Archive for the ‘Chinchilla care’ Category

No More Mazuri

September 30th, 2010

About 1.5 weeks ago, Tubby was having diarrhea for no particular reason! I was at a lost; I hadn’t changed his water, diet, or anything, couldn’t tell the vet what was the trigger of his diarrhea. When I brought him to the vet, it’s the usual stuff — his bacterial count was out of whack.

Tubby is a homebody, he doesn’t like to go out, especially to the vet’s office

Tubby’s wet poop, compare this to normal poop

The vet prescribed Tubby SMZ/TMP Ped Susp which was to be given twice a day for a week, and Bene-Bac for twice a day for 2 weeks.

I was still trying to figure out as to the cause of Tubby’s diarrhea. Then I remember that on a particular chinchilla blog that I’m a member of, I have read that some breeders do not like using Mazuri because it causes diarrhea. The instant they switch pellets to another brand, the diarrhea stops. But some breeders never had problems with Mazuri. I have always thought, “my chinchillas will never have problems with Mazuri.” Lo and behold, now Tubby is having problems with Mazuri. Good thing I had some Purina rabbit pellets on hand and I immediately changed Tubby’s pellets. Since then, I’m glad to report that he’s recovered completely :-D

ps: Winnie is still on Mazuri and I hope that he will never have problems with Mazuri.

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Wet Poo Poos

May 21st, 2010

The bad pet owner that I was gave in to that cute begging face of Winnie’s & gave him apple skin. Not a good idea. The next day (this was the beginning of last month), Winnie had diarrhea .. really bad diarrhea!

Winnie diarrhea

Compare the above picture with a picture of normal poop. Because chinchillas poop constantly, Winnie kept stepping onto his own poop & smeared the wet poop everywhere; it was such a mess.

When the vet performed a gram stain on Winnie’s poop, the vet said that the ‘bad’ bacteria outnumber the ‘good’ bacteria; the ‘bad’ bacteria have always been present in Winnie’s stomach, but because of the apple skin, Winnie’s stomach got upset. Here is a detailed timeline:

  • 5 April: started on Baytril (0.2 ml twice daily for a week) & Bene-Bac (a pea size, approximately 1 gram, once daily for 2 weeks).
  • 7 Apri: I started to syringe feed Winnie with Critical Care because the Baytril reduced Winnie’s appetite.
  • 15 April: no improvement, so the Baytril was discontinued & Winnie was prescribed another medication that’s labeled as “SMZ/TMP Ped Susp” (0.25 ml twice daily for a week), which didn’t help much.
  • 19 April: started on Doxycycline (0.2 ml tiwce daily for a week), which was given alongside the SMZ/TMP. Winnie’s poop improved considerably.
  • 26 April: the course for Doxycycline & SMZ/TMP was over, but Winnie still continued on the Bene-Bac.
  • 9 May: Winnie finally finished his course of Bene-Bac & was diarrhea free!

I always made sure that after being in contact with Winnie while he was having diarrhea, I would wash my hands before touching Tubby. But I guess that wasn’t enough, Tubby eventually fell ill too; I have a feeling this was a parasitic infection that was easily transferred from my clothing because I didn’t change my clothes after being in contact with Winnie. Tubby’s poops were soft, but not as wet as the photo above. Tubby saw the vet on the 28th of April. Because Tubby’s poops weren’t as bad as Winnie’s, the vet didn’t want to prescribe Tubby with antibiotic that would kill the ‘bad’ AND the ‘good’ bacteria. Instead, the vet wanted to try a more ‘natural’ approach, by encouraging the ‘good’ bacteria to multiply. Tubby was prescribed Diarysanyl (a pea size, approximately 1 ml, twice daily for 5 days) & Bene-Bac (a pea size, approximately 1 gram, once daily for 2 weeks). Unlike Winnie, Tubby’s initial recovery as much faster. But the strange thing was that Tubby’s poops would get better one day & the nexy day he’d revert to soft poops. This continued even after his medication course was over. Tubby didn’t return to the clinic though, I just kept an eye on him & eventually the soft poops didn’t return.

