chinmom
Well-Known Member
I figured it's about time I introduced the rest of the furry things that live with me!
I run a chinchilla rescue out of my home, and in the last two years I've placed more than 40 chins. I currently have 8 chinchillas; 6 of them are permanent fixtures here and 2 of them are up for adoption. I'll start with the ones I've had the longest and work my way down.
This is Rayna! My mom already owned a male chinchilla named Merlot, and I decided (this was back before I knew anything about chinchilla breeding) that I wanted to have babies, so I got a female. After driving 45 minutes to a pet store with females, I discovered a little girl with ringworm so bad that half her face was furless. I asked them why they didn't treat her, and they said it was against their policy and that she was gonna be sent back to the breeder!! And the breeder would most likely put her down...well, I couldn't let that happen!! So I brought her home with me and treated her ringwom; it cleared up in a few weeks and she was ready to be introduced to Merlot! In November, Rayna will have been here for 3 years. Merlot is the first picture, and Rayna is the others.
The next permanent fixture I gothere was Fluffernut. He had been at a petstore for quite some time, where it was discovered that he has seizures. He still has seizures occasionally, but my vet and I figured out that it was due to low blood sugar, so as long as I give him some form of sugar (raisin, papaya, apple...that kind of thing), he's okay. He has been here for a little over 2 years.
And then I got Twilight! He's a ranchie rescue that I acquired at a chinchilla show. The rancher said that if he didn't sell at the show that he was going to be pelted, and once I saw his face I couldn't let that happen!! (Can you tell I have a soft spot for things that are going to be put down??) So I purchased him from them to give him a permanent home. He turned out to be the sweetest thing in the world! When it's cool enough for them outside, he rides around in my sweatshirt pocket. And that includes going to classes with me some days! He also has his own bag/purse to ride in. I'm a college student, and everyone there is in love with him.
I had a set of 3 rescues here that Fluffers was housed with, but after they got adopted, I put Twilight and Fluffers together. Then I received a 9-week-old baby named Wilburfrom a fellow rescuer for my birthday. I housed all three of them together and they got along great. One morning I woke up to a lethargic Wilbur, so I rushed him to the vet. He had a prolapsed rectum; one of the vets there failed to tell me that she hadn't operated on a chinchilla before, and the wrong type of anesthetic was used. He died a few hours after coming home. Abouta month after that, I found another baby chin that needed a home, so I brought him home and named him Orville (as in Orville and Wilbur Wright). Not long after, Fluffers and Orville turned on Twilight and beat him up quite badly. After that Twilight had to be housed by himself. Wilbur is the first picture, and Orville is the second. I can't seem to find a decent shot of Orville, so it's one of him when I've woken him up and he's cranky!
I was told by several vets that Rayna was sterile, so I kept Merlot and her together. Well, she got pregnant and had babies in February 2006. I am a triplet, and our names start with A, C, and D (Annie, Craig, and David). Well, Rayna had triplets! So I named them A, C, and D: Aurora, Charlotte, and Duffy. Aura is still here, housed with her mom Rayna, Duffy is at my parent's home with his father Merlot, and Charlotte went to a wonderful home. She was promised even before she was born! The first is of the babies when they were about 6 weeks old, the second picture is of Charlotte and Aurora when they were 9 months old, and thethird is the most recent picture of Aura:
Last August I took in a set of 6 rescues: 1 male/female pair and their two kits, and two other chins. The mom was pregnant again, so she went to another rescue that was more experienced with kits. The father of the two kits had urine coating his entire belly, and he wasn't able to urinate properly: it was just dripping continuously. He smelled badly enough that I had to bathe him in water (chinchillas don't get water baths because if they aren't dried completely they can get fungus in their fur), where I discovered how thin he was. The next day we went to the vet's; I thought that he may have malocclussion, because that's one of the main causes of weight loss in chinchillas. I had xrays done, and no signs of malo showed up, but it was discovered that he had an extremely large bladder stone that took up his entire bladder. I requested a catheterization to try and empty his bladder, but he was just too swollen in the area. He was also suffering from jaundice because everything in his bladder was being reabsorbed since his body couldn't expel it: his ears were yellow and his eyes were cloudy.
Hewent intosurgery two days later at 419 grams (we weigh in grams instead of pounds, because most of them don't get much more than 1.5 or 2 lbs) to remove the bladder stone, and recovered extremely well, reaching almost 700g. Here is Charlie...the first picture is of him pre-surgery, the second is what he does when he feels I haven't given him enough attention, and the third is his most recent pic:
In March I had to put down one rescue due to malocclussion, and had to take Charlie in to the vet, as he had some weight loss and dropped down to about 550g. I had Q-Berta put down on a Friday, and Charlie went in on Saturday. Charlie's xrays showed that one of his molars had roots that had grown into his sinus cavity and shattered. But while I was there, my vet told me about a chin she had treated that had a disclocated knee. I told her that it probably would have been better to amputate, and she said that the family didn't have enough money and was thinking of just putting her down. The quote the vet gave me for her surgery was $300, so I had the family surrender the chinchilla to me, and she had her leg amputated two days after I got her. Her surgery actually cost $525, but the vet dropped it down to $400 for me. But we had to go back to the vet 3 times for extra rounds of antibiotics because her stump was infected and continued to stay infected. She was on pain meds for 4 straight weeks and went through 3 rounds of antibiotics. I had to squeeze and drain her stump twice a day, because the infected tissue just kept clogging it. But it is FINALLY healed, and she has started gaining weight! Please excuse her dirty belly/chest in the pictures...we're still working on getting the food/pain meds/antibiotic mix out of her fur.
