Im a little confused about all the things that you guys feed your chinchillas when they have an upset stomach or whatever. What is critical care? What do you use it for? Where can I find it? Is it the same thing as Lifeline? Where can I find that? Also what is acidolphilis and what is it used for? Any of your help is greatly appreciated and Im sorry is me being a newb at this makes me look foolish. Thanks!!
where do i get these?
- Thread starter soysauce
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greychins
NWI Chinchillas
Critical care is often used when your chin isn't eating, whether it's got an infection, teeth issues, or unknown causes. It's a brownish-powder that's mixed with water and syringe fed to the chinchilla in place of the food they would normally be eating. Since they're not eating, it's used to sort of force-feed them. There's regular and (I think) apple banana flavored (I use the regular, but I'm pretty sure apple banana is the other flavor). Critical care you can often purchase from your vet. Alternatively, you can get it from a member here - menagerie. It's good to have on hand, ahead of time, from when you need it. We keep a pound in the freezer so that we have it in case the need arises.
Lifeline is not the same as critical care. It's sort of an "addition" to critical care... I've never used it (though I need to buy it), so I don't have personal experience with it, but I know a lot of people use it when their chin is under the weather, and it can also be given when the chin is doing fine, just as a preventative. Critical care is meant to act as a substitute for food (and quite a bit of it has to be fed every day to the chin to keep their weight up), whereas Lifeline is more... (quoting the website) to "Speed Healing, Ease Stomach & GI pain, and Increase Appetite while it helps to fight the problems that cause symptoms such as infection, diarrhea, indigestion, nausea, and poor appetite." Very little of Lifeline is given, even to a sick chin. Here's where you can get lifeline ---> http://chocolatechinchillas.com/id6.html
Acidophilus is a probiotic - that means it's good bacteria (if a chin gets an infection - that's bad bacteria). Good bacteria fights off the bad bacteria, so ideally you want lots of the good bacteria. Probiotics, acidophilus typically the common one, are often used in conjunction with critical care, or around the same time an antibiotic is being used to treat something wrong with the chin. Could be used preventatively as well, I suppose. Acidophilus can be found at many health food stores, by the vitamins -- I get mine at GNC. At whatever point you get a probiotic, you want one with as high of a count of live bacteria as possible - like in the billions (what I have has 14 billion live bacteria). And if a probiotic is being given around the same time an antibiotic is given, you have to wait four hours after the antibiotic to give the probiotic.... otherwise the antibiotic will kill off the probiotic. Hopefully, though, if you're lucky, you'll never have to worry about all of this stuff. I wish you the best of luck and healthy chins. Sick ones aren't much fun...
Don't feel foolish for asking questions! We were all where you are at some point, and asking is the only way you learn!
Lifeline is not the same as critical care. It's sort of an "addition" to critical care... I've never used it (though I need to buy it), so I don't have personal experience with it, but I know a lot of people use it when their chin is under the weather, and it can also be given when the chin is doing fine, just as a preventative. Critical care is meant to act as a substitute for food (and quite a bit of it has to be fed every day to the chin to keep their weight up), whereas Lifeline is more... (quoting the website) to "Speed Healing, Ease Stomach & GI pain, and Increase Appetite while it helps to fight the problems that cause symptoms such as infection, diarrhea, indigestion, nausea, and poor appetite." Very little of Lifeline is given, even to a sick chin. Here's where you can get lifeline ---> http://chocolatechinchillas.com/id6.html
Acidophilus is a probiotic - that means it's good bacteria (if a chin gets an infection - that's bad bacteria). Good bacteria fights off the bad bacteria, so ideally you want lots of the good bacteria. Probiotics, acidophilus typically the common one, are often used in conjunction with critical care, or around the same time an antibiotic is being used to treat something wrong with the chin. Could be used preventatively as well, I suppose. Acidophilus can be found at many health food stores, by the vitamins -- I get mine at GNC. At whatever point you get a probiotic, you want one with as high of a count of live bacteria as possible - like in the billions (what I have has 14 billion live bacteria). And if a probiotic is being given around the same time an antibiotic is given, you have to wait four hours after the antibiotic to give the probiotic.... otherwise the antibiotic will kill off the probiotic. Hopefully, though, if you're lucky, you'll never have to worry about all of this stuff. I wish you the best of luck and healthy chins. Sick ones aren't much fun...
Don't feel foolish for asking questions! We were all where you are at some point, and asking is the only way you learn!
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Luci
Gizmo's roommate
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2009
- Messages
- 833
hey no worries. there are so many things to know when it comes to chinchillas and the best thing is that youre asking questions!
first off, Oxbow Critical Care is a "recovery" food given to herbivores that have gone off their feed because of illness. it consists of all the nutrients they need to maintain good health and a stable weight. it is used any time a chinchilla stops eating. it's in powder form and it mixed with water and fed through a syringe. ive used it when my chin stopped eating due to a tooth infection. it can be found either at your vets office (not many carry it), through Oxbow (http://www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/products/type/detail?object=1608) or even through members on the forum who sell it. off the top of my head, i know Alli713 sells it.
