Chinchillas and the swine flu

[tunes]

Answered your pm.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

how are things going with you, your family and your chins today??

 

[Jenn]

Obviously this eye crud is also contagious, as it is spreading to all your chins. Seems to be similar to pink eye in humans. My guess is it isn't going to overly harmful to your chins, but that they would need medicated eye drops to clear it. How is your first chin doing? How much worse has his eye gotten since you first noticed? It doesn't seem to get too severe too quickly and you may have time to recover and be off quarantine to then take them all in to the vet. Since you are being told it will be a wait anyway, can you set up an appointment now for next week - will you be off quarantine by then? You can also double check with the vet that they will be ok if not seen till then.

 

[FiaSpice]

I'm really sorry about your whole situation. I really hope someone will abe able to send you drops. I hope you and the chin will get better.

 

[nick and emily]

Thanks so much to Tunes... She is sending me drops for my chins. I am so happy for that. My chins are still acting the same. I saw two of them playing last night. Their eyes just look irritated with some goo in the cornea. Otherwise THANK GOD they are eating and playing still.

And thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers. I will keep you updated on my chins health. I pray this doesnt happen to anyone else. Its a nightmare to be shut down by vets who are supposed to care for the health of animals.

 

[starleomach]

Eye infections can transfer from animal to animal so quickly but aren't immediatly life threatening. Another thing that may help until you get the drops is an warm epsum salt and water compress. they will usually sit for that for a few minutes if they have eye troubles because it feels so good.

 

[nick and emily]

Yesterday morning when I woke up, I checked on my chins and their eyes were back to normal. I am dumbfounded. I waited a day to post this in case the symptoms returned. I havent treated their eyes at all since the first day when I rinsed them with saline last week. I have no idea what this could have been or how they healed without treatment. I even gave them a bath today. Still fine. One of thems even eating more than usual. Its like they were never ill. I am so confused.

 

[lauralynne]

Well that sounds like good news! I hope it keeps getting better. How are you and the rest of the human family doing?

 

[Jenn]

I agree that the fact that your chins look better and are acting more like normal is a great sign. Maybe, continue to watch them for a bit longer to make sure they are really over this.

I was wondering as well how you and your family are doing...are you still in quarantine? Did this seem any different than any other type of flu bug?

 

[nick and emily]

We are all fine. We took the meds for 5 days and are feeling better. I even went back to work. No one in my family is really old or young or had any prior health issues so there wasnt anything really horrible going on with us. I think we got lucky that we are okay. It seems like this flu is spreading a lot of people have it and dont even realize it. Its a scary thing. Id hate to see this still around when its flu season. Its really going to be a bad combination if you have swine flu and reg flu. The worst may be yet to come.

As far as my chins, they are still looking fine. I am so relieved. This time last week I was freaking out.

Thanks to everyone for their advice and concerns.