Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[archinchilla]

I just got a new chin and have had him about 3 weeks. Last week he started losing the hair around his eyes and mouth. I took him to my vet, however my vet doesn't know much about chins. It looks to be fungal to us so we started him on antifungals. After I went to the vet my fiancee told me that he had switched out his dust from what i had started him on to the dust that we used with our old chin. this dust has a vanilla sent. Has anyone had problems with allergies in their chins? or do you think this could just be a fungal infection?

[lilchinchilla]

Sounds fungus-y to me. A pic would be great to clarify the situation though... I would suggest using bluekote on the areas or blue lotion(not sure if you can get where you are, but there is a similar product called blue lotion too in Canada.).
Tinactin powder in the dust bath works fine too. I would probably skip out on the fancy smelly dust. I personally haven't used it, but blue cloud or blue sparkle are the favorite dust baths to use by most.

[archinchilla]

ok thanks for the tips on dust. I tried to take a picture of it for you but he doesnt seem to like the camera yet, so thats a no go.

[Jo Ann]

    Please, a chinchilla's lungs are very small and very sensitive ... never use a bedding or a dust bath that contains added fragrances, scents or odor controllers ... these can, and usually will, cause a chin to get an inflammation of the lungs or chemical pneumonia.  This stuff can kill a chinchilla.

Blue cloud is the best dust bath I have ever used and I do recommend it.   

I've never tried blue sparkle, but have heard some good things about it. 

Chinchillas have allergies, like many humans.  Allergies to the different scents used in cologne, perfumes, room deodorizers, sented sprays/aerosols and cleaners are among the most common that can cause a chinchilla problems, and in some cases kill them.

What happened to your other chinchilla?  Do you know why it died?

I would dispose of all the stuff that belonged to the first chinchilla that can not be sanitized for the new chin to use.   Just my opinion.

    Jo Ann

[archinchilla]

thanks for the information.

My old chin we believe had a thyroid problem. I was going to breed her with a male that a friend of mine has but once we suspected the thyroid problem we didn't.

I did get rid of the current dust with the scent. I did dispose of all the old chins things just to be safe, you never can be to safe. The new chin has all new things and a new cage until he gets big enough for the other cage.

[Jo Ann]

    Very good!  I would make sure I sterilized the big cage before putting the new chin in it.   Clean it, thoroughly rinse it and allow it to air-dry for at least 24 hours before using it for your new little one.  Even if you cleaned it before ... who knows what might have gotten in it or crawled over it while in storage.  We, as far as I know, do not have mice, but I still treat everything as if we do ... cleaning it before each use.

What made you think it had a thyroid problem?  Is that what the vet said or did you have an autopsy done?  Thyroid problems in a chinchilla is something new to me.


   Jo Ann

[archinchilla]

my chin was bad about fur chewing. I had asked the breeder if the mother was did this as well, since it is usually passed from mother to offspring, and she wasn't. she (my chin) was never sick, not malnourished, not in a warm or drafty place, it wasn't to humid, so then we started putting extra toys in her cage to see if it was boredom and it wasn't. She was never nervous around anyone and loved to be played with so we couldn't figure out what could possibly be wrong. I was reading one of my books and found that if none of these seemed to be the problem then it could be increased thyroid activity.  I did everything i could think of including changing what was used in the bedroom, which is where she stayed. So after a long time of changing the environment and making sure it wasn't something else we decided the thyroid was really all that was left.