Help please?! Hair Ring?

[Pandabear0423]

My husband and I just rescued 2 chins that were living in horrible conditions. We have never cared for chins before, but as soon as we saw the conditions these little ones were living in we knew we had to do something for them. So we have had these chins for 2 days now, and the male chin seems to be a little underweight, but eating good now that we have him home. However his penis doesn't look to be in very good shape. I have researched how to care for chins and what not, and came across the hair ring issue for the male chins. I had my son hold the chin (Jasper is his name BTW) while I inspected Jasper's "private area" and I could find no evidence of a hair ring. But his penis will not go back inside the fold of skin and looks purple at the tip of it. As if the blood flow is cut off from it. I have looked under the skin folds, and still no sign of a hair ring. I'm so worried for the little guy. I thought that us taking him home and giving him better care would be the right thing for him. Now I'm just worried he won't make it until tomorrow afternoon, which is the earliest vet appointment I could get for him. Any tips that some of you veteran chin owners might have would be greatly appreciated.

One more thing just so you all know. Jasper seems to be in good spirits. He's very energetic, is eating and drinking, and loves to play. I'm just concerned about his private parts being in an erect position and the color not being what I have seen in photo's on the internet on healthy male chins.

 

[mishellyshel]

Have you tried using a lubricant, such as KY jelly to help facillitate the penis back into the shaft? It also may help with future hair ring checks. just a small amount will do the trick.

as for the color, perhaps someone else can comment. Maybe with all the handling it was just that color because the blood flow was restricted??

 

[Pleiades]

Someone with more experience will give you a more thorough answer, but I think we could all benefit from a picture. It could really help to determine exactly what's going on.

It could be it's just not going back into the sheath, in which case you might try a tiny dab of KY jelly. Or, it could be that there's a bad hair ring at the base of the penis where you haven't extracted it out of the sheath enough to see. OR it could be a prolapse, which definitely needs vet care, but it sounds like you've got that lined up.

Best wishes!

 

[Pandabear0423]

Thank you for you quick responses. I will try the KY jelly and see if that helps. I will also try to upload a picture as well.

 

[tunes]

The penis being out can also be an indication of his health. A male chin that is severely malnutritioned, dehydrated, and/or in pain will often let his penis hang out.

I would definitely try the KY Jelly, but if that doesn't work, I would also see about a vet visit to check his general health and get him on good feed, good hay, and fresh water ASAP.

 

[Pandabear0423]

So I have applied some KY jelly to Jasper and also took some photos. The photos were taken after I had applied the KY jelly to him. I didn't think to take some before photos. However it does seem as though after applying the KY jelly his penis did go back inside a little. But it is still hanging out quite a bit as indicated in the photos. I uploaded them as attachments. I hope that works. Let me know if it doesn't and I will try again.

Thank you so much for all of your advise and help. It is greatly appreciated! =)

 

[Claire D]

Did you gently pull his penis right out? It looks like he might have some fur stuck.
Sometimes chins can have fur at the base of the penis so you have to pull the penis right out very gently.

 

[Phantommarine]

Yes we pulled it out, then we put the KY on there as asked to above. The penis did go back in a little ways but as you can see in the pictures it's still a ways out of him. He is malnutrition from what the Chin rescue guy told us yesterday. The previous owners we're terrible to this little guy. But from what the pictures looks like, We don't see a hair ring anywhere.

Think some simple TLC Will nurture this guy back to a good status? With the lubricant we put on, some nice food now, clean water and raisen treats here and there, I hope he will be ok. Any other thoughts?

 

[tunes]

Ditch the raisins, and the other stuff sounds good. Especially if he is malnourished, raisins are the last thing he needs, even if I did recommend giving them (which I don't).

The problem is, if it continues to hang out like that, it can cause an issue with it every going back. Plus, if it continues to hang out, it can be an issue regarding infection. So yes, the good pellets and hay will go a long way to helping him, but it can take a while for it to take effect enough to affect something like this.

 

[Phantommarine]

So from what you can see in the pictures though, does it look ok to you? Just other than the fact that it's hanging out of course. But other than this issue here he acts fine and plays. I just didn't want to have to take him to the vet already and have major vet bills only having him 2 days, but at the same time it wasn't his fault he was treated this way from previous owners either.

So think we're ok to leave him be and just keep up with the good new food and water plus the lubrication process?

 

[ticklechin]

You just adopted these chins from a rescue and they let the chin leave like that? Did the rescue get a vet check done?

 

[Phantommarine]

No, we purchased these chins from just a random owner... We took them to a rescue guy and he told us that the female was pregnant and in really good health / condition. The male he said had a Hair ring as stated above.

We've examined the chin's penis and can't find a hair ring anywhere. So we've followed the above instructions and put lubrication on it's penis to help retract and it has all new cages, food, bedding, water ect.. Just wanted to know from the pictures Pandabear posted, if we're ok to continue this or did we just invest in a chin that needs hundreds of dollars of vet bills.

 

[aznmexaggie]

Aside from the penile retraction problem, I noticed in the first picture that the chin appears to have a fungal issue underneath the base of his tail... Either that, or it is an area which has been rubbed excessively, causing hair loss and scaly skin.

 

[Phantommarine]

Is that one of the reasons for the penis problem? or is that just something entirely different? We've got a vet appointment tomorrow at 3:30pm I guess we just need to take him to the vet and find out how much is wrong with him and what the costs will be. Makes me mad and makes me want to call the previous owner we bought them from, but for what? won't do me any good and they don't care, they got their money and got rid of the chins.

I just hope we can determine whats wrong and if I need to even bother with vet or just give him time to heal with his new food, water and living habits.

 

[ticklechin]

Being you are a new owner with no health experience , the chin has a obvious problem that could be caused by a underlying problem, a vet visit would be your best bet to get a idea of his condition. We can't tell you over the net if he will be OK, chins hide illness extremely well and the symptoms they do show are subtle, a new owner can easily miss them. Part of rescue is vet bills and big ones at that when you are dealing with the unknown.

 

[Phantommarine]

Well thanks for all the information and posts, it seems nothing more can be done and a vet visit tomorrow is in order.

Thanks everyone.

 

[ticklechin]

Let us know how it goes!

 

[Phantommarine]

Will do!

Thanks again everyone!

You all are great!

 

[Phantommarine]

Just a heads up for everyone who was interested and posted here to help with our Chin, we took him to the Vet yesterday, and she said there wasn't a hair ring on his penis, but the males tend to let their penis just hang out if they are sick or have other problems. In this chin's case, she said he had an upper respiratory problem and she gave him some meds for him to take twice a day for 10 days, and she also said to keep his little penis lubricated with vasoline.

So hopefully our little guy will pull through with high spirits from where he came from originally.

 

[QTKirls]

Thanks for filling us in I haven't posted on this thread but I have been following (I feel like I'm a thread stalker) lol