sdellin
Member
I'm not sure where to post this, so here it is. Please move to appropriate forum as necessary.
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This is Choochi. I have had him for about 6 years. I got him before I moved to the country, from a friend who had adopted him from the SPCA. I bought Choochi a really nice larger cage, which I will post pics of later. Eventually I took Choochi to the chinchilla rescue and he picked out a buddy for himself. The new chin we named Moki. Choochi and Moki were happy together for about 5 years. They were best buds, sleeping cuddled up and playing together.
A week ago I noticed Moki had a "wet chin." I was able to get him in to the vet at UC Davis today. Apparently Moki was very sick. I didn't even know he was sick. Of course I'm going to blame myself for not seeing it sooner, I know that's not a good thing to do at this point, but we all will do that. Our job is to care for them and know when they need the vet. Anyway, Moki would always take and eat treats, right up until today, and he would attack the food dish whenever I refilled it. I saw him drinking water and he seemed healthy. I don't hold my chins much because they don't care to be held. They have each other for affection and even though they are tame enough to handle, they prefer to not be held. I will be holding Choochi every day now because if I had done that with Moki I would have felt that he was skinny. I didn't see it with all his fur. He was eating fine, so I didn't have any idea he was sick.
The vet told me that Moki had dental problems. I had looked online prior to taking him in and thought he just needed his teeth clipped or filed down. Well, it was way beyond that point. He had points on all his back teeth, his teeth are white, not yellow as they should be, and he had an infection in his mouth. These things I did not know about and my vet told me there isn't a whole lot known about chinchillas at this point. So I'm here to learn everything I can about them.
Our vet felt that Moki was in such bad shape that she may not be able to treat him even if we could afford it, $600 just to diagnose him and then up to another $600 for dental work. She felt that even if we got a good diagnosis he probably had infection in the bones in the mouth and that would make treating him unrealistic. In order to even get him healthy enough to go through the steps of diagnosing, which would require anesthesia, he would have to be hospitalized for at least three days to gain weight so he could handle the treatment. After all of this, I was told he would need regular dental work somewhere between every 2 and 4 months costing another $600.
Well, as you can probably guess, we chose to let Moki go, knowing his chances were not that good even if we could spend $2400 a year on his teeth. I'm very sad, but I believe we made the right choice for Moki, considering he was in pain. I only wish I would have known much sooner. My vet told me that if he hadn't started drooling I may never have known until he got weak enough to stop eating.
Talk about feeling like a failure! However, I'm not here so that you all can tell me that it's okay, that I shouldn't feel like that and that it wasn't my fault. How I feel about this isn't going to change no matter what anyone says. I'm human, I accepted responsibility for these guys and Moki became very ill in my care. What I am here for is this: I must now learn all that I can about chinchillas and make sure Choochi gets the best care I can give him. I thought I knew what they needed and was providing it, but maybe I have more to learn.
I feed choochi a pre-packaged chinchilla feed (I think it's KayTee, but I have used others). The one I feed is mostly hay pellets, with other pellets mixed in made from veggies and there are some seeds and fruit pieces in the mix as well. I have rye hay for my horse, so I give that to Choochi as well. He gets plenty of water (2 bottles in case one fails) and he gets branches from the willow and fruitless mulberry trees. When there are leaves (not winter) the chins also get willow tree leaves and fruitless mulberry leaves. I sometimes buy them lava blocks and other things that are made for chinchillas at the pet store.
I am open to any advice on feeding/housing, etc. I will post a pic of his cage later on when my phone battery isn't dead. I do not provide UVB lighting because chins are noctural, but that came up at the vets office today. Maybe they need UVB light??? I have it for my iguana and my parrot, so if need be I can provide one for the chin as well. I am going to look on this site for a care sheet, maybe someone can post a link for me.
Thanks in advance for any advice and I look forward to keeping in touch with other chin owners.
This is Choochi. I have had him for about 6 years. I got him before I moved to the country, from a friend who had adopted him from the SPCA. I bought Choochi a really nice larger cage, which I will post pics of later. Eventually I took Choochi to the chinchilla rescue and he picked out a buddy for himself. The new chin we named Moki. Choochi and Moki were happy together for about 5 years. They were best buds, sleeping cuddled up and playing together.
A week ago I noticed Moki had a "wet chin." I was able to get him in to the vet at UC Davis today. Apparently Moki was very sick. I didn't even know he was sick. Of course I'm going to blame myself for not seeing it sooner, I know that's not a good thing to do at this point, but we all will do that. Our job is to care for them and know when they need the vet. Anyway, Moki would always take and eat treats, right up until today, and he would attack the food dish whenever I refilled it. I saw him drinking water and he seemed healthy. I don't hold my chins much because they don't care to be held. They have each other for affection and even though they are tame enough to handle, they prefer to not be held. I will be holding Choochi every day now because if I had done that with Moki I would have felt that he was skinny. I didn't see it with all his fur. He was eating fine, so I didn't have any idea he was sick.
The vet told me that Moki had dental problems. I had looked online prior to taking him in and thought he just needed his teeth clipped or filed down. Well, it was way beyond that point. He had points on all his back teeth, his teeth are white, not yellow as they should be, and he had an infection in his mouth. These things I did not know about and my vet told me there isn't a whole lot known about chinchillas at this point. So I'm here to learn everything I can about them.
Our vet felt that Moki was in such bad shape that she may not be able to treat him even if we could afford it, $600 just to diagnose him and then up to another $600 for dental work. She felt that even if we got a good diagnosis he probably had infection in the bones in the mouth and that would make treating him unrealistic. In order to even get him healthy enough to go through the steps of diagnosing, which would require anesthesia, he would have to be hospitalized for at least three days to gain weight so he could handle the treatment. After all of this, I was told he would need regular dental work somewhere between every 2 and 4 months costing another $600.
Well, as you can probably guess, we chose to let Moki go, knowing his chances were not that good even if we could spend $2400 a year on his teeth. I'm very sad, but I believe we made the right choice for Moki, considering he was in pain. I only wish I would have known much sooner. My vet told me that if he hadn't started drooling I may never have known until he got weak enough to stop eating.
Talk about feeling like a failure! However, I'm not here so that you all can tell me that it's okay, that I shouldn't feel like that and that it wasn't my fault. How I feel about this isn't going to change no matter what anyone says. I'm human, I accepted responsibility for these guys and Moki became very ill in my care. What I am here for is this: I must now learn all that I can about chinchillas and make sure Choochi gets the best care I can give him. I thought I knew what they needed and was providing it, but maybe I have more to learn.
I feed choochi a pre-packaged chinchilla feed (I think it's KayTee, but I have used others). The one I feed is mostly hay pellets, with other pellets mixed in made from veggies and there are some seeds and fruit pieces in the mix as well. I have rye hay for my horse, so I give that to Choochi as well. He gets plenty of water (2 bottles in case one fails) and he gets branches from the willow and fruitless mulberry trees. When there are leaves (not winter) the chins also get willow tree leaves and fruitless mulberry leaves. I sometimes buy them lava blocks and other things that are made for chinchillas at the pet store.
I am open to any advice on feeding/housing, etc. I will post a pic of his cage later on when my phone battery isn't dead. I do not provide UVB lighting because chins are noctural, but that came up at the vets office today. Maybe they need UVB light??? I have it for my iguana and my parrot, so if need be I can provide one for the chin as well. I am going to look on this site for a care sheet, maybe someone can post a link for me.
Thanks in advance for any advice and I look forward to keeping in touch with other chin owners.
I hope Choochi isn't reacting to bad to what has happened.
