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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

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

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Oldest Chinchilla!

July 13th, 2010

I know this is quite old, but as of 2008, the oldest chinchilla on record is Bouncer, who passed away at the age of 28. According to a British rescue group dedicated to chinchillas:

Bouncer was born on 1st July 1977 on a chinchilla ranch in Nottingham owned by Mr. Sweeney. [The owner] purchased him when he was 12 months old. He has had quite an uneventful life (perhaps this helped towards him living to such an incredible age). He has moved house with [the owner] twice and coped well with the upheaval, and he has never been to the vets. This caused .. some problems with his record attempt, it was difficult to prove his age as no vets had any details of him. Bouncer is not so fast on his feet as he used to be and no longer lives up to his name but apart from a cataract he is still fairly healthy. His secret to old age could be down to the fact he has never been overly pestered or over fed, he eats his routine pellets and hay and gets a treat of a couple of raisins most days. He has always been very good natured and handles well too.

Chinchillas4life (bottom of the page)

I do believe that pets are part of your family and I do hope that Tubby & Winnie will live up to ripe old ages of 20-somethings. S0000 I guess I have to cut down on their treats & they’re going to hate me for it!

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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!”

Tags: antibiotic, baytril, bene-bac, benebac, chinchilla, diarrhea, Diarysanyl, doxycycline, gram stain, poop, smz/tmp, soft poo, vibramycin
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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

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).

Tags: chinchilla, chinchillas, cleaning, fur ring, hair ring
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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

Tags: chinchilla, overgrooming, tail
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Winnie is Eating ..

November 6th, 2008

.. on his own! Yay!

Proof:

Tags: bloat, chinchilla, gi stasis
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Another Vet Visit

October 24th, 2008

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

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.

Tags: bloat, chinchilla, gi stasis
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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

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

Tags: bloat, chinchilla, gi stasis
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To Operate or Not ..

October 10th, 2008

Winnie was dropped off at the vet this morning for an upper GI Barium study. Winnie was at the vet for the whole day.

When I talked to the vet, she explained that during the first hour, everything was passing through normally through Winnie’s gut. It was only later that the Barium seemed to have slightly disappeared, but vet could still see a little bit of illumination. That’s why she suspects it’s more likely a case of hairball (rather than virus). She gave me 2 options: surgery to remove the hairball OR continue on the medications & just wait it out.

If we go ahead with the surgery, there’s a 50-50 chance of Winnie surviving the surgery Even if Winnie makes it through the surgery, recovery is also a critical period. BUT, continuing on the meds (taking into consideration that Winnie has been sick for this long .. 1 month this week) can take a toll on the liver Seems like a catch-22 .. if operate, 50-50 chance .. if prolong medication, liver problem & maybe even death, too ..

I’m going to need the weekend to think about the option of undergoing surgery or not. Tomorrow, the vet will be doing another Barium study.

Right now, Winnie’s back on the Metoclopramide. She also suggested that Winnie takes some papaya tablets & given fresh pineapple juice, because those have enzymes can help break down & lubricate the hairball. So, I went to buy a fresh pineapple, pureed the pineapple, & strained it. Winnie seems to really like drinking the pineapple juice out of the syringe

Tags: bloat, chinchilla, gi stasis
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Winnie’s Oral X-Ray

October 8th, 2008

My vet still couldn’t figure out why Winnie’s stomach is so gassy & she wanted to rule out any teeth problems. So my vet referred me to a dental vet. Even though my vet has x-rayed Winnie’s teeth when she was x-raying his stomach, my vet doesn’t have a special oral x-ray machine, so she wasn’t able to take pictures of the roots. Also, Winnie hasn’t been eating on his own & he’s not a big chewer in general (compared to Tubby). As a result, his molars were overgrown a little & my vet managed to trim Winnie’s molars.

The dental vet explained to me the worse scenario: Winnie’s upper tooth root overgrown, to the point that it can protrude to the eye (can cause vision loss) or the brain.

Good news though!! The dental vet said that Winnie’s teeth are healthy & as trim as they can get.

Can’t remember what picture this is, even though the dental vet explained it to me 0_o

View of the top incisors. Check out the large vestibular system (the 2 whitish oval shapes on the right), which is responsible for chinchilla’s great sense of balance. The dental vet said that chinchilla’s vestibular system is very large for its small body.