chins playing with other pets

[ticklechin]

The mode of transmission of pasteurella is inhalation or ingestion of infected secretions, not rabbit poo in your shoes into your chin room.

 

[Riven]

And if I had a chunk of mucous covered fecal matter on my shoe and my chin was out on the floor and ate it would that not be ingestion of infected secretion?

 

[ticklechin]

Rather than being snarky, why not just post correct information.

 

[tunes]

Likewise with clothes changing, your nurse or doctor don't change between patients unless they're covered in bodily fluids, but yet we expect vets to?

My point was actually washing of hands, not so much changing clothes. Although yes, if it was something highly transmittable, my vet has changed clothes before coming into the room with my animals. They wear scrubs and keep stacks of them around for instances just like this.

I want to point out too, that humans are completely different than chins. I could drink out of a glass that was not properly rinsed and has a bunch of soap residue with very little, if any, effect. If I was to give my chins a bottle that had not been properly rinsed and was filled with soap suds, at the very least I would be looking at diarrhea. Comparing human health care to animal care is, IMO, like comparing apples and oranges. I can get Strep (and usually do, eeeeevery winter) and it causes me nothing more than a week or so of agony. It doesn't kill me. We've already established that it can kill a chin. My herd had an outbreak of yersinia several years back due to bad batch of supplement. I lost a buttload of animals because of this. Treatment for a human was simply a course of antibiotics whereas for the chins it was give antibiotics and pray that they recovered.

We have a completely different immune system and tolerance for diseases than a chin does.

 

[mishellyshel]

I keep a bottle of anti bacterial gel in my chin area. Do you all think that is enough between species and between illness, like an eye infection??

 

[ticklechin]

Hand washing is better according to the CDC, but hand sanitizers are ok in a pinch.

 

[Riven]

I'm sorry I didn't elaborate that the chin ate the mucous covered poo... I guess I assumed everyone's chins tried to eat everything. I live basically on what most people would call a farm, I don't have concrete roads leading everywhere in my yard or cute little entryways to remove shoes.

Is it possible that chinchillas as a whole lack immunity because they are never exposed to anything? If say 10 chins get sick with ABC and 7 survive, those 7 and their offspring will be more resistant to ABC. Improving the herd immunity against that in the future. I'm not saying that we should infect our chins with everything possible, what I'm saying is that basic microbiology tells us that if animals are not exposed they will never gain immunity. Will the exposure to certain things cause deaths, yes. Will somethings kill the chins because they have no immunity at all to those types of things, yes. I'm not all for giving our chins little blankets from small pox hospitals, but never exposing them to anything likewise weakens the species as a whole.

I think it's funny when people freak out about things like a bug in their hay, the world is not a sterile place. It will hopefully never be. My yorkie running through the chin house once a month... not a concern to me. My cat sleeping in the basket on top of the chin cage in my office, not a concern to me. People who's chins are climbing on their great dane... concern for the well being is there for that chin. Is it possible that my cat can be carrying something and while laying on the basket on the chin cage sneeze and infect my chins, yes it is possible. It's also possible that I will get HIV from a toilet seat because I have an open piece of skin on my butt and someone will HIV dripped a vaginal secretion on the lid.

Everything life has a risk, high or low the risk is still there. I think the biggest thing that people need do decide how big of a risk they are willing to take, and what the risk factor for the actions in question are. I personally feel that the benefits of my chins being in my office by far outweigh the possibility that they will get an illness from one of my other pets or to the opposite that one of my other pets may obtain an illness from one of my chinchillas.

ETA: Hand washing is ONLY effective if done properly with a good quality antibacterial soap, with hands washed above the wrists, preferably to the elbow for at least 15 seconds ( although this seems ridiculously low to me) being sure to interlace the fingers to get between them and cleaning under the fingernails ( which is something most people never do when washing their hands ), rinsing without touching the sink or faucet then using a clean paper towel to thoroughly dry the hand, and a clean paper towel to shut off the water and open any doors beyond that point.

Most people wash their hands dry them, then use their bare hand to turn off the same faucet they turned on their their dirty hands and to open the same door they used to come into the area with dirty hand, thus re-contaminating themselves before ever leaving the wash area.

 

[AZChins]

Yeah, the doctors always say that hand washing helps more because it actually washes the bacteria off the skin. The hand sanitizers may not really kill all the bacteria.

There was one vet, who did a necropsy for me, and he told me to wash my hands and then put on the hand sanitizer for maximum effect. I don't know if that's true...but I wash my hands at least a dozen times throughout the day because I'll touch something and think that it could make a chin sick.

 

[Claire D]

How to wash your hands ...............................
http://www.who.int/gpsc/tools/HAND_WASHING.pdf

 

[menagerie]

Hand sanitizers miss a lot of bugs. For example, anything that is passed via spore is not wiped out by hand sanitizers, yet soap and water kills them.

 

[AZChins]

I have these little wipes that I bought to keep in the car. They are convenient like hand sanitizer, but wipe everything off onto the wipes. I feel a little better with those than the sanitizer alone.

