Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => Q & A => Topic started by: pachin on October 17, 2007, 02:17:18 PM
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I just got an 8 month old chin that is obviously male.
All the pics I see on gender show that it is difficult to tell gender but not on him.
This is a really stupid question but his penis seems to be out part of the way all the time
Is this normal. He is very active
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Hi there,
:::grins:: NO QUESTION IS EVER STUPID!!! That's a good question too. I have never had a male with that particular condition myself. It does not sound normal though at all. The penis should go back down into the skin that completely covers it. Normally I will only see a chin penis out when a male is grooming himself in that particular area.
If it were my chin it would be making a trip to the vet to have things checked out. Perhaps there is a problem and his penis cannot get back down into the skin? Or he may have a hair ring going on. If so it needs to be very carefully taken off by a qualified vet. I would really worry that his penis may get injured or infected if left out.
This is direct but may I ask what color it is in that particular part of his anatomy? Is it a nice pink, hopefully not purple or dark?
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I totally agree with Joyce! To me it sounds like there might be a hair ring. The only time I had one of my males have an extended penis; he had a hair ring. Just the tip of his penis was out. Once I removed the hair ring and gently rubbed his penis with triple antibiotic to lubricate, it slipped back into the sheath. Is your chinchillas penis out a good bit or just the tip? If you do not know how to check for a hair ring, a vet visit would be wise. There might be something else going on.
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This does not seems to be an issue any more. Maybe it had to do with a new
home or he was nervous. And to answer the color question - a light pink.
I will keep an eye out for problems. :::grins::
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Yes do clean it, and lubricate it.
I have seen one sick male that wasn't cleaning and his got dry and stay out for weeks.It looked like he was trying to clean it and couldn't so it didn't go back and got very dry, so it couldn't.
After a couple of days of cleaning it myself and lubricating it went back fine.
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::silly:: That was definitely NOT a stupid question, but a very important one!
Males usually clean themselves regularly.
Normally, if one is left out of the sheath, it is due to a hair ring, but could also be from an injury.
Both can kill if not taken care of properly ... by the chin, by you and/or a qualified vet.
The part of the penis that stays inside the sheath has to stay moist or it can become easily infected.
If the circulation is cut off, by a hair ring, it will become swollen, become pink/red, then turn blue or black and become badly infected.
Now, with the injury part, sometimes it can result in pronies, which is a big problem. There is loss of control of the urine and they dribble constantly. It takes lots of care and attention for the rest of it's life when this occurs. Urine will stain the fur, irritate the skin, set up infections. The penis itself has to be kept lubricated constantly.
I had one this happened to and it was very painful for him. It happened during mating. We finally had to let him go to sleep to keep him from suffering so much.
::wave:: Jo Ann