chins chapped feet???

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jessonehundred

jessonehundred

Well-known member
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Nov 1, 2009
Messages
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I previously had a wire ramped and floored cage for my mom and baby chin. I recently installed wood shelves and they seem much more comfortable.
I noticed before I put the shelving in that after I let the chins out for free time, the mom would lay down on her side (I've read this is sometimes unusual)
she seemed to be contently resting. but then i noticed her feet were all red and chapped looking. Her long "foot pads" are hairless and they look quite painfully white and red and scaly.
I havent noticed the baby ever laying down and ive never noticed her feet being chapped.
could this be because of the wire floors I had them in for a few months? or is this normal....
are there any creams I could put on her feet to relieve the 'pain?'

thanks for any info
 
First, laying on their side is totally normal for chins. Almost all chins do it. Lethargy when laying on their side is a different story, but resting is fine.

For the chapped feet you can use either Bag Balm (which you can find at Wal-Mart) or pop open a vitamin E capsule and rub that in. Both work well, but the BB is a bit thicker and hangs on longer I think.
 
Post pictures of the paw pads. Sometimes paw pads are a little red naturally. Callouses are normal, 100% normal - they look chapped most of the time because the callouses are dead skin. The thicker the callous the more protected the foot actually is. They get them from using their feet on any surface from stress concentrations across the paw pads.

I use wire floors in all my cages and I never have foot problems. I doubt that wire floors would have caused this much of a problem after she was on the floors.
 
i tried taking a picture but the quality is useless.
thanks for clearing up the confusion about chins laying on their side, and im glad to know that calloused pads are normal, although I may still pick up some of that balm just incase.
thanks again!!
 
Do they look like this? From my understanding, these are normal chin feet..


DSC_0002-1.jpg
 
Poor chinnie. He was probably thinking what the heck are you doing, Mom. :cute:

When I notice Phoenix's feet a little red I try to put bag balm on it that night because I don't want the chance of it getting worse. I don't have a problem wit Sedona's feet.
 
Jack behaved well for the picture! He didn't seem to mind at all... my roommates have accused me of making chinnie porn, LOL.
 
My chins feet have those same callouses, and I'm going to use bag balm to help smooth the out, and on her dry ears as well (she's been scratching them) As far as laying on her side, my chin does it after playtime sometimes!;)
 
O Lynn, you just need to hush about Dr. Fitzgerald. :thumbsup:
I would love to visit his crew. It makes me so jealous that you have him as a vet but I'm happy for you.:)
 
yes quite similar to that but somewhat 'worse', i can see how callouses can be normal now but hers are quite red and raw looking, ill def get the balm and see if it helps. cute feets
:)
 
What color is she? Some of my beiges have really red paw pads that scare me from time to time. The callouses on your girl's feet maybe are a little rougher. That's alright, too.

The strangest thing that I ever saw with paw pads was when I first started taking in chins about 10 or 11 years ago. I picked up a chin that looked like he had little shoes on because the callouses deformed so much. The owner kept the cage so filthy that the urine actually continuously would wear down the callouses and reform them over and over again. Urine soaks into the paw pads and does strange things sometimes! There was actually little bits of shavings formed into the callouses. I wish I had gotten pictures...it's hard to explain. Poor little dude...me and my vet ended up having to cut the callouses off gently and then file them down a bit. He couldn't walk normally.
 
AZChins said:
What color is she? Some of my beiges have really red paw pads that scare me from time to time. The callouses on your girl's feet maybe are a little rougher. That's alright, too.

The strangest thing that I ever saw with paw pads was when I first started taking in chins about 10 or 11 years ago. I picked up a chin that looked like he had little shoes on because the callouses deformed so much. The owner kept the cage so filthy that the urine actually continuously would wear down the callouses and reform them over and over again. Urine soaks into the paw pads and does strange things sometimes! There was actually little bits of shavings formed into the callouses. I wish I had gotten pictures...it's hard to explain. Poor little dude...me and my vet ended up having to cut the callouses off gently and then file them down a bit. He couldn't walk normally.
Click to expand...

People like that pis you off.Its not that hard to clean the cage. poor little guy.:hair:
 
That's not the worst of it. This chin was allowed to "play" with 8 cats that hunted things outside. He came with a badly scratched cornea, scars all over his body and he was being fed Life cereal because the owner ran out of food...and as a treat he was allowed to have whole prunes because he liked them. This was one of the first rescue chins I took in...and, wow, did it ever educate me in a hurry. There were two other chins, a brother and a sister - they were both sterilized to have no babies. All three chins were completely traumatized. This was so many years ago - the brother and sister are still alive! Sadly, the little guy with the shoe callouses died five months after he came to live with me. We had his teeth fixed, he had extensive vet care but nothing got him back to normal 100%. Poor little guy...he was very grumpy all the time, but he had every right to be.
 
wow that is seriously incredibly sad. its curious why people even take in pets that they cant handle or take care of. i just recently got my chins because my uneducated friend couldnt take care of them. i have done nothing but research, and i definately put the majority of my finances into taking care of them. but they are well worth it.
the mama chin is a beige, which makes sense now that i hear that someone else found beige chins had more calloused feet.. maybe just something to do with the coloring.
i really love this site, i have learned so much.
 
AZChins said:
That's not the worst of it. This chin was allowed to "play" with 8 cats that hunted things outside. He came with a badly scratched cornea, scars all over his body and he was being fed Life cereal because the owner ran out of food...and as a treat he was allowed to have whole prunes because he liked them. This was one of the first rescue chins I took in...and, wow, did it ever educate me in a hurry. There were two other chins, a brother and a sister - they were both sterilized to have no babies. All three chins were completely traumatized. This was so many years ago - the brother and sister are still alive! Sadly, the little guy with the shoe callouses died five months after he came to live with me. We had his teeth fixed, he had extensive vet care but nothing got him back to normal 100%. Poor little guy...he was very grumpy all the time, but he had every right to be.
Click to expand...

That breaks my heart and makes me want to find the original owner and give him a piece of my mind! And maybe a piece of a crowbar, too... sorry, I'm not a violent person but abuse like that - intentional or not, I mean how STUPID do you have to be??!! - just makes me sick. :impatient:

I never even met those little chinnies, but I have so much sympathy and love for all three of them.
 
The saddest thing about it was that the woman thought she was doing everything right. It is hard to get mad at someone for just now knowing about the care of the chins. She shouldn't have let them play with the cats, that was the only thing that I sort of laid into her about doing. Also, this was over 10 years ago...there just wasn't a lot of information out there, not everyone was on the internet like they are now. I think that the woman got most of her information from petstores and as hearsay from inexperienced vets and the people she got the chins from. It's very sad...very sad. It keeps on happening even now when most people have no excuse! The worst of that is that people ignore good information and gather up info that supports what they want to do. Yes, the internet is a great source of info, but it has some bad stuff out there, too.
 
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