*sigh* The troubles my animals went through just because I gave 1 chinchilla a fruit treat .. I’ve learned from my mistake & I no longer give in to those sad-looking eyes that seem to say “Puuhhhllleeeassseeee give me something sweet!”

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Violated!

December 8th, 2009

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!

Tubby was violated .. 4 separate times:

Tubby fur ring1

21st of October 2009

Tubby fur ring2

22nd of October 2009

Tubby fur ring3

1st of November 2009

Tubby fur ring4

5th of December 2009
Since I hadn’t cleaned Tubby’s penis in awhile, this fur ring is quite thick

A common problem in non-breeding male chinchillas is fur ring, which is when fur is caught inside the sheath of the penis making it uncomfortable for the chinchillas. I noticed that one day, as Tubby was cleaning himself, there was a black-looking thing around his penis. I suspected fur ring & in order to confirm my suspicion, I had to (literally) violate him: I had to hold him still, retract the sheath of his penis, & pull his penis out. I sure did find a thick fur ring (1st picture). It must have been super uncomfortable for Tubby.

The next day, I again noticed a black-looking thing around Tubby’s penis has he was cleaning himself. He wasn’t happy when I had to clean him again; fur was slipping everywhere as he was trying to escape my grip & by the end of it all, I was covered in grey fur. The second picture shows a dirty-looking fur ring because I had to use petroleum jelly. Just as male humans may need lubricants to prevent dryness, chinchillas do too (sorry to be candid, haha!).

After the second try, I did not want to bother Tubby anymore, for fearing that he may distrust me (chinchillas can easily distrust their owner, especially after experiencing two horrible, traumatizing incidents). I noticed that his penis was slightly red (the skin was probably raw from all that cleaning) & I wanted to give him a break .. which only lasted for a little over a week, when I had to clean Tubby for the third time (3rd picture).

Not all non-breeding male chinchillas have fur rings. For instance, I have never noticed fur ring on Winnie. And some chinchillas are just better than others in cleaning themselves, while some are hopeless & need help from their human companions. As the weather is getting colder, chinchillas’ fur are becoming thicker, so fur rings may be unavoidable.

The following third party video is a guide on how to remove chinchilla’s fur ring (except it doesn’t tell how to handle a super hyper chinchilla like Tubby).

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Bugs

July 12th, 2009

in the Chinchilla Food!

This is the second time it has happened to me:
I normally buy Mazuri pellets from an online store (which will remain unnamed). Mazuri pellets only come in 2.5-lb or 25-lb packagings. Obviously 2.5 lbs is too little to buy at a time, but 25 lbs is too much. The online supplier I buy Mazuri from sells 10 lbs, so that’s what I normally buy. My first time, after a couple of months of storing the pellets in an airtight resealable plastic bag, I discover these little tiny bugs about the same size as the pellet powder (almost the same color as the pellets, too). Because I knew that I couldn’t possibly pick at every little bug, I threw away the rest of the pellets & bought another 10 lbs of Mazuri from the same supplier. This time, I stored the pellets in a plastic tupperware. Same thing happened again, the same tiny bugs were found in the pellets!

I’m thinking that the bugs I found were mites. I highly doubt that they come from my apartment (I only see these bugs in the pellets & not anywhere else around my apartment, plus I don’t find myself itching). I’m thinking, since the supplier must have split the pellets that I buy from the original 25-lb packaging, if he had carelessly stored the rest, bugs could have access to the rest of the pellets supply.

ps: while I’m waiting for the newly ordered Mazuri to arrive (from a different supplier, of course), I temporarily replaced the chinchilla food with another brand. They don’t even want to touch it! These chinchillas think they’re too good to be fed inferior pellets (Mazuri has the highest protein content of 20% in chinchilla pellets that I know of, whereas commercial brands found in petstores contain 14-18% of protein).

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Good News

April 26th, 2009

The fur on Tubby’s tail has fully grown back! Took a lot of loving & affection :-)

Tubby's tail

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Return After Holiday

January 12th, 2009

Returned to Stateside on Wednesday, but didn’t reach home until Thursday. It was nice to see all the animals again! I was busy cleaning, unpacking, cleaning, and more unpacking.

