What do you want your vet to know?

[Sycamore Chins]

Here is your chance to be heard! Help me educate my fellow vet students, and send out around 30 vets that actually know a little about chinchillas!

I am currently taking a pocket pet medicine class. Looking through the syllabus I realized we had no lecture on chinchillas! Of course, I brought this to the attention of the professor (I mean really, he had a lecture on sugar gliders, but not chinchillas!?). He admitted he knew very little about chinchillas and isn't comfortable lecturing on them yet. So I offered to draw up some basic notes. I doubt I'll get any lecture time in, but at least they can be provided to the students for reference. (And will hopefully be used for every class after mine)

So, what do you want your vet to know or what do you wish they knew before they saw your animal? I'm hoping to touch on the MOST IMPORTANT things/most basic things. I'm also looking for pictures, and can't remember who has really good websites with really good pictures that I can use.

So far on my list of things to include is:
1) Basic anatomy: what're the unique characteristics of chinchillas that may be odd to people not in the know
2) Handling
3) Sexing (need a female picture!)
4) Housing/Husbandry/Nutrition
5) Most common ailments/diseases (malocclusion, ringworm, pododermatitis, hair rings, fur chewing, GI stasis/bloat...?)

I'm having to throw this together pretty quickly, so what am I forgetting? What am I overlooking? What should I really go in depth in? I'd like to keep the notes to about 5 pages.

Also, if you have any pictures of a female's genitalia, a fur chewer, ringworm, pododermatitis, or hair ring that I can have permission to reproduce that would be so helpful. All I have at school with me is a healthy little boy chin, so I can get the rest of the pictures from him.

 

[Godins Chinchillas]

Hey Alicyn-

I have pics on my phone on really bad malloclusion that hubby took of a client's chinchilla. You can see the overgrowth of the roots very well.

My big thing is the overuse of baytril. Baytril, imo, is the not go to drug in chins. Vets need to be educated on the side effects of baytril. SMZ is our choice here.

 

[Lynn & The Chins]

They need to know that strangely enough, they are hind gut fermenters, just like horses, so their digestive system is similar.

That their ribs are so very tiny and easily broken. They should never be grabbed around the middle, but either scooped up with both hands or held at the base of the tail as close to the body as possible, to avoid having the tail break off if it's held further away from the base.

They are NOT rabbits. Rabbits are lagomorphs and chinchilla are rodents.

No matter what anyone tells them, chinchillas should NOT have sugary treats, especially raisins or fresh produce, nor should they have any nuts or seeds, which are too high in fat and can cause fatty liver disease which can kill them.

That they cannot sweat, so blowing a fan on them does not help them cool off. They must be kept at the proper temperature, below 75, ideally 70 or so.

Thanks for doing this!!!

Next informant...

 

[ticklechin]

They need to be more informed on what drugs are appropriate and what are not, what drugs are used during bloat and stasis, metecam for a chin in pain should not be a option but a necessity, understand the dynamics of chinchilla teeth to better inform patients on proper diet and husbandry, this goes for the chinchilla gut also. Know that just because you can DO a oral exam and x-rays on a chin does not mean you KNOW what you are looking at and can treat it. I do have malo and elongation skull pics you can use along with a necropsy photo of bloat if that helps.

 

[Airyn]

Definitely Baytril and Metacam dosages. I'd also like to see vets stress the importance of using probiotics in conjunction with antibiotics.

Conflicting information over the use of KMR as a hand feeding supplement was another issue that I ran into. It would be nice if they had the goat's milk formula available to give to people who show up with kits rather than suggesting the use of a carnivore formula for an herbivore.

I'm not sure if you want to add this to ailments/diseases, but dry skin and bumblefoot are good ones to know how to treat as well.

If (by some stretch of the imagination) you don't get any responses for a fur chewer, I found one on G+ and would be happy to ask for permission to use his images if you'd like...Image 1... Image 2.

Thanks for doing this! I'd love to have and share a copy of the final document with my vets if you're open to it. )

 

[Sycamore Chins]

Thank you guys! Keep 'em coming!

I'll also put in a little blurb about repro.

I don't mind sharing it in the least - just be forewarned (And I will be warning my classmates) that some of it may be biased, and I'm definitely no expert!

I feel like the education documents on VIN are just reworded and not truly updated because even the one published last year says the average adult weight is 400-600grams and one from a few years ago says average birthweight is 35 grams. I'd cry if my average birth weight was 35 grams!

I'm probably going to send it to my local vet and talk to him about it before I hand it to the class, so he can go over the medical aspects of things.

 

[Spoof]

These are the important factors to me, sorry if they sound harsh. Mostly attributed to more than a decade of expensive vet bills and epic failures.

Amputations
Handling

If I go to a vet it's usually to get a leg amputated. I want to know before I get there if they will amputate when I ask them to. I don't want the leg saved, it never works. Just cut it off. It cuts the healing time in half and the survival rate is 100% instead of 75% and most of the time they still have to amputate the leg, then you end up spending a fortune in antibiotics, casting and aftercare.

The more you mess with a chin and the more stress you cause the more likely it is to die. Treat it and leave it.

Handling - if the vet doesn't know how to handle the chinchilla properly I leave. I'm sorry, you're not learning on my dime.

Most equine practices can be applied to chins. I also welcome vets and students to come, check out my herd and handle the chins. When I was in college I would loan them out to interested vet students so they could gain experience with what their normal behaviors are. It is much harder to diagnose things on an animal you've only read about. If they think they will be in an area where they will see a high volume of chins I'd give them a list of breeders that are willing to take visitors and discuss handling and health issues. )

 

[Sycamore Chins]

Yes, that's one of the reasons I brought a chin down to school with me. I'm going to see if I can bring him in for class or offer for my classmates to stop by (or stop by and see the entire herd, if they're ever in MD). Some of my classmates, who happen to be my neighbors have already visited, and they've said they learned a ton through that.

 

[ticklechin]

I don't want the leg saved, it never works. Just cut it off. It cuts the healing time in half and the survival rate is 100% instead of 75% and most of the time they still have to amputate the leg, then you end up spending a fortune in antibiotics, casting and aftercare.

YES!:thumbsup:

 

[tunes]

Amen Tara. Soooo tired of people arguing with me over that. They insist that I'm barbaric and that the chin will do just FINE with a pin (in a leg the size of a toothpick). Seriously - this is probably my number one pet peeve with inexperienced vets.

 

[Lynn & The Chins]

You could always remind them that you are aware of many happy tripod chins that do fine.

Heck, they may not believe it, but tell them about my Little Two Paws Shakur -- he has only 2 legs, BOTH on the right side!!! He moves as fast as any of the others!!!

Animals are so much more adaptable to their situations than we humans are.