What are your thoughts about quarentine?

[AZChins]

Just curious and looking for opinions- So would you say overall it's better to put a chin thru two series of stressful events rather than one? Introducing them to your home and that new environment, and then after they have settled down, introducing them to yet another environment? Just curious.

I'm not sure that I understand what you are saying. I take in rescues and then I have to find them homes because if I didn't, I would end up with hundreds of chins and seriously not be able to take care of them. I give them a quarantine here, it's not stressful because I don't put them through stress - I give them a calm place to be for a month and then I generally can move their cages over to the other chin rooms. Upon going to a new home I INSIST that the chins are not stressed out by being placed with a cagemate immediately to avoid them from getting stressed.

Honestly, I don't understand what you mean, what are you talking about? They aren't being stressed twice here... ?????

Interesting - is it routine in the US to have houses with air heating and/or built-in air conditioning?

Around here it is the norm to have central air conditioning. That means that one unit supplies the house with air conditioning and the air is allowed to circulate throughout a house. I have central A/C here, but also window units for the rescues in any quarantine areas. Closing off the vents and maybe closing the doors doesn't allow for the air to circulate nearly as much. And, if run the vent fan (I do this as much as I can), the air from the quarantine area is pulled outside and never gets into the other rooms at all.

 

[Claire D]

I agree with most everything that has been said, ideally quarantine is logical. Just not always practical or obtainable given the environment.


North = Heating 8 months, no a/c or air circulation in the summer.
Midwest = heating & a/c runs half and half.
South = a/c runs 8-10 months, people often do not have heat = no circulation in the winter.

It is common in the north and south to only heat or a/c the main room via fireplace or window unit.

Central systems only circulate when they're on, so it's an interesting point.

Yes, that is interesting - in the UK we don't generally have either built in air-con or heating ducts but our "central heating" is more radiator based. I suppose the up side is that the lack of central venting and air flow reduces one potential risk and makes it easier to "quarantine".

 

[Claire D]

Around here it is the norm to have central air conditioning. That means that one unit supplies the house with air conditioning and the air is allowed to circulate throughout a house. I have central A/C here, but also window units for the rescues in any quarantine areas. Closing off the vents and maybe closing the doors doesn't allow for the air to circulate nearly as much. And, if run the vent fan (I do this as much as I can), the air from the quarantine area is pulled outside and never gets into the other rooms at all.

Now that sounds pretty good - we can do similar here (since air is not centrally circulated) using extractor fans and it does mean that the risks of cross contamination from airborne infections is reduced.

 

[sinfulcindylou]

Susan, that wasn't really directed at you, just a question in general. I don't question what you, or most other rescues do as I did most of the same things when I rescued and I followed your guys examples for the most part.
Scenario:Say you get a rescue, it sits in a room by itself in 'quarantine' and you allow it to adjust to its new environment, then once the chin has adjusted you then put it in another new environment (in your chin room/area) causing another round of stress on the animal.... and then you end up rehoming that animal so it has a 3rd round of having to adjust to a new environment. . .
I have no real opinion on this either way, it was just a question that popped into my head. If for some people the point of quarantining an animal is to allow it to adjust to its new surroundings it just doesnt seem like if thats the only reason they are doing it, that it would be worth it really for the animal...

 

[tunes]

Just curious and looking for opinions- So would you say overall it's better to put a chin thru two series of stressful events rather than one? Introducing them to your home and that new environment, and then after they have settled down, introducing them to yet another environment? Just curious.

I don't think that's what Susan means at all. I think once a chin gets used to the sights, sounds, smells, etc. of a house, you can move them from room to room without any problems. That doesn't create a stressful environment. What could is bringing a previously lone chin and shoving it in a room with 300 chinchillas barking and banging around their cages, and expecting the chin to get used to the routine of Susan's home on top of all the other new things. It makes perfect sense to me how she has it set up.

I quarantine. Obviously I cannot quarantine in a protective bubble and I don't put on a hazmat suit before entering a chin room, then changing it to go into another. I realize there are going to be some air flow issues, but I still feel better knowing they are not butt to nose with my existing herd before they have had some time apart. Gary Neubauer came and did a live chat on CnQ back in the day. He said no animals come into his barn until they have observed a 30 day quarantine. I'm going to guess if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me.

Now, I will say that there are people I do not quarantine from. A lot of my animals have come from Becky, several from the JAGS, some from Ryersons, many from Butlers, etc. I've been to their barns, I've gotten multiple animals from them with no problem, and I just integrate them right into the herd. If, however, I am buying from an unknown person and have never purchased animals from them before, they absolutely go into quarantine for 30 days. Even if it is in the same house, there are some things that can be avoided simply by placing them in a separate room and being meticulous about hand washing and not transferring items from room to room.

 

[Claire D]

And yes I agree that not every person, especially new owners, is going to know what to look for. However, if we are talking about quarantine, then a new owner would only be quarantining if they were introducing another animal, which means they would already have one, and hopefully they would be responsible and would have done reasearch and they would know what to look for when they do bring home a new animal. I do see a lot of new owners that come and ask questions because they can't figure out what is wrong w/ their chin, but I think in most cases they usually are asking about a single chin, not the new chin they introduced. (or they are asking on how to actually introduce the new chin). Again tho, I will stress there is tons of room for human error and having run a rescue I know that peopler are NOT responsible most of the time and DONT do the research required (IMO) to own a pet, or even better there are the people that do the research, know the hazards, and still do things their own way. Which in the end is what we're all talking about here. We all know the risks involved if we don't quarantine, but everyone is going to do things the way they think is best

No, not everyone knows the risks associated with lack of quarantine - because quarantine is often portrayed as a waste of time and irrelevant.
There are loads of questions on the forum about quarantine.

Scenario:Say you get a rescue, it sits in a room by itself in 'quarantine' and you allow it to adjust to its new environment, then once the chin has adjusted you then put it in another new environment (in your chin room/area) causing another round of stress on the animal.... and then you end up rehoming that animal so it has a 3rd round of having to adjust to a new environment. . .
I have no real opinion on this either way, it was just a question that popped into my head. If for some people the point of quarantining an animal is to allow it to adjust to its new surroundings it just doesnt seem like if thats the only reason they are doing it, that it would be worth it really for the animal...

:hmm: Quarantine has several purposes but the most important (and most hotly debated, it seems) is health related. I am not sure anyone who has posted thinks the primary goal of quarantine is for adjusting.

 

[AZChins]

I think that anyone bringing a new chin in when they already has chins NEEDS to quarantine. Chins can have diseases with an incubation period of a couple weeks, and that's if you catch the symptoms right off. What about chins that are ill and don't really get sick until three weeks later?

It's mandatory here. I will not bring a chin right into one of the chin rooms without quarantine...even if people think a month or five weeks is ridiculously long. I've known people that have gotten their entire herd sick from bringing in seemingly healthy chins. I don't want that to happen here.

With that being said, there is no need for a protective bubble. Most illnesses are transmitted over short distances. If you have a chin in another room for quarantine, it's probably just fine. But hey, anyone wants to do a protective bubble and I won't complain...go for it! It's better to be safe rather than sorry!