I bought a bunch of treats from the Tiny Island. I bought this lavender dust bath for the hammies, but they didn’t know what to do with it!! Instead, they just peed in it 0_o
They love the new treats though! I also bought this new wooden box where I put treats in it and the hammies have to figure out how to open it & get to the treats. So far, only Brain figured out how to open the box. The Robos only bit the wooden box and the Syrians are completely clueless. The (hired) petsitter didn’t know that my hammies like to hoard food. So, she kept refilling their food bowls thinking that they’re running out of food! But when I was cleaning their cages, I found food hidden inside the beddings .. that’s why Brain, Dee Dee, the Robos, and the Syrians all gained weight.

Sad news for Tubby though .. I think I’ve spoiled him with 30 minutes+ daily of out-of-the-cage playtime. When I was gone, he was down to 15 minutes for every 2 days. Even though I filled his cage with apple sticks & perches, lava ledge, lots of hay, & other chew things, he must have been bored out of his mind. He chewed off some of the fur on his tail, leaving a bald patch :-(

Tubby's tail1

I’ve been playing with him a lot since I got home and I’m not going to leave Tubby for that long again ..

ps: Winnie is fine and dandy though. Maybe because he’s used to not being let out at all from his days at the breeder.

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Pre-holiday Upgrade 4

January 3rd, 2009

And of course I didn’t forget my chinchilla!

I bought Tubby a large ferret cage, which originally was very unsuitable for a chinchilla; it had plastic ramps (that Tubby would chew and swallow) and the holes in the floor are too largely spaced out for Tubby’s tiny toes. So while I waited for shipment of wooden ledges and other accessories to make the cage more chinchilla-friendly, Tubby just couldn’t wait to hang out in his new house.

Upgrade 4 Tubby

“I want to get through!! Let me get to my new house!”

I don’t have a picture of the newly upgraded cage, but it’s now equipped with wooden ledges and bridges, a chewable lava ledge, lots of chew toys, and definitely a good view of the room from a very tall second floor.

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Winnie is Eating ..

November 6th, 2008

.. on his own! Yay!

Proof:

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Another Vet Visit

October 24th, 2008

Today, Winnie went to see the vet .. AGAIN! Good news though :-D

From the last vet visit, this is what we’ve noticed:

  • The papaya enzyme tables that were supposed to help Winnie break down any build-ups in his stomach didn’t work.
  • What seemed to work real well is the fresh pineapple juice. Winnie has been given 3 ml of freshly squeezed pineapple juice. Apparently, it’s a homemade remedy for rabbits to get rid of hairballs.
  • Winnie IS getting better: he’s been more jumpy, has been eating pellets on his own, & doesn’t refuse treats :-)

I didn’t take Winnie, but this is what I was told:

  • That Winnie is getting better & not as gassy. Yay!!!
  • He doesn’t need to go on any medications, except for the GasX which we’ll have to continue for the next 3-5 days.
  • Maybe with a little help of electrolytes, his poop will become better.
  • Winnie has lost quite a bit of weight, Winnie was 480 grams at his first vet visit & today he weighs 410 grams.

The vet is optimistic about Winnie’s outlook & I’m glad that we decided to wait it out before proceeding to surgeries. In the meantime, we’ll still have to keep an eye on Winnie for the next week & reduce his syringe-feeding to encourage more pellet-eating.

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We’ll See ..

October 10th, 2008

Another quick Barium x-ray this morning. The x-ray picture was more promising today than yesterday’s. The vet said that she could see nicely formed poops in the x-ray picture and the poops look bigger than the small hard bead-sized ones that have been coming out of Winnie. The vet also felt Winnie’s tummy this morning, which was much less gassy than how it was yesterday. So, we’ll see this weekend how Winnie is doing with the pineapple juice, which I have a feeling has something to do with the bigger poop & the less gassy tummy :-D

I really do hope that we won’t have to go ahead with the surgery .. not only that it’s dangerous for Winnie, but it’s also dangerous for my wallet T.T

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