Rescuing/Breeding and Quarantine

[Lillybabe]

I have been wondering about this for a long while and have yet to hear a standard answer. How do people who rescue and breed/have their own pets handle quarantine time? When you take in a new rescue wouldn't it need to be in a different room from any other chins you have for at least 30 days? I just see this as a potential nightmare for people who rescue. I know at vets I have been to they don't really keep animals apart. There are walls of cages where they stick pets in whether they are ill, being neutered, there for shots, or even being boarded over the weekend for some reason.

So how do people who rescue chins keep up with the 30 day guideline? I can see getting a chinchilla in say on April 9th and it being in another room for 30 days.... but then if you say got another chin in on April 18th you'd need to put it in yet another room. Then if you got a third chin in on April 25th, you'd need a third room as none of the three chins would be yet able to join your herd or to join each other. Wouldn't you need tons of rooms to accomodate this? I can't see rescues turning away people who are planning to get rid of their animals but how do they cope? It just seems like it would be a mess to keep them all apart and not risk something like ring worm going through all the chins you have.

 

[beemarie]

I'm sorry i don't have the answer but i think that is a good question.
and now I'm wondering the same thing.
I would like to know the answer to this too.

 

[AZChins]

I have a special room for rescues and they stay in there for at least a month, sometimes a lot longer. If I end up getting rescues at different times, I will put the rescues in a human area for quarantine. If a chin is showing actual signs of illness, I won't even put it in my rescue room. If I have healthy looking rescues that come in at about the same time, I will put them in the rescue room together on opposite sides of the room.

Rescue chins absolutely must be quarantined away from my other animals...I make sure that they do not share the same air space and never come into contact with each other's droppings.

You can take quarantine a little too far and make yourself crazy...but if you have two to three areas to put rescues even if you have lots of rescues coming it, it works out pretty well.

Besides that, hand washing after touching rescues and then making sure to keep the floors and areas very clean around rescue cages is extremely important.

 

[tcraighenry]

I took the advice of the people here and planned on waiting a month. But our vet said 45 days! So we're rolling with that now. It's kind of sad though, poor baby

 

[InkedupTara]

45 days is excessive. 30 should be plenty to see any contractable illness....

 

[AZChins]

It's a little longer to go for 45 days, but it isn't horrible to wait that long! There are some things that could hang on for up to maybe six months, like strep infections that are abscessed under the skin...those could potentially be contagious. It's always a good idea to be thorough and cautious, check over rescues very well. Listen to their lungs, check for bumps or lumps under the fur, etc.

I'm actually very impressed that a vet would give you a suggestion for such a long quarantine. Most of them probably wouldn't even think to tell you to quarantine at all.

 

[tcraighenry]

Our vet is really good with them and so helpful. I'm glad we did our research!

Even our emergency vet has a tech that has a chinchilla and a vet with pets.

 

[tcraighenry]

Oh and he copied pages out of one of his medical books on behavior during introductions.

 

[Tagna]

I use multiple rooms. I used to just have my chin room and my bedroom used for Q. Since more chins come in I use my living room too and foster homes.

 

[Claire D]

45 days is excessive. 30 should be plenty to see any contractable illness....

I disagree. It can take longer to track slow weight loss which may be the result of illness like giardia etc.

Quarantine is not just about illness anyway but it still seems to be something people are keen to rush.

All new chins here are quarantined for a minimum 6-8 weeks. Some may disagree but that's my policy.