Bacterial Enteritis - experience with this?

[Pookinaround]

How are show cages cleaned between shows?

Not to my knowledge...

 

[greychins]

I agree that there would be no way to tell how it got brought in, but still would be interesting to me to see if there's a connection that all tied back to one show.

No idea regarding show cages being cleaned, or if they're cleaned. The idea is that sick chins are not supposed to be brought to show -- hence, why I did not attend a show when my animals started dying and the show was the following weekend. That said... people might not always know when their animals are sick until after the fact... I mean, I didn't know anything was wrong til chins started dying....

 

[Pookinaround]

I agree Ashley! Here is my take on shows now... Ok I get the concept of wanting a 3rd party evaluation on your animal and to kinda check/balance what you are doing... That was why I did it anyway. I know that some do it for the competitive aspect and hey to each his/her own. To me at this point it is sooooo not worth the risk of putting my animal in a room with possibly close to 200 others who might possibly have goodness knows what. Not only that the sheer act of taking them to a show stresses them thus putting them at risk even if the show was germ free...all for what...ribbons, bragging rights, higher kit prices??? Watching 10 chins slowly die within a few months REALLY got to me.... Sorry but I'll pass when it comes to shows....

 

[ticklechin]

The state show I took my chins to "for fun" had deaths from a sick chin that was brought to the show, not showing symptoms at the time, after that there was no way Jose was I going to put my animals at risk-pet owners especially IMO have no business showing for fun.

 

[ticklechin]

And back to the show cage thing, parasites like coccidia can live for months outside the body on surfaces, so a infected animal that was not showing symptoms yet could pass it on, I am suprised that the cages are not cleaned.

 

[Snickers]

I remember CA State show 2013 someone brought sick chins wasn't noticed until the judges were talking among themselves. I believe the person said it was slipped fur, of course my animals were next to them on the tables before the show. I was also told that this person knew this animal was sick because she had taken it to the vet, (not sure if this is true or not) but keep those sick animals home.

 

[6Dusters]

I went to the Nationals and experienced no illness problems.

 

[greychins]

I do remember a show, not sure which one, where a chin made it to the show table that had a runny nose and watery eyes. After it was shown, and people saw that it wasn't well, it was put on a side table away from other chins, but before that, it was on the regular tables where all the chins wait to show. I mean, I know things can pop up overnight, but I find it hard to believe that between 9 am when the chin was put in the show cage and 11 am when the chin was shown, it magically got sick (but wasn't showing beforehand). I can understand something developing away from home -- but then, don't show it, leave it in the carrier at the very least... To me... when that animal was put up on the table, myself and other people looked in the book to see who's it was. It's not good for the breeder to bring a sick animal, cause it can reflect negatively on them, but... it is what it is. All we can really do is hope people don't bring the sickies.

 

[Sue]

Just posting for general information, I don't want to ruffle feathers, but do you disinfect your own cages? I know the trend is for vinegar and all that, but mild bleach water is the ONLY thing that will kill some of this stuff. When we come home from a show too, our show cages are folded up in plastic tubs and I fill them up with water on the back deck and some bleach and let them soak for a while. (No, they don't turn white). Then they dry in the sun (which is why our shows are later in summer when we have sun). It's harder in winter but every couple of months I roll our cages out and spray them down with a power washer and some diluted bleach and then rinse them off before bringing them back in. If there's sun, they sit outside for a while. Peggy has also mentioned that she treats her runs with bleach water in another thread. Just going on what my vet said, he raises rabbits.

 

[Claire D]

As an aside, I looked up incubation ranges for various bacteria..... (human based but interesting never-the-less)

From Control of Communicable Diseases Manual 18th Edition:

Listeriosis - 3-70 days but can be over 3 months.

Giardia - 3-25 days.

Coccidia - 1-4 weeks.

Leptospirosis - 2 -30 days patients can continue to excrete leptospires for many months.


Yersinia enterocolitica - range 1-14 days.

 

[ticklechin]

The show cages at the state show I went to were not the owners of the chins cages, they were provided by the show and now to find out they were most likely not cleaned between shows is IMO wrong. I don't see the correlation of cleaning the chins own cages-since those cages are not introduced to new chins and feces and urine over and over again and show cages are-without cleaning between shows.

Look up how long parasites can live outside the body, I did, and it can be months, so show cages should be disinfected.

