is it fungus? or fur biting ? how do I help her?

[MSLADYA]

First let me say I am not one of those people who have chinchillas and make excused about not having enough money to take my chin to a vet. In fact I think by now the people that work at the vet clinic i use probably were thinking I went off the deep end, I will explain that later. My Izzy came out for playtime as she does every night. And most early mornings. I noticed a spot on her where the hair was really messed up.

I grabbed her up to take a closer look and it looks like the patch of fur is really short. I first thought fungus , Disinfecting the cage changed everything same with play area. I was looking online to find out the name of the powder you can buy and put in the dust bath. That's when I read fungus usually starts by the nose,

I inspected the rest of her and find no signs of fungus. The thing that has me worried is I had her out that morning and this patch was not there. So if she is fur biting why all the sudden and within 7 to 8 hours she went from have a perfectly normal healthy coat to a big patch of uneven fur.

What can I do to help her. I have had her since July and this is the first time ever. There have been no dramatic sudden changes in her food or anything except I rearranged the shelves in her cage due to the way my brother put them in.. They were just put where ever he chose for that shelf. So I took them and made a stair pattern, and hung a hammock. Why is she doing this? Do I need to rush her to the vet. The nearest all night vet is a hour but I will drive 10 if I have to. She is eating playing pooing as normal. Please help I do not know what to do..

 

[ticklechin]

Looks like fur chewing to me, nothing you can do about it other than try to keep the chin entertained but even then sometimes they chew, they stop, they chew. You wont know what sets them off, sometimes its obvious stress but sometimes its like a tree fell in the woods in the next state over. Its easy to stress out about these kids we have!

 

[javachin]

I'm going to go with chewing as well, and there's nothing a vet can do to help it. Like Dawn said, they'll start for some reason, stop, and maybe not do it again. It could have been from rearranging the cage, but its really hard to tell. Just try to keep everything stable environment-wise for now. If you want to try to give her something, Fuzzies Kingdom sells an anti-stress supplement that has helped some fur chewers in the past.

 

[AZChins]

Your chin is definitely fur chewing. It could be a one time thing, and it probably has more to do with diet and possibly environment than anything else. What brand of pellets are you feeding her?

I have had multiple chins come in recently that were fed Grreat Choice brand that were either chewing or had very sparse fur - worse than chins I have seen in the past with chins being fed other petstore brands of chin pellets.

 

[Dreamlite]

fur chewing is a bad habit. Just like with people it comes and goes. She may be stressed by something. Moving cage, rearanging toys, change in food or temp... there are so many small things that can trigger it. It wont harm her though.

 

[Riven]

Often stress, but can also be caused by diet issues. I got a female from a breeder for the lines (she was a RWC female) who chewed her belly. This isn't a normal place to chew and she said she'd had some feed issues when I asked her. I brought her here and with the new diet the chewing stopped. So it's not a "death sentence" and can be stopped if you can find the cause!

 

[MSLADYA]

Thank you for all of your replies, I feed her oxbow pellets and katee hay, But after reading your replies I remembered when I recently took my other girl to the vet because she is a little faker, (which is why in my first post I said I think the people at the clinic think I am crazy) zorra jumped up on the table that was pushed close enough to the cage to where when she started screaming a blood curtling scream.

ran to me and laid down on her side got up and held her paw up and laid down again, I snatched her up ran straight to the vet thinking Izzy had some how bit her foot or something, Probably stupid on my part not to check for blood or anything but I took her there and she literally hopped out of her carrier playing jumping around, So vet scooped her up there was not even a mark on her foot not even a scratch. she did not wince when it was touched, as soon as attention was not on her we looked over and she was holding her paw up again,


when playtime is up she gets in her cage and lays down on her chinchiller and Starts acting as if she is having a heat stroke, I actually have video of her raising her head to see if I am going to come running cause the first 5 or 6 times I did . But the vet had gave me some pureez timothy hay and I gave some to the girls and Now I think maybe that had something to do with it. Or they have started construction on the street outside and I always have the window open cause the girls are not close to it. But I noticed it gets really loud even when Im not in the same room, SO I shut the window and she has not seem to be chewing , Could that be why?

 

[MSLADYA]

I forgot to say I do not think the hay was old it was actually very green very fresh. But I think I am going to leave things the way they are. Unless I find a reason the oxbow and kaytee are not good for them. I just want them to be happy and have the best.

 

[Newt]

My Rosey chews stripes on her flanks every now and then. She started when she was 4 years old, when my old chin Poppy got sick.
Rosey still chews every now and then, though not as frequently as she used to. I think sometimes they start due to boredom, or stress, or an illness, and even when all the triggers are removed, they will occasionally go back to it.... just like a bad habit.

You can enrich her environment with more toys etc, and give her more attention, but she might not stop the chewing. But as long as she's not breaking her skin, she should be fine.

 

[ticklechin]

There have been studies that it is genetic and a actual physical problem, there are respected owners/ranchers/ that say its environmental, I don't think we know 100% what causes it and we do not know what can stop if.

 

[javachin]

I wouldn't use any Kaytee products, especially hay. Try to get the Oxbow brand hay if you're getting it from a pet store.