Fritz question

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Oh my goodness. I didn't know he was missing toes. I wonder if they got caught in the cage his previous owner had him in. I think I'm going to be looking at Yumi's cage today to make sure her fleece is not exposing wire bottom.

I am looking forward to seeing before and after pictures of the little guy. It is a tear-jerker with a happy ending. When all is said and done, at least the person had the good sense to give him away...that's a blessing. With all the care he is getting now, he will be gorgeous and healthy in no time. All the best wishes to you.
 
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I can't believe how close whoever came to killing Fritz! I can't believe he is that skinny. And he doesn't have any fingers on one of his little hands? That is terrible!
I'm tearing up now so I'm gonna go watch a sad movie and get all my crying done with. I am really happy about the good news about his teeth and mats, though. Congrats Crysta! :)
 
Today I have started hand feeding. He's a good boy when it comes to that. Sometimes I can just feed him in the cage and sometimes he turns his who body around and stuffs it in the corner. It's going to need to be video time in a bit because watching this is hilarious. He's like a little kid. When he's in my hands though I don't have to burrito him, just get a good hold on him and syringe away. I initially got 12ml in him (this morning). When we got back from the vet I got 15 more ml, 4 hours later 15 more ml, and I just woke up from my nap and fed him again and he ate 22! Woo hoo! 64 and there is still one more feeding. Not too shabby for a first day. I'll probably hand feed him for this week due to the pain from filing and his wound. After that I will fall back a bit to see if he starts on his own.

I weighed him after the feeding to see just how much was in there, and this morning he was 441 and this evening he was 479. Yay for food in his tummy!
 
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Poor little man. What a blessing that you ALL helped him. That tiny little soul deserves so much rest. I am sure he knows he has come to a place where he will be loved besides at least being FED. I cannot imagine how anyone could watch an animal starve and suffer. I hope Fritz can rally.
 
Wow crysta he was tiny. Chewy was 480 but doesnt seem to be eating much pellet on his own. I think I may supplement to jump start him. Both our new York/new jersey rescue boys need to beef up!
 
First of all I want to say how great it is to hear about Fritz! I know you were really terrified and this is darn good news. I guess if there is no infection I would not do Baytril as we know how harsh it can be on a chin. But I'm not really one to offer great advice as I'm just a pet owner and have only had one instance where I had to use Baytril.
 
It's all good Laurie. We're sticking with the SMZ not only because it's a nicer antibiotic, but also because he LOVES the taste of it. Yay for it being "treat time" when it's meds time.

To anyone, how can one "teach" a chinchilla to chew? I know right now his teeth hurt, but in the future? I have heard one of the hardest things to do it to get a chin to chew again. I honestly don't think he ever had anything in his cage other than that dirty stone that he didn't touch. Any tips?
 
Yumi wasn't much of a chewer when we got her. I started giving her little willow sticks since it seemed like the bark was pretty soft and tasty and then gave her apple sticks. It seemed like once she got the hang of it, she took right off chewing everything except plain wooden blocks. You have far more experience than I do, but as so many on here have told me, anything you offer will be a treat :)
 
I wish I could have gotten on here earlier, but I worked all day and just got home. I've been thinking about Fritz constantly. It is AWESOME that his teeth look so good, and I'm glad that you're going to get the x-rays in two weeks. I know nothing about meds, but what everyone has been saying sounds good...

The wound thing upsets me greatly, but at least it was not fatal.

You could try cottonwood to get him to chew, that's a nice soft wood. Other than that.... not much input. Can't wait to see him fat.

You and he will be in my thoughts.
 
Essentia said:
To anyone, how can one "teach" a chinchilla to chew? I know right now his teeth hurt, but in the future? I have heard one of the hardest things to do it to get a chin to chew again. I honestly don't think he ever had anything in his cage other than that dirty stone that he didn't touch. Any tips?
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Crysta, PM me your address. I will send you some CC for Fritz and also a hard chin food from England that the chins LOVE and think is yummy. I've used it a number of times to get chins eating on their own.
 
crysta--i give Richie willow coins from PPBN. it is one of the few woods he can nibble on. i know Sandi, also had luck with CJ nibbling on the the willow coins.
 