 

[EMSChins]

Dawn, I could be wrong but the way I read Sue's post, I think she meant the show cages of the Chapter she belongs to???

I know some chapters hold show cage cleaning and repair days but have not heard of one in a while. But just because I haven't heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Personally I carry a container of Clorox wipes with me to shows and wipe the cage down before I use it. It isn't perfect since you can't sterilize with just a wipe but it makes me feel like I'm trying.

 

[ticklechin]

I keep getting conflicting answers, are the cages that are owned by the chapter disinfected between shows, that is all I am asking. There are a lot of "higher ups" who run shows that are forum members that are not participating in this thread that can answer the question on what is done for infection control at shows besides just don't bring sick animals, we all know chins hide illness so what is done.

There are chin owners that are having deaths, and who have questions and want help, that is what this thread is about, lets just be open and maybe changes need to happen.

 

[EMSChins]

Could be that they are not following this thread??? Maybe start a new one asking that under the thread title in the Show Section? I don't know the answer to the question.

 

[Pookinaround]

I always thought that each chapter has their own "show stuff" like the Atlantic Chapter has theirs, the WI chapter has theirs, CA chapter has theirs so on and so forth....

 

[Snickers]

Dawn, I could be wrong but the way I read Sue's post, I think she meant the show cages of the Chapter she belongs to???

I know some chapters hold show cage cleaning and repair days but have not heard of one in a while. But just because I haven't heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Personally I carry a container of Clorox wipes with me to shows and wipe the cage down before I use it. It isn't perfect since you can't sterilize with just a wipe but it makes me feel like I'm trying.

CA has their own show cages.

I think I'll start using baby wipes or clorox wipes before putting a chin in a show cage.

 

[greychins]

Just posting for general information, I don't want to ruffle feathers, but do you disinfect your own cages? I know the trend is for vinegar and all that, but mild bleach water is the ONLY thing that will kill some of this stuff. When we come home from a show too, our show cages are folded up in plastic tubs and I fill them up with water on the back deck and some bleach and let them soak for a while. (No, they don't turn white). Then they dry in the sun (which is why our shows are later in summer when we have sun). It's harder in winter but every couple of months I roll our cages out and spray them down with a power washer and some diluted bleach and then rinse them off before bringing them back in. If there's sun, they sit outside for a while. Peggy has also mentioned that she treats her runs with bleach water in another thread. Just going on what my vet said, he raises rabbits.

While I'm sure this would be a good idea, the runs I use aren't straight metal -- they're mostly pressboard with an mesh front, mesh back, and take forever to dry (when getting them home once, we had an open trailer and it rained... must have taken several days for them to dry out). I don't have anywhere to put the chins if I was to take out a run and take several days to wash it and let it dry. Not to mention, the bleach soaking into the pressboard... I think you'd never get that smell out and I can't imagine that'd be healthy for the chins to inhale bleach fumes. I do sterilize the metal pans.

I live in a surburban area... while I like Peggy's idea of dipping the runs in bleach water, as she noted, you'd need like a horse trough to do so, and the homeowner's association would fine us if we decided to put one of those in our backyard. Heck, we got fined for a vehicle sitting in our driveway.... it had a dead battery and we were waiting to fix it... but it was an "eyesore" *rolls eyes* (note, was not rusted or anything, just an older vehicle sitting in the driveway not moving for 6 months).

As far as wiping down the show cages, I think that's a good idea. Will make sure to bring wipes to the next show. I acknowledge it won't help everything, but it sure can't hurt.

 

[jags]

I store and clean the MI chapter cages. Spray them down with bleach and then pressure wash them before the show. I know Jim does this also with the Western Ohio cages as I have helped him with it before. Ron does the National cages every year but I do not know who and how and if all chapters do this but I know we do. We have had chapter meetings where we do this but most of the time it falls on who ever is storing the cages.

 

[Sue]

Yup, I'm talking about the show cages. I run the West Coast chapter (with my helpers and we store the chapter cages. Every time we are done I take them out back and sterilize them. It takes a while, but it's easy for me to do with them in the large plastic tubs. We have a mix of old & new, sometimes the older ones need to be repainted. I don't know how old some of them are, they became mine when I took over the chapter.

 

[greychins]

I, for one, am glad to hear the show cages are cleaned (or at least, some are).