I run a chinchilla rescue out of my home, and in the last two years I've placed more than 40 chins. I currently have 8 chinchillas; 6 of them are permanent fixtures here and 2 of them are up for adoption. I'll start with the ones I've had the longest and work my way down.
This is Rayna! My mom already owned a male chinchilla named Merlot, and I decided (this was back before I knew anything about chinchilla breeding) that I wanted to have babies, so I got a female. After driving 45 minutes to a pet store with females, I discovered a little girl with ringworm so bad that half her face was furless. I asked them why they didn't treat her, and they said it was against their policy and that she was gonna be sent back to the breeder!! And the breeder would most likely put her down...well, I couldn't let that happen!! So I brought her home with me and treated her ringwom; it cleared up in a few weeks and she was ready to be introduced to Merlot! In November, Rayna will have been here for 3 years. Merlot is the first picture, and Rayna is the others.
The next permanent fixture I gothere was Fluffernut. He had been at a petstore for quite some time, where it was discovered that he has seizures. He still has seizures occasionally, but my vet and I figured out that it was due to low blood sugar, so as long as I give him some form of sugar (raisin, papaya, apple...that kind of thing), he's okay. He has been here for a little over 2 years.
And then I got Twilight! He's a ranchie rescue that I acquired at a chinchilla show. The rancher said that if he didn't sell at the show that he was going to be pelted, and once I saw his face I couldn't let that happen!! (Can you tell I have a soft spot for things that are going to be put down??) So I purchased him from them to give him a permanent home. He turned out to be the sweetest thing in the world! When it's cool enough for them outside, he rides around in my sweatshirt pocket. And that includes going to classes with me some days! He also has his own bag/purse to ride in. I'm a college student, and everyone there is in love with him.
I had a set of 3 rescues here that Fluffers was housed with, but after they got adopted, I put Twilight and Fluffers together. Then I received a 9-week-old baby named Wilburfrom a fellow rescuer for my birthday. I housed all three of them together and they got along great. One morning I woke up to a lethargic Wilbur, so I rushed him to the vet. He had a prolapsed rectum; one of the vets there failed to tell me that she hadn't operated on a chinchilla before, and the wrong type of anesthetic was used. He died a few hours after coming home. Abouta month after that, I found another baby chin that needed a home, so I brought him home and named him Orville (as in Orville and Wilbur Wright). Not long after, Fluffers and Orville turned on Twilight and beat him up quite badly. After that Twilight had to be housed by himself. Wilbur is the first picture, and Orville is the second. I can't seem to find a decent shot of Orville, so it's one of him when I've woken him up and he's cranky!
I was told by several vets that Rayna was sterile, so I kept Merlot and her together. Well, she got pregnant and had babies in February 2006. I am a triplet, and our names start with A, C, and D (Annie, Craig, and David). Well, Rayna had triplets! So I named them A, C, and D: Aurora, Charlotte, and Duffy. Aura is still here, housed with her mom Rayna, Duffy is at my parent's home with his father Merlot, and Charlotte went to a wonderful home. She was promised even before she was born! The first is of the babies when they were about 6 weeks old, the second picture is of Charlotte and Aurora when they were 9 months old, and thethird is the most recent picture of Aura:
Last August I took in a set of 6 rescues: 1 male/female pair and their two kits, and two other chins. The mom was pregnant again, so she went to another rescue that was more experienced with kits. The father of the two kits had urine coating his entire belly, and he wasn't able to urinate properly: it was just dripping continuously. He smelled badly enough that I had to bathe him in water (chinchillas don't get water baths because if they aren't dried completely they can get fungus in their fur), where I discovered how thin he was. The next day we went to the vet's; I thought that he may have malocclussion, because that's one of the main causes of weight loss in chinchillas. I had xrays done, and no signs of malo showed up, but it was discovered that he had an extremely large bladder stone that took up his entire bladder. I requested a catheterization to try and empty his bladder, but he was just too swollen in the area. He was also suffering from jaundice because everything in his bladder was being reabsorbed since his body couldn't expel it: his ears were yellow and his eyes were cloudy.
Hewent intosurgery two days later at 419 grams (we weigh in grams instead of pounds, because most of them don't get much more than 1.5 or 2 lbs) to remove the bladder stone, and recovered extremely well, reaching almost 700g. Here is Charlie...the first picture is of him pre-surgery, the second is what he does when he feels I haven't given him enough attention, and the third is his most recent pic:
In March I had to put down one rescue due to malocclussion, and had to take Charlie in to the vet, as he had some weight loss and dropped down to about 550g. I had Q-Berta put down on a Friday, and Charlie went in on Saturday. Charlie's xrays showed that one of his molars had roots that had grown into his sinus cavity and shattered. But while I was there, my vet told me about a chin she had treated that had a disclocated knee. I told her that it probably would have been better to amputate, and she said that the family didn't have enough money and was thinking of just putting her down. The quote the vet gave me for her surgery was $300, so I had the family surrender the chinchilla to me, and she had her leg amputated two days after I got her. Her surgery actually cost $525, but the vet dropped it down to $400 for me. But we had to go back to the vet 3 times for extra rounds of antibiotics because her stump was infected and continued to stay infected. She was on pain meds for 4 straight weeks and went through 3 rounds of antibiotics. I had to squeeze and drain her stump twice a day, because the infected tissue just kept clogging it. But it is FINALLY healed, and she has started gaining weight! Please excuse her dirty belly/chest in the pictures...we're still working on getting the food/pain meds/antibiotic mix out of her fur.
