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1

Q & A / Re: Questions on chinchilla hair loss, pregnancy and blindness.

« on: July 10, 2013, 12:51:55 AM »

Also worried if her hair loss problem could be contagious but I would like to avoid separating the two. Sid doesn't do well if he's away from her for too long.

2

Q & A / Re: Questions on chinchilla hair loss, pregnancy and blindness.

« on: July 10, 2013, 12:43:52 AM »

Thank you for your help! I'm fairly certain that the male has been blind since I took him. I contacted the last owner after the first couple weeks when I realized he would be missing the cage everytime he tried to jump back in and ran into everything. She said she knows he wasn't but she also told me a great many false things about chinchilla care and the chins themselves. I did a test with the flashlight and his eyes were extremely hazy. If i avoided his whiskers, he never knew my finger was there until I would accidentally touch it. His eyes have always been fairly gunky at least in the two years that I've had them. I've checked the food and just got them a brand new water bottle and food bowl. I change their bedding about every 6-8 days since I have a very very small bedroom. It might be that he's losing hair around his eyes or that it's just very very matted down from his eye problems. I just want to make sure that it won't potentially hurt him or make him lose tons more hair. He already has enough problems being blind and slightly overweight I don't want to add to it.

As for the girl, she won't let me weigh her. She's always very fast, jumpy and mean and I can't usually keep her in one place for more than a second. She doesn't get along with me very well and never really has. She barely let me get close to her to examine her missing hair and she if her belly was big. Is there another way I might check? I know the male isn't neutered but I'm not sure about the female. There were two owners before me and I never knew the first ones I'm not sure if she was neutered or if she has bred before. I've also read a lot of things about hair loss from fungus and I'm not sure if there's a way to check at home for that especially if you have a somewhat unfriendly chinchilla. I've never seen the two fight and I know that the male is super docile and calm and I've never seen him show any sort of aggressive behavior at anyone. So I'm thinking it's either self inflicted or because of a fungus. I'm hoping that I can keep the hair loss problems from spreading.

3

Q & A / Questions on chinchilla hair loss, pregnancy and blindness.

« on: July 09, 2013, 07:53:25 PM »

So I have two nearly five year old chinchillas. One female and one male. I've had them almost two years now, so long enough that I should know the answers to my own questions, yet here I am. First off I should say that their last owner did not take even decent care of them and I'm worried that some of their current health problems may be because of her treatment. We believe that the male, Sid, is blind. We've done various tests on him ourselves (to save money) and all signs point to blindness. Recently, as in the last couple weeks, I've noticed he is losing very small bits of hair around his eyes and I'm worried that might be because of the goop forming around. I've tried to carefully wipe it away but he keeps thinking I have a snack in my hand and will just nibble on me instead of letting me help him. So I'm not positive if the small bits of hair loss is from his eye goop? Secondly, the female, Cas, is losing large tufts of hair along her right side. This wasn't happening a week ago. She's typically pretty abrasive and it's hard to get a good look at what exactly is going on. I read things about females chewing their hair from stress especially during a pregnancy. I felt her belly and it was harder than it usually feels but I'm not positive if she is pregnant. I'm also not sure if chins can get pregnant at as old as 5. The two chins have been together since they were one year old and to my knowledge have never had babies. It seems unlikely to me that she would suddenly get pregnant after 4 years. I'm really not sure what to do. I'm trying to avoid the vet as long as I can. I can barely afford to send myself to the doctor and i have insurance. Of course, if need be I will take them in, just holding it off as long as possible. So what should i do?