On I believe February 1st, 2007 I got Raisin. He was about 9 months when I got him and had been dropped off at the humane society because his previous owner "didn't have time for him". Who buys a pet that can live 15 years and decides they do not have the time before spending even a year with them? I saw him on the humane society website and just had to give him a good home. The reason I had wanted a chinchilla is a bit of a silly one. A friend of mine said I was just like a chinchilla. "Small, loud and always underfoot" she added to this atleast chinchillas were very cute. She was teasing me but before that comment I had never known what a chinchilla was. That was in 2003 or 2004 when I was in college as an undergrad.
February 13th, 2012 I was called at about 2:45 by the vet to say my Raisin had given up the fight. About six months after I got Raisin I found out he had maloclussion. In addition to malo he also had a heart murmur and frequent GI stasis. The GI stasis I believe happened when his teeth grew spurs and it became too painful for him to eat as much as he needed. When I got Raisin he was small, about 560 grams. At his largest he got to about 690 grams. Through all of his problems he was always sweet. He would let anyone hold him. He would take Critical Care with ease from a syringe or straight off a plate. I fought for him and put as much money as required into vet bills. I even allowed them to extract a tooth which is rarely recommended. That tooth extraction bought me another year and a half with my little guy. The stinker spent overnight with the vet and as soon as I got him home was munching pellets and hay in addition to being handfed. He always just swung back so quickly.
On Thursday February 9th, two days after my birthday, I came home from spending time with a couple of friends to find Raisin laying on the bottom of his cage. He was acting lythargic and even when I went to scoop him up did not move. I took him to the vet even though it was about midnight and spent about four hours there with him. Unfortunately they could not or did not get a exotics specialist there that night. Instead they gave him fluids and meds and sent him home with me. I went back the following day, my exotics vet made time for me, and he was worse off than the day before. He wasn't breathing right and he had hypothermia. He'd gotten severely dehydrated in just the 8 hours or so between vet appointments.
The vet did not have very high hopes but we both knew his teeth being filed was his only choice. He was too weak to have the procedure done on Friday so the vet kept him over the weekend where he was taken care of around the clock. By Monday he was eating some on his own and taking Critical Care feedings but he was still dropping weight. He was just so weak. The vet gave him most of the day and then they went in to do his teeth. We didn't think there was another option. With some pain relief we had hoped he'd swing back the way he had so many times before. He didn't, he died about twenty minutes into the procedure and could not be revived.
I loved my little guy so much and he was such a tough little thing. He had such a strong will to live that I had never had the heart to take it from him. When it came to be time, he made the call. I keep second guessing my decisions but I have a very good vet due to the vet school here. He is probably one of the top vets in the country for exotics. I do not know if he wished to only make me feel better or not but he said that if we had waited on the teeth we would have lost him anyway.
In the following posts I am going to share some pictures of my little guy. Hopefully I have more on a backup CD as I can't find anything after 2008. He was such a sweetie.
Febraury 2007
His Humane Society Pic
February 13th, 2012 I was called at about 2:45 by the vet to say my Raisin had given up the fight. About six months after I got Raisin I found out he had maloclussion. In addition to malo he also had a heart murmur and frequent GI stasis. The GI stasis I believe happened when his teeth grew spurs and it became too painful for him to eat as much as he needed. When I got Raisin he was small, about 560 grams. At his largest he got to about 690 grams. Through all of his problems he was always sweet. He would let anyone hold him. He would take Critical Care with ease from a syringe or straight off a plate. I fought for him and put as much money as required into vet bills. I even allowed them to extract a tooth which is rarely recommended. That tooth extraction bought me another year and a half with my little guy. The stinker spent overnight with the vet and as soon as I got him home was munching pellets and hay in addition to being handfed. He always just swung back so quickly.
On Thursday February 9th, two days after my birthday, I came home from spending time with a couple of friends to find Raisin laying on the bottom of his cage. He was acting lythargic and even when I went to scoop him up did not move. I took him to the vet even though it was about midnight and spent about four hours there with him. Unfortunately they could not or did not get a exotics specialist there that night. Instead they gave him fluids and meds and sent him home with me. I went back the following day, my exotics vet made time for me, and he was worse off than the day before. He wasn't breathing right and he had hypothermia. He'd gotten severely dehydrated in just the 8 hours or so between vet appointments.
The vet did not have very high hopes but we both knew his teeth being filed was his only choice. He was too weak to have the procedure done on Friday so the vet kept him over the weekend where he was taken care of around the clock. By Monday he was eating some on his own and taking Critical Care feedings but he was still dropping weight. He was just so weak. The vet gave him most of the day and then they went in to do his teeth. We didn't think there was another option. With some pain relief we had hoped he'd swing back the way he had so many times before. He didn't, he died about twenty minutes into the procedure and could not be revived.
I loved my little guy so much and he was such a tough little thing. He had such a strong will to live that I had never had the heart to take it from him. When it came to be time, he made the call. I keep second guessing my decisions but I have a very good vet due to the vet school here. He is probably one of the top vets in the country for exotics. I do not know if he wished to only make me feel better or not but he said that if we had waited on the teeth we would have lost him anyway.
In the following posts I am going to share some pictures of my little guy. Hopefully I have more on a backup CD as I can't find anything after 2008. He was such a sweetie.
Febraury 2007
His Humane Society Pic
