Sycamore Chins
Well-known member
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.
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.