::((( and retracted this"sacs".It is also to be refered that is really hot here in Portugal right now
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If the room temperature is high, or if you pet has been active with higher body temperatures the male parts on chinchillas will descend a little.
Chinchillas should not be kept above 23C.
A male chinchilla does have a penis that sticks out, less than a centimeter, normally. When it is fully extended it reaches closer to 5-8 cm. Checking for hair rings requires pulling the whole thing out and looking closely at the base.
If it's out and won't retract that can indicate a serious problem. Pink is a normal color. If it's red that is a problem. If it is swollen you'll notice irregularity in thickness along the shaft. That indicates a problem that probably needs medical treatment.
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They're in the cooler area of the house and I always make sure that it's not hot in there.However this year has been crazy hot in here,the hottest summer ever.So even with vents, the marble rock and lights off it's still a bit hot(not so hot that they could die).The poor things haven't been out of their cage or have had baths for almost two months.
Yeah I had no idea that their penises were so big,the other day I passed through my other chinchilla's cage and he was cleaning his material and I noticed how enormous it was ::)
Can I properly check for hair rings or that has to be done by a vet?
I've checked him in the morning today and everything was retracted.
I added some pictures that I was able to take,I'm sorry it's not a really good angle.He doesn't trust me fully yet,he loves to be cuddle but once I open the cage door he runs away from me and really hates being picked up,so when he's in my lap it's almost impossible to turn him to see his genitals.Thanks a lot for your reply.
(http://i.imgur.com/yrgjatu.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/rKMtXhJ.jpg)
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That looks normal to me. Sounds like you have a nice pet. It's good to be observant.
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Definitely, I've had a chin that died from malocclusion and since then I always worry a lot when I see something "strange".It's just that his parts are so different from everything I've seen before.I'll move his cage to another location in the same room away from the lights to see if there is cooler.He 's a sweetie.Thank you a lot for your help
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Definitely, I've had a chin that died from malocclusion and since then I always worry a lot when I see something "strange".It's just that his parts are so different from everything I've seen before.I'll move his cage to another location in the same room away from the lights to see if there is cooler.He 's a sweetie.Thank you a lot for your help
Did someone give you info for checking for hair rings?? I did a YouTube search for "chinchilla hair ring check" and there were plenty of videos showing you how to do it. These look to be the top 4:
https://youtu.be/klldt0TmLpI
https://youtu.be/QFF1Xg_6pHw
https://youtu.be/BafuUFuO-oA
https://youtu.be/s-lfH0CU0iM
Hope that helps!!
Tina
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Males can retract and drop their testicles at will so thats all you are seeing
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Thank you all for your replys.
IkiKolohe,apparently that was not the case but I'll sure check out the videos,thank you a lot :)