Sticky fur?

[Essentia]

We had a 5 yr old beige chin come into the rescue yesterday. It was apparent that he hadn't had very many dust baths as he did for sure look greasy. Upon feeling his fur though it almost feels stickyish. It's not soft like most chin's fur (even unbathed chin fur). I've definitely had my fair share of undusted chinchillas come in, but their fur never felt like this. It just isn't soft like most chin fur. Could this still be from him just not being dusted enough? I have had blue cloud in there with him for almost two days now just so he could dust as much as he wanted for a bit (he really needed it) and he now definitely looks better but still has the same feeling to his fur. I'm going to groom him when I get home from work to see if that helps any, but I wanted to see if anyone else has seen something similar. I'll get pictures of him as well, though from the pictures you can't really tell how weird it feels.

Also, while I'm not a huge fan of water bathing chins unless it's absolutely needed, I'm wondering if anyone would think this would benefit him at all? Maybe it is that his fur is just really dirty? He does have a "dirty" smell to him as well that most chins don't have.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

I haven't had a chin come in with that bad of a coat. However it does sound like he needs a water bath with a mild soap of some kind that would cut the grease. I bet he somehow got into some grease and no one took care of it. Someone else might suggest the soap you could use.

 

[Sycamore Chins]

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear sticky fur is urine in the fur. Is that possible? I've always found that chins that have been well peed on have sticky fur for quite a while until the dust finally works it out.

 

[Essentia]

I was thinking that too, but he was housed alone, and it is all over his fur, not one particular spot. He did have a wheel at one time so he could have peed on it when he was running, but he hasn't had one for at least 6 months.

As for the soap, I have to bottom bathe another chin that is incontinent, so I'm used to the actual bathing process. I use an organic baby shampoo and it works on the urine soaked bottom, so I'm pretty sure it would work for this guy too. I just don't want to put him through the stress of a bath if others think I should just continue to dust him for awhile and see what happens.

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

I guess you could continue to use the dust for a week or so before deciding to water bath him. Can't see where it would hurt to wait and it might work?

 

[EMSChins]

I have one girl who likes to lay and roll in the one corner of her cage where she urinates and it has that sticky feel to it. I am lucky in that she does seem to urinate in one spot only and I try to spot clean it daily but she is a heavy water drinker so she beats me to it some days. I try to wipe her fur down with a baby wipe if she gets ahead of me and give her a dust bath and comb out the area. It takes a couple of repeats but it usually works.

The only other thing that I can think of is if they were heavy smokers, it might be a build up of tar on his fur???

 

[Essentia]

Ok, I jumped the gun even asking questions. I came home tonight from work and he actually is starting to feel like a chinchilla. He looks beautiful after all the dusting he's been doing for the last two days and he isn't half as smelly. I think with a good week of dusting daily he will be good as new.

 

[kurilla22]

The previous owner of my chins never cleaned their cage and I mean they would go months sitting in their own filth and they both had a weird feeling on their fur but after many dust baths the fur went back to normal.

 

[Essentia]

I completely forgot he came with a ball when he was surrendered since I threw it out right away. I'm guessing this is exactly what the crap fur came from since he was running around in his urine all the time.