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[AnnieHank]

Poor Hank didn't survive the neutering process. He died ten days after the operation. The vet reckons it was septicaemia. I'm completely heartbroken, I just can't believe it. He was our special little guy.
The vet specialises in exotics such as chinchillas and we had a check up where he seemed to be doing relatively okay. He still wasn't eating by himself but we were handfeeding him critical care and the vet herself reckoned he was fine. I know there are always risks with surgery but there was no reason to think that this one was especially risky.

I have to make sure the others have the best possible life now. His mate, Annie, seems okay. She's eating well, she's not acting unusually and she has the kits to keep her company. The kits are two months old now. They are a little girl (Pixie) and a boy (Buddy). The plan was to have Hank and Buddy together and Annie and Pixie together until Buddy was old enough to be neutered and then they could all live together happily ever after. I think I have to separate the little boy in a month so he doesn't get his sister or mother pregnant?

I don't like the idea of having Buddy on his own now, that seems cruel. At the same time, I adore the little guy and really want to keep him. (He is a standard grey that looks exactly like his daddy while the other two are white mosaics.) Would it be okay to keep him in a separate cage beside Annie and Pixie and give him cuddle buddies? Also, does anyone know if there's anywhere I can get cuddle buddies that would ship to Ireland?

[dianah]

oh my god i'm so sorry annie i'm so so sorry i know just how heartbreaking this is, it will be a year in june since i lost chinchi and it's still awful. not as awful as the couple of months immediately after, i can think of him now and what lovely things we'd done together and sometimes one of the kits does something that he did but i'd forgotten and it's great. i do cry still but not as much.

you do have to separate the boy i'm afraid (at 10 weeks if he's a good weight, i separated my lot just short of 12 weeks but we had all sorts of problems with fluffy not being able to feed so they were slow growers). my boys did not find it too traumatic and they actually were together until they were 5 months old when we had to split them in case they fought. they were ok. http://hammockyhammocks.co.uk/ do cage buddies and ship everywhere - if you have a look in their stuffies section. ffynn has the strawberry and he absolutely loves it. i have the hearts as well - for other chins but the strawberry is definitely the favourite, he sits on top of it, he sleeps draped over it. he loves his strawberry. and it's fleece filled so it's quite tough if he decides to chew.

it's good that annie has the kits, i'm pretty sure we would have lost fluffy if she didn't have the kits.

[AnnieHank]

Thanks for your reply Dianah. I can't believe how horrible this has turned out. I stupidly thought that if I kept a close eye and got him to the vet at the first sign of trouble that he would be okay. I now understand exactly what you must have gone through with Chinchi. 

Thanks for the tip about Hammockyhammocks. I've just put an order in for two stars. The Strawberries are out of stock. Hopefully he'll be okay if we give him plenty of attention and the cuddly toys until he's ready to be with the girls again.

[dianah]

it was very hard. especially because at first i thought he was going to die, then he started responding to treatment really well and we thought he'd be ok. he went back in with fluffy and the babies after six weeks, running on the wheel and all - the babies absolutely loved him - and then two weeks later he had to have the surgery to remove the puss capsule and he was supposed to be ok after that. but he had a reaction to the anaesthetic.. i feel so guilty but at the same time i know he would not have survived being separated from fluffy...

i'm sure buddy will be ok. ffynn got very reclusive when we separated him from spock but now he's been neutered and can be with girls again, he doesn't really like them!

when the time comes to neuter buddy, i would strongly recommend you absolutely insist on a full course of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. i am absolutely not saying that this would have helped hank but my vets made this change after we lost chinchi and while both boys had a few problems - ffynn had seroma which could turn into an abscess and spock had a very mild infection - and i do believe them already being on antibiotics gave us a head start. they had their antibiotics increased once these problems developed and they're ok now (i can't say it wasn't stressful!)

[AnnieHank]

You shouldn't feel guilty, it's not your fault at all. You were trying to give them all a very happy life together which I can completely understand. It's just so sad for us both that it turned out the way that it did.

So I'm starting to give Buddy time on his own to see how he gets on and the cuddle buddies should be here in two weeks. I was wondering about also maybe getting him a playmate. I'm on the lookout for an already neutered or spayed chinchilla, I think that could work but I'd imagine it's rare.

Are there any other pets that get on well with chinchillas like maybe hamsters or gerbils?

Buddy weighs 255g and he seems to be eating well so hopefully he'll be okay on his own. I've been watching them and Annie doesn't seem to let Buddy feed anymore anyway but she will let Pixie even though Pixie weighs 275g. Maybe the extra feeding is why Pixie weighs more?

[dianah]

i'm not sure how well the playmate idea would work. you'd need to do introductions and you'd really want to keep them together once introduced, plus he may not want a different mate afterwards. it would need to be a lady chinchilla if it was in an area where buddy & friend could smell or see the ladies and finding a spayed chinchilla is nearly impossible - this is only done for medical reasons as it not a routine surgery. it's sometimes done after c-section or if there's an infection of the uterus. not common.

fluffy used to go see guinea pigs every so often when they were in their old cage - she'd just hop in and say hello, when one of my guinea pigs died, she went to see the other one and groom his ear! that said, i don't know if they would feel the same as chinchilla mates and they would not be able to live together due to different housing/feeding requirements.

girls from the same litter tend to weigh more than boys. my triplets - now 13 months old, pippi, the girl weighs over 700g while both boys are just over 500g. i'm guessing he's eating all 'adult' food. i wouldn't worry.

[AnnieHank]

Okay, so no playmates then, only cuddle buddies.
I have him separated for the evening now in a cage beside the girls and there seems to be a lot of interaction between the cages. So I guess I'll keep the cages fairly close then? I think I'm more bothered by having Buddy in a cage by himself than Buddy will be!