Have you owned a chin with Malo or another genetic defect?

[andreya]

My first chin, Snaggle, was born with malo. He had overgrown teeth before he was ever weaned. Snaggle was given to me and I always knew he probably wouldn't live long but I loved him. He lived just over a year and a half but might have lived longer if he hadn't gotten into a massive fight with his cage mate. He didn't make it.

I don't know what Ari has, he dribbles urine constantly as well, but his kidney values were fine when I took him to the vet a couple weeks ago for a check up. All of his other blood work was fine. He is a year old and has dribbled urine since he was two weeks old. He has had struvite crystals and the vet said a UTI but didn't mention bacteria, only the crystals. I know that his mom died of malo a few months after he was weaned, so now I get to worry about that too.

 

[Lillybabe]

My first little guy had pretty much everything a chin can have wrong with their teeth, wrong. He did not have any missing ones or any rotten ones really... but they were all either elongated, misaligned, or overgrown. I rescued him from the local humane society and he was most likely a Petsmart chin. I was told he was "about 9 months" when I got him but there's no way to tell for sure. He wasn't fully grown and always stayed on the smaller side. When I got him he was about 560 grams or so. His heaviest weight was about 720. He also had a heart murmur and nearly died at roughly two years old when they did one of his teeth filings. He stopped breathing and they brought him back. As with many malo chins he also had frequent stasis. About every 4-6 months from the time I got him in '07 he had either an emergency vet visit or a scheduled filing/stasis checkup. He passed just recently at about 6 years old. It is hard to know with him if teeth issues were genetic or environmental or both. More than likely he was fed poor quality food, given little exercise and little to chew. I know the humane society was giving him raisins and fresh veggies. I didn't know any different and gave raisins to him as well for about the first month until I read up on everything. At the time some people had insisted to me that they were okay in small doses.

 

[Jaina_Organasolo]

I've owned 6 chins of those -

3 have been diagnosed with root elongation, 1 died aged 2 from unknown causes (post mortem showed slight bladder irritation and pasturella in the the lungs), other was a stress fur chewer (to be fair to his breeder he was given to me as a not for breeding chin) and one is healthy (but he's only 11 months so no guarantees).

So I have a 50% Malo rate here. All animals were bough or resumed from responsible show breeders, from good lines, all unrelated to each other. I feel a bit cursed.

 

[missyjre]

I have a girl that is a "dwarf" guess that counts as genetic. And I have a girl that was just recently diagnosed with Malo and she's also a stress fur chewer.

 

[Tumbleweed1978]

I recently rescued a pair of standard greys that turned out to be black velvets. The female was pregnant when I got them. I separated them right away. She gave birth on 7-2-13, and amazingly, her kit survived despite the lethal gene combo! However, his back leg sare paralyzed, which I've been told is either caused by inbreeding/overbreeding, which is a sure possibility. They came from a pet store originally, and were purchased at the same time, so they could easily be siblings. They have been housed together for 3 yrs without ever being separated, so who knows how many pregnancies she's had, poor girl. Amazing she never retained a fetus!
The other possibility is that he may have been breech, and she tugged too hard to get him out. He was the only kit, so could have been too large and difficult to birth. Of course, I did not have a due date, and she surprised me in the wee hours of the morning, so she had finished delivering before I discovered the baby.
He is doing quite well despite his limited mobility, and I am custom making him a single story cage with everything situated extra low to the ground, and the (Low) shelves, ramps and bottom lined with fleece. I have high hopes for my little guy, thanks to some great advice and encouragement from you all!

 

[Shenanigans]

Yuki's almost seven, in my possession for about a year now, and hasn't had anything. (and his previous owner didn't really have a reason to not tell me when i asked) She got him from a pet store that seems to try to avoid mill breeding, pruess pets in Lansing if i remember right, so i cant tell you breeding lines or anything. He's a mosaic if that helps at all. Whatever helps breed happier healthier pets is a good project to get into.