Is the vet wrong??

[ServantofBlueberry]

I need input. Blueberry was at the vet today, my air conditioner is not working on my car so I took her to a local exotics vet versus the one I would have liked to take her to. They put her on Batryl which I was expecting. I do lots of chin reading. NOW... this vet handed me an outline of a diet that she recommends for Chinchillas. Trying to make this as short as possible, she recommends 1/4 to 1/2 cup a day of fresh greens.....( Romaine, Collard, Escarole, Kale, Endive, Dandelion, Parsley) and up to one teaspoon per day of fresh fruit/nuts/seeds (the list for that is long) and NO shreddies, plain cheerios, dried fruits. This going against EVERYTHING I have been believing as a correct diet for her. Please help. Is this vet crazy, or am I?

 

[ticklechin]

I think there must have been a vet seminar somewhere that had a "chin expert" that stated that is a good diet, even my vet tried to push the fresh veggie thing on me last time I was there. I personally stick with a rancher diet-pellets, hay and fresh clean water, ranchers have been ranching for more years than chinchillas have been pets, and certainly longer than vets have seen them. KISS, keep it simple stupid is my motto for chin nutrition.

 

[ServantofBlueberry]

None of her info sat well with me today, and I found myself asking myself if all the info I have gathered from people who breed and ranch chins can be wrong, how can someone who has sometimes over a few hundred chins that they deal with on a daily basis be so wrong. Its kind of upsetting to think about how many people take the advice of the vet and how many animals end off worse

 

[Tanya]

You may find this information useful (posted by Godins Chinchillas):

From a wife whose husband is a vet-I can tell you first hand that most vets know very little about chins. When hubby was going through his exotic rotation he was given literally a half of a page about chinchillas. It covered colors (only given 40-there were no sapphires, violets, or ebonies. Chins came in black velvets, beige, white, and grey), weights-which if I remember correctly said the average female was 550 gr and the average male was 450, broken limbs, ringworm, malloclusion and furchewing. That's all I could remember. There was alot of misinformation on there-I had to laugh.

So no, vets aren't taught about chinchillas in school. What hubby knows about chins is what he has learned from me and my animals. If I had a chin die-he always necropsy them to learn about them. When a case comes into his office and he is stumped he always calls me up to see if I had any ideas.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

What is real disturbing about this thing about veg. and fruits in chin diets is the Univ of PA is apparently teaching their vets that this is the correct diet for chins.

 

[EternallyCynical]

Holy crap..... yeah that doesn't sound right at all. It wouldn't make sense, if chins come from a rockier mountainous climate they wouldn't have access to anything like that and would therefor not have the systems for it.... that's really really concerning that a vet is handing out that ind of information.... scary!

 

[ServantofBlueberry]

I gotta tell you, I am so nervous about taking her back to any vet now. I can tell you I wont be returning there to have her re-checked after her course of Batryl.