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People can transfer cold sores (herpes virus) to chins too. I believe it eventually causes brain leisons/seizures.

Most zoonotic illnesses enter through eyes, nose, or mouth and are transmitted through bodily fluids or feces. You could potentially pass pasteurella from a bun (most buns carry this bacteria without any symptoms of infection) to a chin if your bun licks your hand, you then play with your chin, he climbs on your hand (paws coming in contact with the pasteurella) and does a nose swipe. It's that easy. Of course nose-nose contact can do it too as well as a sneeze, a cat or bun licking/grooming a chin, or any other direct contact.
 
the bacteria gets on them but the enough to get them sick a small tap on the nose is diff then the cat licking the chin and clawing at it a smile amount wont get ur chin sick unless it has a weak immunesystem and in that case u have to wrry about alot of stuff and any ways like a said that cats i have as far as me and my gf seen they dont even care that they r there
 
They CAN get sick from that. Bodily fluid transfers are the number 1 way that illness is spread, not through the air. Bodily fluid transfer means fluids of some kind (blood, saliva, nasal discharge, etc.) goes to another animal and enters their system by mouth, nose, ears, cuts...whatever opening the germ carrying fluid can seep into. Your cats putting their noses on the cage or touching the cage with their paws after licking their paws can transfer germs. It doesn't have to be a certain temperature or time of day for germs to transfer from one animal to another.

It may not happen today, it may not happen tomorrow...it may never happen, but do you really want to risk your chinchilla's life just to prove that in ONE case a chinchilla did not get ill from another animal? There have been NUMEROUS cases of chinchillas contracting pastuerella from rabbits, bordetella from cats, etc.. These are not far fetched isolated cases that people are warning you about.

ETA: If it took a huge amount of germ transfer to get people/animals sick...we would see a heck of a lot less colds and less animal sickness in general. I don't get coughed on, I don't make out with sick people and I sure as heck don't lick the sweat off their bodies. By your deduction, I should then not get sick...yet I do get sick. There is a fallacy in your logic.
 
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littlechinta said:
the bacteria gets on them but the enough to get them sick a small tap on the nose is diff then the cat licking the chin and clawing at it a smile amount wont get ur chin sick unless it has a weak immunesystem and in that case u have to wrry about alot of stuff and any ways like a said that cats i have as far as me and my gf seen they dont even care that they r there
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Do you have any research to back up your thoughts there?

Also, please reference the quote below from one of our admins regarding "text" typing.

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http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6572
 
Sugar died from herpes simplex one, her sister Spice is a carrier. She got it when she had a simple eye infection, Spice was constantly grooming the eye and she got it occularly, it was fast and fatal, from the onset of the eye infection to a massive seizure and death was 7 days and there was nothing I could do about it but watch her die since the diagnosis did not happen until the necropsy at UCD.


Go ahead, sneeze on your chins, let your dogs and cats sneeze on your chins, lick em, and when you end up dealing with a disease that kills your chin and there is nothing you can do about it but go "I should have, could have, would have" not let that happen and then see how it feels, you being the cause of the death by your actions.


aznmexaggie said:
People can transfer cold sores (herpes virus) to chins too. I believe it eventually causes brain leisons/seizures.

Most zoonotic illnesses enter through eyes, nose, or mouth and are transmitted through bodily fluids or feces. You could potentially pass pasteurella from a bun (most buns carry this bacteria without any symptoms of infection) to a chin if your bun licks your hand, you then play with your chin, he climbs on your hand (paws coming in contact with the pasteurella) and does a nose swipe. It's that easy. Of course nose-nose contact can do it too as well as a sneeze, a cat or bun licking/grooming a chin, or any other direct contact.
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Like everyone said, it's a bad idea to let your other pets play with your chins. I've told quite a few people that I wouldn't let them adopt a chinchilla from me because of how they told me they would let their chins play with ferrets, dogs, cats, birds, whatever else...

They can get sick or they can get hurt or killed. It's not hard to keep them separated. I know many, many people who have pets other than chins and they manage to keep the cats or dogs or whatever else away from the chins. My dogs are not around my chins and it doesn't make any of my pets lives any less fulfilling to keep them away from other species.

Why is there even an argument here? I read this thread and was surprised to see that anyone would even question keeping the cats and dogs away from the chins.
 
This is a good subject. I am confused about it myself. I let my cat at my parent's house in my room. My roommates cat (at my apartment near school) I do not let in. My cat (folk's house) has been vaccinated with all the standards, including bordetella. She is on phenobarbitol for her epilepsy so she pretty much sleeps all the time. She's over 10 years old and has been an indoor cat all her life. I let her sleep on my bed. She sometimes looks at Chloe, but has never touched the cage. A couple times when she first started coming back into my room (she wouldn't for a while, I think she was scared of Chloe--she is of most things) I kicked her out because I thought Chloe was getting nervous. Now neither of them act any different from when I am in a room alone with one of them as when they are in a room together. I leave my door open most days so my room doesn't get too warm and most of the time my cat doesn't go near my room. At night I close the door.

