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[ChinchillaChris]

Hi everyone! I know I've been posting a lot, but please bear with me, this is important. The fur around my chinchilla's right eye is always wet and matted down. It's not a big area, only about a quarter inch around the eye. Now here's the part that's confusing me, the area around the eye has looked like that for as long as I've had him ( I've owned him for a year, and he is around 15 months old). So, here's my question, what does he have? Could it be an eye infection or injury that still hasn't healed itself after a year, could it be malo (even though he is still growing which means he's eating, plus, at the rate chinchilla teeth grow, wouldn't he have already died if he's had it for close to a year), or could it possibly be his hair around his eyeball is somehow irritating his eye and causing it to become wet? Please let me know if you guys have any answers! I'd really like to take him to a vet, but we're tight on money now. Thank you!

[GrayRodent]

It could be an obstructed or defective tear duct that may or may not be treatable. Or it could be something anatomically wrong, like you said, with the hair and eyelid that can be surgically corrected. It may be an eye infection that needs antibiotics to heal which can happen as well. If it were advanced malo I would expect you'd be seeing other symptoms especially by now but if it is you can expect the chinchilla to be very underweight even if it is still eating. If you bought your chinchilla from a breeder you might want to talk to them about it.

[Lori Ramsey Earle]

One other possibility is that the dust in your chin's dust bath irritates his eyes. If he gets a dust bath every day, try cutting it down to twice a week. And clean his eyes after each bath(nothing fancy, a clean, moist washcloth does the trick). Then clean the eye area again a few hours later, as he'll still be shaking out the dust, and it can coat the eye area all over again. I had one chin that I had to do this with or else her eyes were always irritated(wet, almost a bit pinkish). If his problem was an eye infection or malocclusion, his symptoms would be much more serious by now, and it would be obvious that you needed to go to the vet.

[Morrigancharm]

What type of dust bath are you using? I have heard that some dusts are thicker than others and can cause the eye infections because they have more grit than dust. I personally use the Blue Cloud dust, I like it because it is so fine and non-grainy.

[Snickerdoodlesmom]

I heard that some baths contain tiny shards of glass which can irritate the eyes. The chinchilla will appear sparkly after the bath. Not sure how legit this is, though.

[Morrigancharm]

I think the Blue Sparkle dust contains mica which is why the chinchillas get the "Twilight glitter" look after they use it. The Blue Cloud seems to be more dusty. I avoid the Sparkle, but that is because I do have a chin that gets the watery eye if he gets something in it really bad. I also keep a bottle of Saline solution on hand if it ever gets too bad. I just put a drop or two in it and it clears right up!