Need help to define illness! Please

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Danny Puncake

New member
Joined
Jan 8, 2019
Messages
4
Location
Ukraine
I've seen my chin scratching to much, i thought it was ok, just like any other animal. But after a couple of days it scratched side of its nose to much, so that fur got off. It also scratches near ears and bites near back paws, but fur there is ok for now. What could it be? fungus or mites?

We are living in a new build block of flats (about 4months), have no other pets. Our chin is about 5-6 months old, got him for about 2 weeks.

Pics when he started to scratch(don't know if u actually see, but fur there was getting thin and skin a bit red) :
https://imgur.com/pxR0x5Z
and now:
https://imgur.com/TiFbuly
 
My guess would be ringworm, it's a fungal infection. Your best bet would be to get treatment from the vet and have the vet confirm that it is ringworm. You can try treating at home by adding some anti-fungal foot powder to the dust bath, but some times anti fungal medication is needed from the vet to clear it up.

If it is ringworm you will need to deep clean the cage, ideally use bleach, and replace any wood items, they can't be cleaned and can hold fungal spores. It's very contagious, even to humans, so make sure you wash your hands after touching the chinchilla. Also change the dust bath after every bath or the chin can reinfect itself.
 
My guess would be ringworm, it's a fungal infection. Your best bet would be to get treatment from the vet and have the vet confirm that it is ringworm. You can try treating at home by adding some anti-fungal foot powder to the dust bath, but some times anti fungal medication is needed from the vet to clear it up.

If it is ringworm you will need to deep clean the cage, ideally use bleach, and replace any wood items, they can't be cleaned and can hold fungal spores. It's very contagious, even to humans, so make sure you wash your hands after touching the chinchilla. Also change the dust bath after every bath or the chin can reinfect itself.

Thank you, Amethyst. Got to vet yesterday, its ringworm. She prescribed us dust baths with crushed anti-fungal pill and treating infected places with some anti-fungal liquid (one day bath, another day meds). The problem is - our chin doesn't like to be handled to much, always tries to escape. Any trick how to apply meds to infected places without hurting our friendship? :)

And another question, we got new dust yesterday. It's 90% sand 10% talcum powder. That was a huge mess yesterday :D We put dust bath inside his cage so meds with dust could lay there. Previously we got some other dust that wasn't that messy, but he liked new one more. https://imgur.com/NTrvc4P https://imgur.com/q7HX7HS We got wall of dust there :laughitup:
Questions are: is it good to put dust bath inside cage or outside, if it's so messy? is it good/bad to have talcum powder in dust? and question from above about saving friendship with him.
 
Unfortunately right now your friendship is less important then getting him well again. Since it's just on the face so far and back feet, I would wrap him in a towel so he can't squirm too much and just get it done. You can work on rebuilding a trusting relationship with him after. You can try giving him a small treat or chew stick after you apply the meds so he doesn't think it was all bad.

No having the dust bath in the cage is a very bad idea, it can lead respiratory problems since the dust will get inhaled (chins close their nostril when they bath), it can also end up drying out the skin if it's always available, which can cause it to be itchy and crack. Aside from that when dusting in his cage right now you are spreading fugal spores everywhere. I have a small separate cage I use for dust baths for my guys, it allows them to bath, then go back into their cage. Some people also like to use an empty bath tub to set the bath in, then you can just wash the mess down the drain when done.

I'm not sure what you have for dust bath were you live, I see you are in Ukraine? Ideally you want volcanic ash dust (very finely grounded pumice), not sand (sand is too course grained and can damage the fur), the dust should penetrate the fur, absorb the oils, then fall out (taking the dirt and oils with it). My guys look pretty much back to normal shortly after going back in their cage. I'm honestly not sure about the talcum powder. It doesn't sound like a good idea to use talcum powder since it's not the right consistency and would probably stick to and get stuck in the fur. There are also new studies out linking talcum to cancer in humans, so that can't be good. Spreading talc and the meds all over the cage probably isn't a good idea either, it will get all over his hay and food, meaning he will be eating it.
 
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