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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
Posted in Chinchilla care, Chinchilla health | Comments (0)

Edible Chinchillas

April 29th, 2010

Don’t let the title scare you!

Earlier this month, there was a birthday (not mine). I had 2 sculpted cakes custom ordered to look like none other than:

Tubby cake

Winnie cake (small)

Tubby & Winnie!!!

Winnie & Tubby cakes

This is the only time that the 2 of them can be seen next to each other ^.^

Not only that they look good, they taste good too! Tubby (the cake) is a chocolate rum cake with Swiss meringue icing, and Winnie is a chai tea cake with Italian meringue In real life, the Tubby cake is more realistic looking than the Winnie one. But I like Winnie’s pose better

Tubby cake 2

Winnie cake 2

As you can see, the Winnie cake is rich with icing (too rich for my taste).

Tags: cake, chinchilla, chinchillas, custom cake, sculpted cake
Posted in Chinchilla pictures, Chinchilla products | Comments (0)

Whisker Craziness!

April 8th, 2010

Check out those whiskers!

Tubby robe sleeve

Winnie whiskers

In memory of Baby Hamster

DH sleepy whiskers

And those long whiskers are not for looking cute only, according to Live Science:

Most rats have poor vision, but they make up for it with the “whiskers on their snouts. They use the long hairs, also called “vibrissae,” in the same way that blind people use canes. By whisking the hairs across objects the come across, rats and other rodents form mental pictures of their surroundings.

Tags: chinchilla, hamster, long whiskers, rat, rodent, vibrissae, whisker
Posted in Chinchilla adventure, Chinchilla pictures, Hamster adventure, Hamster pictures | Comments (1)

Valentine’s Day 2010

February 14th, 2010

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Winnie Valentine 2010

ps: Winnie is supposed to be holding a heart-shaped paper.

Tags: chinchilla, valentine's day
Posted in Chinchilla adventure, Chinchilla pictures | Comments (4)

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
Posted in Chinchilla care, Chinchilla health | Comments (1)

Gifts

September 8th, 2009

I was recently in the Tiny Island. During my stay, I did not dare to brave the crowds and the expensive taxi fares of going into downtown despite all the new shopping places. Because of that, I didn’t buy anything for myself, but I didn’t forget to bring back some gifts for the animals:

Gifts from SG

Since I’m stingy & I don’t want these foods to run out too fast, these foods will only be treats & not part of the animals’ daily diet.

I like Marukan

Tags: animal, animals, chinchilla, chinchilla food, chinchilla foods, chinchilla product, Chinchilla products, chinchillas, hamster, hamster food, hamster foods, hamster product, Hamster products, hamsters, marukan, minimal food, minimal goods, toys, treat, treats
Posted in Chinchilla products, Hamster products, Rants | Comments (3)

Angry Tubby

August 22nd, 2009

Having a lot less out-of-cage playtime these past 2 weeks due to my busy schedule, Tubby managed to devise a way to get back at me:

Tubby sharp apple

Yep, the ever-so-sly Tubby created sharp threatening tools out of apple sticks just to get back at me, I’m sure. I’m scared .. that one of these nights he’ll escape from his cage and really attack me.

Tags: angry, animal, apple stick, applestick, bored, chinchilla, chinchillas, mice, mouse, rodent, rodents, scary, sharp apple stick, sharp applestick
Posted in Chinchilla adventure, Hamster care | Comments (2)

Summer Goodness – Strawberry

August 2nd, 2009

Leaves that is!

Tubby strawberry leaf

The chinchillas love dried strawberry leaves! They can’t eat the strawberries because they’re too wet (& may lead to diarrhea). Since I don’t have a dehydrator (which is on my wishlist), I wash the leaves clean and just air-dry them. I have a tupperware full of strawberry leaves that I picked from my garden. Hopefully that’ll last for awhile.

To see how the garden has progressed throughout the summer, see here.

Tags: chinchilla, chinchilla food, chinchilla foods, chinchillas, garden, gardening, strawberry, strawberry leaf, strawberry leaves, summer
Posted in Chinchilla adventure | Comments (3)

Summer Goodness – Cilantro

July 22nd, 2009

Since it’s summer, I’ve been keeping a vegetable garden growing all sorts of things. One of the things I’m growing is cilantro & my cilantros are going crazy! They keep going to seed every week & I have to keep trimming them. That’s surely a good thing for the hamsters

DH cilantro
Daddy Hamster (above) & Baby Hamster (below) enjoying freshly picked cilantro