EMSChins
Hendryx Chinchillas
Okay - so I start my day with a frantic e-mail from someone I sold a male to over a year ago telling me that they had a terrible weekend! Apparently they bred my male to a female that they already had and that I was unaware of when I sold my male. She had 2 kits last Thursday. They found one kit dead in a "pool of blood" Friday morning. This morning they found the mother dead and wanted to know if I would take the father back as well as the orphaned kit. REALLY??? What do you think might happen if you decide to breed? Didn't turn out the way you thought so now you get rid of the stud and the baby that you have to feed around the clock???
Of course I have a responsibility to the father of the kit as I sold him to them in the first place and of course now I feel responsible for the poor baby as well.
So I call them and I can't get any kind of useful medical information or history from them. The baby "was fine, no there wasn't any injury, yes, it was eating fine, no they don't know where the blood was coming from, yes they checked it over thoroughly for injury, no the dad wasn't in the cage with the mom and babies, yes they were sure there was no injury to the nose or mouth, yes it was bleeding from the mouth. Same for the mom, yes she was eating (we think) , yes she was pooping (we think), yes she was drinking (we think)"...you get the picture.
She says the vet tells them to feed the baby kitten food, I tell her to get it here as soon as possible as I am already feeding triplets and have everything on hand to feed it. As she doesn't know at what point in the night the mother died this baby may have been without food for up to 12 hours by now and I tell her that it needs to be fed asap. She say she will be right over.
FOUR hours later she shows up with dad and baby and supplies:huge cage with extra large spacing (no way baby can stay in that with dad), crap food(Kaytee Fiesta Max), bag of Buckeye's favorite treats (sunflower seeds), one of those huge snack logs and my favorite - a Death Ball! All of the time I spent trying to educate them when they bought Buckeye just went in one ear and out the other. She said that they switched his feed to Fiesta because that is what her other chin was on and Buckeye seemed to like it better - duh!!! Who doesn't like junk food! I wonder why the other chin died? On top of that I find out today that she had another male before Buckeye that she bought with this female that died 2 weeks after getting him.
To give her credit, she did stop at the store and pick up a quart of goats milk as I told her that is what I will be feeding the baby.
Sorry - I am venting - too little sleep!
Anyway, here are pictures of poor daddy Buckeye and his little boy (oh, she told me it was a girl), he's been kicked out of his mansion and is now in a small baby proof cage, I figure since I have to get up every two hours around the clock the least he can do is hang out with the little guy and keep him warm for me. Since they'll be in quarantine can't put him with the others that I am handfeeding. Poor Buck has a new roomate, different food and most of his playthings won't fit in his temporary digs. I think I feel more sorry for him than the baby who lost his mommy.
Question for those of you with more experience. The woman did have a pedigree on the mom, and it only indicates that she was an ebony, the woman kept referring to her as a black velvet. The baby is definitely an ebony but I think I see BV in him too. I never saw the dam so don't know for sure what the mom was. Do those of you with experience see BV in these pics - I know he is still young and the pics aren't great. If so, I wonder why the dam wasn't listed as an Ebony TOV on her pedigree - kind of important to know for breeding purposes don't you think?
Of course I have a responsibility to the father of the kit as I sold him to them in the first place and of course now I feel responsible for the poor baby as well.
So I call them and I can't get any kind of useful medical information or history from them. The baby "was fine, no there wasn't any injury, yes, it was eating fine, no they don't know where the blood was coming from, yes they checked it over thoroughly for injury, no the dad wasn't in the cage with the mom and babies, yes they were sure there was no injury to the nose or mouth, yes it was bleeding from the mouth. Same for the mom, yes she was eating (we think) , yes she was pooping (we think), yes she was drinking (we think)"...you get the picture.
She says the vet tells them to feed the baby kitten food, I tell her to get it here as soon as possible as I am already feeding triplets and have everything on hand to feed it. As she doesn't know at what point in the night the mother died this baby may have been without food for up to 12 hours by now and I tell her that it needs to be fed asap. She say she will be right over.
FOUR hours later she shows up with dad and baby and supplies:huge cage with extra large spacing (no way baby can stay in that with dad), crap food(Kaytee Fiesta Max), bag of Buckeye's favorite treats (sunflower seeds), one of those huge snack logs and my favorite - a Death Ball! All of the time I spent trying to educate them when they bought Buckeye just went in one ear and out the other. She said that they switched his feed to Fiesta because that is what her other chin was on and Buckeye seemed to like it better - duh!!! Who doesn't like junk food! I wonder why the other chin died? On top of that I find out today that she had another male before Buckeye that she bought with this female that died 2 weeks after getting him.
To give her credit, she did stop at the store and pick up a quart of goats milk as I told her that is what I will be feeding the baby.
Sorry - I am venting - too little sleep!
Anyway, here are pictures of poor daddy Buckeye and his little boy (oh, she told me it was a girl), he's been kicked out of his mansion and is now in a small baby proof cage, I figure since I have to get up every two hours around the clock the least he can do is hang out with the little guy and keep him warm for me. Since they'll be in quarantine can't put him with the others that I am handfeeding. Poor Buck has a new roomate, different food and most of his playthings won't fit in his temporary digs. I think I feel more sorry for him than the baby who lost his mommy.
Question for those of you with more experience. The woman did have a pedigree on the mom, and it only indicates that she was an ebony, the woman kept referring to her as a black velvet. The baby is definitely an ebony but I think I see BV in him too. I never saw the dam so don't know for sure what the mom was. Do those of you with experience see BV in these pics - I know he is still young and the pics aren't great. If so, I wonder why the dam wasn't listed as an Ebony TOV on her pedigree - kind of important to know for breeding purposes don't you think?
