For everyone that recommends a new vet - who here has extensive research in this stuff? Or a degree? I'd much rather trust a vet or a breeder than someone who just owns a couple of chinchillas.
I'm quite sure that many people took offense at that. "Just owning a couple of chinchillas" does not negate someone's intelligence or their experience with chinchillas. I know of one person on this forum who is nothing but a pet owner and never will be anything else, who knows more about teeth in chins than any vet I have yet to find. She collects skulls with maloccluded teeth, teeth growing through the eyes, teeth growing through the jaw bone, good teeth, no teeth, whatever. When someone wants to see what something looks like in a chin's mouth, you can count on Dawn to have seen it, experienced it, or treated it. I would flat out take HER opinion over pretty much any vet in anything to do with teeth.
I know of vets who will tell you to put a chin to sleep if it has a broken limb, that it
can't survive a broken limb. Really? Someone really needs to tell all those tripods out there that they should lay down and die. They are obviously doing it wrong.
I know of a breeder whose "most favorite chinchilla in the world" was prolapsing. She didn't take him to a vet. Instead, she just had her husband constantly stuff his thumb up the little guys butt, constantly pushing in the intestines. It didn't work. He died horribly and painfully. You don't even want to get me started on what some breeders do, or don't do, for their chins.
It wasn't until recently that you would even hear of a large rancher consulting a vet. Why? Because most vets know **** from shinola about chinchillas. Dreamlite is correct. If you talked to a vet who wasn't too full of himself, he would be the first to admit that they learn next to
nothing about chinchillas, or any pocket pet, in vet school. I am lucky enough that I was able to find a vet who was freshly graduated, who was willing and happy to have me work with him on pocket pets. At the time I had hedgehogs, degu, rats, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, chinchillas, birds, a bearded dragon, cats, dogs, and horses. He learned a LOT. He was never too proud to say "I don't know" either. He bought books specific to pocket pets. He consulted other vets. He consulted veterinary colleges when he needed to. He would be the first one to tell you, do not feed lettuce to a chin. No fruits, no vegetables, period.
I'm a breeder. I have been for around 12 years now. I would not feed lettuce to my chins, any kind of lettuce, any kind of fruit, any kind of vegetable. They don't need it. They don't even know it exists. The human that owns the chin wants to feed it that junk. A chin can't miss what they don't know. The constant need to "spice up" a chin's diet comes from the owner, not from the chin or from the chins needs.
My dogs get kibble and water. They don't get table scraps. I almost exclusively have giant breed dogs. I just put my American Bulldog, who weighed in at 145 pounds, to sleep a few months ago. He was 14. Do you know a lot of breeders whose dogs live that long? In every book I have read on AB's, they say they top out at 9.
My horses get grass, grain, and hay. I don't give them pop or chips or other crap that I've seen people do. Two of my horses died a few years back. One just went to sleep (as far as we could tell), the other had to be put down. One was 32, one was 28.
Do you see what I'm getting at here? The old timers on this forum, pet owners or breeders, are in this for the long haul. They've done their research. They've seen the results. I don't have chins bloating right and left, because I don't vary their diet with a load of crap that I "think" might be fun or healthy for them. I give them what works.
I'm not saying any of that to jump on you, just to let you know that an experienced pet owner (and by that I don't mean someone who does nothing but parrot what other people have said in threads) can be just as valuable a tool while learning about chins as a vet or a breeder can.
