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[Tuin]

Hello everybody,

When is was younger i had pet chin's. That was 20 years ago haha.
Yesterday i adopted a chin named Max. Max is a really sweet boy 9 years old. He is living alone for 5 years Tomorrow we are going to the vet to do a general check.

I have planed a date for him somewhere next week. Hopefully they will like eachother.

Max was not proppely taken care for. He had no bath the wrong food wrong cage and i can go on and on.

Because i havent had chin's for a long time i signed up here. Maybe things have changed along the years and i want to give Max and his future friend the best of care.

Greetings from Holland

[GrayRodent]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new pet. I'm glad your chinchilla has found a new home. I hope all goes well for you. I don't want you to feel bad if your pet doesn't live very long. 10 years is about normal life expectancy for most pets.

The fact it has lived 9 years (assuming it's healthy) tells me it wasn't treated too badly. Usually chinchillas that are given an improper diet live less than 5 years and succomb to complications from dental problems. That is going to be your biggest concern and older chinchillas tend not to chew their food properly which can cause issues as well.

Your pet will feel better and be more active now that its getting a regular dust bath. It may take some time for it to re-learn that it needs to roll and toss itself around to get clean but you can kick-start the processes by rubbing the dust into its fur. You should see significant improvement in his fur in a couple of weeks. Limit dusting to every other day no more than 15 minutes per session to avoid skin dryness.

Also remember to change the diet gradually. Mix the new pellets in with the old over the next 10 days to prevent stomach problems. Relocation is very stressful for chinchillas and this can cause digestive upset. You may want to hold off on the mixing for 5 days. Just make sure he has an unlimited supply of loose hay.

If you have any questions about anything please ask.

[Tuin]

Thank you for the information.

Max was living with an older man. He had to move to a nursinghome and couldnt take Max with him.

I am sure that he take good care of Max. Max is verry friendly to al humans. I think that the last weeks or months were really hard for the man to take care of Max. He was really sad to give Max away so i didnt want to ask to manny questions. Affraid to upset the nice old man even more.

Max hase bumblefeet from what i can see without pikking him up. I want him to settle on his own time. He also has some litle bumps on his ears. Cant wait to go to the vet tommorow morning.

When i gave him his bath this morning he was really happy and bathed al long time. I just gave him some willow branches and he emidiatly start chewing on them.

I know he wont be with me for a long long time but i want him to enjoy the time he has left.

Is it good for him to get another chin friend on his age? He has been alone for 5 years. I planned a date for next week. Asuming he is healthy. If he is not we will prospone his date to when he is healthy.
I am affraid it can be really stressfull for him to meet another chin but i am hoping he will be really happy to have a friend.

Tommorow i will post what the vet said about his feet and ears and general health.

[GrayRodent]

The vet can recommend a course of treatment for the feet. I'm going to warn you though that if you are given oral antibiotics your chinchilla can have a terrible reaction to them. If infection is present you may need to give them. If prescribed oral antibiotics such as baytril ask your vet about syringe feeding and obtaining the proper supplies. Some chinchillas will stop eating when they are given antibiotics and syringe feeding is required until the side effects wear off, usually within a few days of the course of treatment. People lose their pets all the time because they are not prepared to manage the digestive upset caused by this.

This is not the case with topical treatments which may be all you need but let your vet determine the correct course of treatment.
Never stop antibiotics until the end of the prescribed course or the infection can become life-threatening.

I would recommend not getting another chinchilla to pair up with him. Chinchillas that are used to living part tend to like it that way and introducing another chinchilla is not always successful. If you decide to get another one make sure you are able to house it separately. Chinchillas can turn on each other and kill each other at any time even after they are successfully bonded. I would not recommend putting a young one with an old one since he may not be able to defend himself at all if there is ever a fight.

[Tuin]

We are back home from the vet. Max was really enthousiastic on the way there.
Max is such a happy little boy. He really enjoyd himself with the vet. Sniffing and hopping around. The vet was surprised that Max was so happy being there.

His feet are not infected. He has some calles(hope the spelling is ok) That would heal on its own.
The bumbs on his ears are mite. So we treated that and i will repeat that in a few weeks.
In the mean time i will steam clean his house and everything.

The vet also recomended not to get him a friend. For the same reasons you mentiond. So Max will stay on his own.
I am fine with that. He is a happy little boy so he will be fine on his own.

Tommorow his new home will arrive. Than i will post some pictures of Max in hin new home.

Thank you so much for the help and advice.

[Flint]

so glad that your little fur ball is ok. 

[GrayRodent]

That's great. Thank you for sharing that. If you have any problems posting pictures (I know this forum software is not the most user friendly) feel free to send them to me (admin@chinchillaclub.com) and I'll be glad to format and post them here for you.

Sounds like he was a very tame chinchilla to start with. I'm sure he'll appreciate a proper cage with some good solid wood shelving. That will help with his foot callouses.

I'm just curious about this but what are they giving for mites? I've heard of chins getting these but it is very unusual.