 

[leni]

You should wash your hands long enough to sing the ABCs. I usually do it extra slow to make sure I'm doing it long enough. Being a nurse I'm used to using the paper towel to turn off the faucets and open doors. In nursing school we had to put on this lotion on our hands that flouresced in black light and then wash our hands. Nobody got it out the first time. It really does let you know you need to definitely need to wash hands better. Working in the NICU we had to do a 2 minute hand scrub up to the elbows, cleaning under the nails with a brush and everything every time we went in for work, parents and other visitors also. The hand sanitizer helps, but I always use it as backup to handwashing, not in place of. People in the hospital had all sort of bugs that the hand sanitizer wouldn't touch, like Clostridium Difficile. So I'm a definite freak about handwashing.

 

[ticklechin]

Never mind, stick to the topic rather than teach about infection transmission in AIDS patients.

 

[leni]

To each their own I guess. I don't let my cats near my chins and vice versa and I wash my hands in between contact with them. Not everyone has the space to keep them separated like that, and that's up to them what they do with that. I had parakeets when I was little and our family dog at the time, a lab, went into my room one time when I was at school and broke into one of the cages and killed one of the parakeets. When I got home he was sitting under my bed proudly holding it between his paws without a mark on it. I don't want to take the risk of exposing my chins to something like that. It just takes a second, a single swipe or snap of the jaws and that's it. Or a single sneeze, etc. to transmit something, and I know I wouldn't want to deal with that. So i just keep them separate. I know we can't live in a bubble but why take the risks if they can be prevented by just keeping them away to begin with.

 

[ticklechin]

Another nasty thing cats can transmit and kills chins, its the disease that pregnant women who are cat owners worry about.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1494230/

 

[leni]

Oh wow, yeah, I remember studying that in microbiology, how it could infect pregnant women. I didn't know it could infect chinchillas. This thread has taught me some new things. I always kept them away because I had heard of pasturella and because of the predator/prey factor, but things like that just keep reinforcing it for me.

 

[cremellomare]

I would not let my chins play with other animals just because, and right now we keep them separate. With that being said, and I will probably be in trouble for it, but our rabbit and chins are in cages next to each other due to space. Until I joined this forum last year, I never knew that rabbits could pass pasturella to chins. For the three years before that, they were next to or on top of each other. Ideally I would like them in separate rooms but we live in a small 2 bedroom with two kids so space is at a premium. Unless I figure out to make a whole new set of special furniture which I have considered but can't afford I can't make it work. I am diligent about keeping an eye on them just in case.

We don't have a cat now since my hubby is allergic, but when I was younger our family had a special cat, Socks. We had plenty of small animals, including hamsters, mice, guinea pigs, and a bird. Our cat was more than careful around them even though she was a master hunter outside. She would curl up with the guinea pigs on the bed and lick them, the bird she would carefully swat slowly with no claws out if he pecked at her. When I had a bunch of mice in a tank, and would leave the top off since I was a busy high school student, my cat would climb in there and just sit and watch them play around her paws. I was always amazed that they were all still there. I honestly believe she knew the difference between pets and prey. She also brought me baby bunnies unharmed on more than one occasion, but I'm not sure why.

 

[Irishsk8r66]

i have allowed my chin to check a dog out under very close supervision including holding the dog and the chin simply because i did not want them to fear one another, however the dog has taken a serious liking for my little dash and will sit by his cage for hours if let him. he hates when dash is not out and wants to play with him when he is out. although we dont let them "play" together i still let him sit by the cage as long as i am sitting next to it. its a cute friendship but could also be a dangerous one if you dont keep it under close supervision

 

[Ash]

He will sit by the cage for hours because Dash is prey and he's watching him. It's not a "play" instinct, it's a hunter's instinct. My chins used to be in my bedroom, where my dog and cats all slept. I was lucky to never have a problem, but my cats also ignored the chinchillas and were taught early on that the cages were not perches and resting spots with spray bottles.

Now, the chins are in the basement. The husky will follow us down when somebody goes down there, but once he starts showing an interest in the chins rather than just hanging out on the side with the TV, he is promptly chased back upstairs. Do I think he'd hurt them intentionally? Yes, and no. At first, to him, they are moving, living, toys he just wants to play with. But from there, it turns into a snack. We learned that once already, when he managed to get into the basement unattended and killed one of my girls.

I have another dog, who I don't think would hurt them and shows little to no interest in them, but I still don't allow the chins out when she's around, and certainly wouldn't let her just sit in front of the cage. When we are in front of the cage, chins get a different interaction from it. Food, treats, attention. When a predator sits in front of the cage, it's a whole different scenario. Would you want to be stalked?

 

[Taka]

i wouldnt fully trust them but in the same room thats fine. and a note on that toxo whatever bacteria disease transferred to pregnant woman, they have a higher chance of getting it from rare steak. a very low percentage of cats actually carry it. ive done the research on it. and we can only get this bacteria from the cats feces. so unless you let ur chin take a dust bath in the litterbox, im quite sure this bacteria is ruled out.

a dog, no matter how gentle and friendly can accidentally harm a small pet of any kind but i think having the chins or other small pets in their cages securely with others in the room is fine. just have to be extra precautious than most pet owners. i own 3 cats as well as chins and its fine. but when chins come out, cats are out of room. but in cage fine, theyre left alone and they arent bothered. it depends on the cats. it can work with extra care