Chinchilla Nation » 2008

Archive for September, 2008

Force-Feeding

September 11th, 2008

I called the vet this morning, because I noticed that Winnie hasn’t been eating & his droppings are getting smaller. Vet told me to come in & pick up Oxbow Critical Care, because it’s important that Winnie eats something. Oxbow Critical Care is basically the powder form of hay & pellets mix, normally given to baby & sick animals. I had to mix it with water & feed to Winnie using a syringe.

It’s real messy force-feeding Winnie with that stuff; it gets everywhere around his mouth & he just looks like a dirty chinchilla who has been eating mud.

I do hope he’ll get better soon. Another trip to the vet tomorrow.

Tags: bloat, chinchilla, gi stasis
Posted in Chinchilla care, Chinchilla health | Comments (1)

Trip to the Vet

September 9th, 2008

Last Friday, I let Winnie out for about 30 minutes, then I put him back into his cage. Half an hour later, he started barking non-stop. I got worried & picked him up to see if he happened to be injured from his time outside of the cage. I didn’t see anything wrong, so I put him back. I noticed that his white fur had shed a little on my black shirt. So I thought he was probably spooked by something.

When I put him back, he continued barking. He continued doing this throughout the night & I suspected something else was wrong.

I noticed from that day onwards that his poop has gotten smaller & harder. He’s been eating less & he’s more high strung than usual. I couldn’t see what’s wrong with him physically. Afraid that it might be something internal, I decided to take him to the vet.

This was my first time taking a chinnie to the vet. When vet examined Winnie physically & felt his colon, he said that it’s empty. A healthy chinchilla should have a colon full of poops (chinchillas poop non-stop hehe). On a good note, vet said that Winnie’s heart beats calm for a chinchilla

The next thing the vet did was to take some stool samples to see whether there’s anything wrong with his digestive system. Result showed that there’s an abnormally high number of ‘bad’ bacteria (he explained to me in great details, but I sort of blanked out) found in his poop. Everything comes down to poop & now we know that Winnie’s problem isn’t from teeth deformity (which is very common in chinchillas). He said that the ‘bad’ bacteria has always been in his system, but was in small numbers & kept under control by healthy immune system. But for some reason, maybe due to stress (which can compromise the immune system) or just dirty food (we don’t know how pellets & timothy hay were processed etc), the ‘bad’ bacteria’s number multiplied.

Winnie’s been prescribed 2 oral medications: an antibiotic (to kill the ‘bad’ bacteria) for 1 week & some yellow gooey stuff (Bene-Bac Pet .. which is the ‘good’ bacteria to be added into his system) for 2 weeks. In the meantime, I have to keep an eye on him & make sure that he’s eating normally. If he doesn’t want to eat for the next 24-36 hours, vet said I might have to force-feed him. This was my first time taking a chin to the vet & I’m glad I got to see a vet who seems to know what he’s talking about.

Tags: bloat, chinchilla, gi stasis
Posted in Chinchilla care, Chinchilla health | Comments (8)

Cops Kick in Door Over Bird’s Cries

September 9th, 2008

How funny is this: a cockatoo can imitate the sound of woman crying for help to the point that a police had to be called in.

Posted in News | Comments (0)

Winnie the Fish?

September 8th, 2008

I had the strangest dream this past weekend.

I dreamt that my car didn’t want to start. So, as I was waiting for the repairman to come & jumpstart my car, I was hanging out at a nearby cafe. For some reason, I had Winnie with me, like how people bring their dogs to cafes etc. He was surprisingly well-behaved (yea, it is a dream) & sat next to me. People in the cafe thought he was cute .. Until 1 waiter/waitress (can’t remember the gender) has never seen a chinchilla & thought Winnie was a type of a goldfish!!!! So, he picked Winnie up from where he was sitting & put him in the fish bowl (yes, the cafe has a fish bowl)!!! I was terrified & I woke up ..

Yes .. I think about my animals all the time, to the point that I still think about them when I’m sleeping 0_o

Posted in Rants | Comments (4)

The Defect

September 5th, 2008

Finally managed to take a close-up picture of Dee Dee, so that I can have a better look at her mouth. Even I can’t see the condition of her mouth with my naked eye had I not take this zoomable picture.

$Dee\'s mouth$

Previous owner told me that it’s a birth defect & I hope that’s the case. It’s better knowing that it’s a birth defect rather than a battle wound. I had to bribe her with some scrambled egg & tofu so I can shoot this picture. She even bit me for the very first time when I tried picking her up.

As you can see, her teeth & jaw are all in place, except for the missing ‘flap’ or piece of meat (sounds bad, doesn’t it?) that’s supposed to cover her mouth. At least I know that she can function normally, because she’s lived with this all her life. I hope I can give this old lady some good times in her golden period.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Posted in Hamster care | Comments (3)

Thoughtful Thursday

September 4th, 2008

Failure is hard, but success is far more dangerous.
If you’re successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money & opportunity can lock you in forever.

~Po Bronson
Author of stories, screenplay, and non-fiction, including “What Should I Do With My Life”

Posted in Thoughtful thursdays | Comments (2)

Look What Winnie Did .. AGAIN!

September 3rd, 2008

WARNING!!

This post contains adult material that may be considered offensive.
You may choose not to read this post if you are easily shocked or offended or
if the standard of your community do not allow for the viewing of
sexually mature chinchilla materials!

So, I let Winnie out the other night. When he got onto the desk, he came over to my arm. He assumed THE position & I continually said “No! No!” sternly, because normally he would know what that means & would back off. But nnooooo …. he did it! He did the deed AGAIN!!!!

The pictures are blurry because it’s hard to get a clear shot of liquids when I use a flash. So these 2 pictures were taken without a flash & hence the bluriness. The left one is the deed on the table and the right one is the deed on my laptop 0_o

I picked him up right after, meaning to put him back into the cage. But I noticed that his *ehm* weewee was prolapsed & I honestly don’t know what to do with a prolapsed penis .. I’ve read about how to put it back, but never tried it & don’t want to do it wrongly for the first time. So, I set Winnie down on the table .. he went back to his business (that is .. playing with his boy part). And once he’s done, tada! He managed to put his weewee back in!!

Afterwards, straight back to the cage he went. Enough playing around for one night

Posted in Chinchilla adventure | Comments (6)