Posts Tagged ‘chinchilla’

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.

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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

BH cilantro

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

ps: the chinchillas also like cilantros, but they like them slightly crispy & dry.

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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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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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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 cry.gif 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 Faint.gif 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 :)

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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.

Winnie’s mouth from the right side. Dental vet said that this is the trimmest teeth a chin can have.

Winnie xray4

Winnie’s mouth from the left side.

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Gassy Winnie

September 27th, 2008

Another trip to the vet this morning.

Winnie is not out of the woods yet. Since he’s been taken off the Bene-Bac on Monday, it seemed as if he was getting better: his poop was oval & black (like how normal chinchilla poop is supposed to look like), but still small. A couple of days later, his poop returned to how they were before: small, bead-sized, & very hard. I also noticed that during feeding time, I could feel and hear popping noises coming from his stomach!

From 2 weeks of not chewing pellets, the vet suspected that the molars were overgrown & needed trimming (maybe another reason why he doesn’t want to eat on his own). When Winnie was under sedation, the vet could see that the molars were overgrown, but not too bad.

As for the popping noises, the vet said that the noises are gas moving around in Winnie’s digestive system. Vet doesn’t know what’s causing so much gas build-up. The reasons could range from: bacteria producing the excess gas, to air that was trapped in the food syringe. With all the gas in Winnie’s tummy, it just makes him feel bloated & full, hence another reason why he doesn’t feel like eating on his own. I’m still syringe-feeding him, because he wouldn’t touch his pellets! The strange thing is, he eats hay & grapes.

Now, he’s back on the Bene-bac, he’s still on the motility medicine, and on GasX (medicines for human infants to get rid of gas). I’m also reducing the amount of food I give him, hoping that he’ll get a little hungry to encourage him to eat on his own.

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