Crysta, just a thought, is there something chin-safe you could rub into some apple sticks to get him interested, to try to chew that?
One day I made a PB and J sandwich, and passed Rodya's cage, and he started licking my finger, then tried to nibble it. It hurt when he nibbled but it was so funny when his little tongue licked me. I didn't realize until afterwards that he had licked the tiiiiny bit of peanut butter off of my finger. Maybe there is some sort of chin safe peanut butter like substance you can put on whatever you need to, to get him interested?
 
Rub a bite of apple on it, since they gave him all those unhealthy treats? Another option might be to rub a dried dandelion leaf on it since dandelion yogies were one of his treats too. (And judging by the number of dandelion leaves I've gotten in baled hay, a fully dried one probably wouldn't hurt him anyway.)
 
It usually takes Gizzy a couple of days after getting his teeth done before he figures out it isn't going to hurt when he chews. I stick a variety of wood from a PPBN scrap pack in his cage and once he starts to feel better he picks out the kinds he likes. Then we move on to apple sticks. I'm sure once Fritz starts to feel better and gains some strength, he will become a little beaver.
 
Thanks for the update on Fritz! I've been away from the forums for a few days now due to work. Glad to have positive updates on little Fritz. I know I mentioned it before but the only treat he seemed to want to chew was shreddies, which is when I noticed his hands, but it didn't dawn on me they looked different due to missing fingers! As you mentioned he doesn't seem to be bothered by it, he is still very dexterous and works a shreddie apart quickly!
 
CJ chews mostly on cottonwood and willow, very little apple. It's only been taking a day or so for him to get back into the groove of things after a filing.
 
Even with him eating about 70ml of CC yesterday he ate about half of his pellets last night! I also gave him a bit of Tabitha's supplement and he ate all the Equine Senior out of it (left all the oats). Good boy!

I completely revamped his cage. I took out all the wood house, shelves, etc. Anything that I can't sanitize. He just has one toy hanging inside the cage and I put some small stuff in their daily (sticks, hay cube, etc). I just felt like I couldn't keep the wood clean enough. I replaced it with a plastic igloo. He isn't chewing on the igloo, but if he starts I will replace it with a glass fish bowl until he is completely healed.

This is our routine daily when it comes to cleanliness. If you think this is overkill, or that I should be doing something different, please let me know. He gets his fleece changed twice a day, morning and evening. When I take out the old fleece (he is put in a carrier during this) I spray down the entire pan, and igloo with TB disinfectant, which kills basically everything, viruses, bacteria and fungus. The only thing it doesn't kill is resistant strains of staph. I let that sit for 3 min (what it recommends) and wipe everything down and let dry. Now, it says on the bottle that once dry it is completely safe to touch, eat off of, etc. Would you feel safe using this around your chins? This is the same type of spray cleaner they use in operating rooms. Here is the label on the bottle.

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I want him to be in the cleanest area he can be when it comes to that open wound, but at the same time I don't want to cause additional harm to him if you guys don't think this is safe.

Here is his new hospital cage setup. With the white fleece (thanks Pash!) that's exactly what it reminds me of. I either use the white fleece or my light colored liners so I can keep an eye on his urine output. It's kinda boring, but really, how much fun are hospitals? :p

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He's spunky today which is awesome. Yesterday and the day before he just hid in his house all day and all night. When I got up this morning though his igloo was turned over, the fleece pulled up from half the cage, pellets scattered, so apparently he had some fun last night. :)
 
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I'm not sure about the TB disinfectant. I'd assume it's safe...but I've no knowledge of it and we never used it in the vet office. There are a TON of "cleaners" for vet offices though.

Hopefully someone who knows more about it will chime in soon. I always just use bleach and rinse really well when I want to clean the crud out of something.
 
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