Cats lick themselves all the time. Their fur is covered in saliva. If you touch a cat, you will get cat saliva on you. How does one avoid this? It seems like showering and changing clothes after you pet a cat would be quite inconvenient.
 
Wash your hands after you touch other animals before you handle the chinchillas, wash them after you get home and after you handle food and use the restroom.

You don't have to go completely nuts over it and change your clothes constantly, but keeping the animals away from each other and washing your hands is an easy enough start.
 
I do not let my animals "play" with each other. My chins are in a room behind closed doors away from the other animals. On occasion Gavin, my dog will walk into the chin room behind me. I don't freak out if he enters the chin room, but he normally is more interested in eating the chin poop on the floor then trying to touch noses with the chins. When I spot that he followed me behind he is ushered out.

I know of other breeders (large ranches and small hobby breeders) that have cats wondering in and out of their chinchilla units, dogs that have access into the units with the owners.

We can't keep our animals hidden from everything, however we need to take the proper precautions to keep them safe. I wouldn't allow them to play each other, but as I said it isn't a panic attack if my dog wonders into the chinchilla room and is ushered back out.

That said I also do not allow other people into my chinchilla unit other then imediate family, and very close friends.. This goes to potentional customers as well. I don't know what they may be carrying that can spread to my animals. If they are interested in an animal I will bring him/her down for them to see but they aren't allowed to poke into the cages.

I personally think our animals can be exposed to just as much bacteria and diseases being taken outside, and allowing many different people to come into contact with them. I'd trust my own animals who have been vet checked and I know are healthy near them then I would most people on the streets.Think of everything they can pick up while being at a vets office all the different animals sneezing and going to the bathroom in the office/exam rooms.
 
I thought the thread was about chins PLAYING with other pets. Then always no. Some of us cannot set our houses up so that there is absolutely no contact always. My cats have been inside only their entire lives. The cages are raised. I also have a herd of chinchillas that have been extremely healthy over the years. No I don't take foolish chances. Some people are not pet savvy and cannot handle a single cat and chinchilla. Others can have an entire jungle and be just fine.

I have had an african grey parrot for 16 years and at one time I had 8 cats. I now have 4. It can be done but you have to be very careful.

AGREED Megan
 
So if ranches have animals wandering in and out of their barns, why should pet owners even bother quarantining new chinchillas, if the attitude is that lax on a big ranch with animals running around, why should a pet owner bother if disease transmission is that unthought of.
 
They don't watch the cats when they are in the barns with the chins? I had no idea they allowed them in! I wouldn't feel comfortable with cats around my chins because I'd worry that a baby would escape and the cats would do something.

My dogs will go in the chin room with me, but they aren't allowed in there alone. I'm actually worried more about the dogs than the chins because the chins in the bottom cages try to entice the dogs into coming over and then will bite dogs. Hoss has a scar on his nose from this happening years ago.
 
what about dogs- what bacteria/diseases are they carriers of? my roommate has a dog and at times, he wanders between her room, the hallway, and my room. he used to be fascinated by Giz, but now just walks past the cage to the window.

in terms of body fluid transmission (nasal, mostly), what should i be cautious of? my room door is closed if im not home and he is out, but i keep it open most of the time so that air can come into my room (its the warmest in the house-though not really an issue right now since its winter).

oh...and in terms of the debate: no, i would never let a chin interact with another species. we used to let my dog interact with our rabbit (we didnt even consider the thought of disease transmission-in retrospect, i wish we had been more cautious). in my opinion, it isnt a form of enrichment at all. interacting with their own species is more acceptable- but chins will ALWAYS be a prey animal. will a guinea pig eat a chin? probably not...but it does not mean a fight cant occur. not worth the risk.
 
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Dawn you'll find that plenty of breeders do not quarentine when they bring in animals from breeders they've bought from many times before. I'm sure a lot of them would not admit to it on a public forum..but I know of many breeders who do not quarentine.

I know you take your animals to the shop daily (or used to). Have you considered what health risks they may have around so many customers? What they may catch in the air?
 
Perhaps I was day dreaming..but I've seen cats in ranching barns... Sometimes what someone suggests, they don't always do as well. How many kits do you think shoots handfeeds?
 
Megan said:
Dawn you'll find that plenty of breeders do not quarentine when they bring in animals from breeders they've bought from many times before. I'm sure a lot of them would not admit to it on a public forum..but I know of many breeders who do not quarentine.

I know you take your animals to the shop daily (or used to). Have you considered what health risks they may have around so many customers? What they may catch in the air?
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Pasteurella is fatal since there is no cure, That is what animals pass to animals. Customers don't carry pasteurella in their spit or lungs and don't lick my chinchillas, nor to they dig around in a cat box and pass whatever to them.
 
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Megan said:
Perhaps I was day dreaming..but I've seen cats in ranching barns... Sometimes what someone suggests, they don't always do as well. How many kits do you think shoots handfeeds?
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I would guess zero and they end up in the trash can, or perhaps cat food? since you want to be snarky.
 
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