Lifeline is a supplement used to treat the symptoms of many illnesses. we joke around that it is a "cure all". its kinda like a healing booster. you can find it here:
http://www.chocolatechinchillas.com/id6.html
Acidophilus is a probiotic that is used to balance out bacteria in the intestines. humans can use it too. its similar to the bacteria in yogurt. they come in different forms, but i prefer the capsules because its easy to break open, sprinkle a bit over food, and save the rest. i found it at walgreens. the brand is Natures Bounty and i think it cost about $7 for a bottle of 100 capsules. i sprinkle a bit about once a week to be safe.
here's a first aid checklist you can take a look at. its long and can be overwhelming but definitely consider stocking up on some of these items. its better to have these things on hand BEFORE you need them. it definitely eliminates a lot of the "omg what do i do" worry when somethings happens to our critters.
http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26
keep asking questions! its better to know everything!
first off, Oxbow Critical Care is a "recovery" food given to herbivores that have gone off their feed because of illness. it consists of all the nutrients they need to maintain good health and a stable weight. it is used any time a chinchilla stops eating. it's in powder form and it mixed with water and fed through a syringe. ive used it when my chin stopped eating due to a tooth infection. it can be found either at your vets office (not many carry it), through Oxbow (http://www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/products/type/detail?object=1608) or even through members on the forum who sell it. off the top of my head, i know Alli713 sells it.
Lifeline is a supplement used to treat the symptoms of many illnesses. we joke around that it is a "cure all". its kinda like a healing booster. you can find it here:
http://www.chocolatechinchillas.com/id6.html
Acidophilus is a probiotic that is used to balance out bacteria in the intestines. humans can use it too. its similar to the bacteria in yogurt. they come in different forms, but i prefer the capsules because its easy to break open, sprinkle a bit over food, and save the rest. i found it at walgreens. the brand is Natures Bounty and i think it cost about $7 for a bottle of 100 capsules. i sprinkle a bit about once a week to be safe.
here's a first aid checklist you can take a look at. its long and can be overwhelming but definitely consider stocking up on some of these items. its better to have these things on hand BEFORE you need them. it definitely eliminates a lot of the "omg what do i do" worry when somethings happens to our critters.
http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26
keep asking questions! its better to know everything!
Thank you soooooo very much. I had tried looking through all the posts to see what they were and they were just mentioned not explained. I definitely will be getting all three in case my little one every needs them in the future. One more question. Is there anything else that you would recommend that I keep on besides these three?
greychins
NWI Chinchillas
I think sometimes we take for granted that everyone knows the lingo, knows what is used and how it's used... but it's good when people like you ask questions, because the next time someone wonders, hmmm, what's critical care? What's lifeline? It'll be in this thread for them to see.
A few more good things to keep on hand are eye droppers and syringes (large enough to feed the critical care - sometimes these are a bit difficult to find when you've got a sick chin and are running from pet store to pet store-- often vets have these, or you can buy from members on here).
This may sound a bit stupid but we also have a chin-towel... it's just like a reasonably sized hand towel that we bought specifically for the chins... we keep it near the chins for the purpose of having to burrito them to feed them or treat a wound or whatnot... my parents have "nice towels" :rolleyes2: that they don't want to get dirty, it keeps us from having to debate what nice towel they want to potentially get critical care on (so far, it's never stained, but I'm sure there's a first time) or blu-kote on (which stains baaaad).
On that note, another good thing to have around is blu-kote. It's sort of like a neosporin type thing, it helps prevent infection, like if your chin was to get a foot caught in the door, you'd want to coat that bleeding foot in blu-kote to prevent infection... I can find the blu-kote at Tractor Supply... I don't know if there's another place, but that's the only place around here that carries it... it's a yellow bottle. It can be used for lots of injuries... we had a kit born here where mom pulled him out and he had a quarter-sized section of skin missing... we sprayed him with blu-kote (he was, of course, a white, so he was almost entirely purple), and he's doing fine! I believe blu-kote can also treat some types of ringworm? Someone please correct me if that's wrong --that's one health problem we've never run into...
If you plan on breeding, or getting any potentially-pregnant females, canned goat's milk is good to have around. I learned the hard way that it's good to have BEFORE you have a female that doesn't get milk in... cause then you'll be scrambling to find it. Same with dry baby rice cereal...
The last good thing to have on hand is simethicone drops... typically sold in the baby aisle (at least at Meijer, which is where I shop) - it's this pinkish liquid that's given to treat gas and bloat.
I swear I'll stop writing a book sooner or later, I just keep thinking of things to add! Another good thing to have is a gram scale. That way, you can keep track of how much your chin weighs. If you want, you can weigh your chin every so often to see that they're doing allright, but it becomes important to have a gram scale in the event the chin starts losing weight-- so that you can track how they're doing. It's also good to have if you plan on breeding, to check the kits are gaining weight.
A few more good things to keep on hand are eye droppers and syringes (large enough to feed the critical care - sometimes these are a bit difficult to find when you've got a sick chin and are running from pet store to pet store-- often vets have these, or you can buy from members on here).
This may sound a bit stupid but we also have a chin-towel... it's just like a reasonably sized hand towel that we bought specifically for the chins... we keep it near the chins for the purpose of having to burrito them to feed them or treat a wound or whatnot... my parents have "nice towels" :rolleyes2: that they don't want to get dirty, it keeps us from having to debate what nice towel they want to potentially get critical care on (so far, it's never stained, but I'm sure there's a first time) or blu-kote on (which stains baaaad).
On that note, another good thing to have around is blu-kote. It's sort of like a neosporin type thing, it helps prevent infection, like if your chin was to get a foot caught in the door, you'd want to coat that bleeding foot in blu-kote to prevent infection... I can find the blu-kote at Tractor Supply... I don't know if there's another place, but that's the only place around here that carries it... it's a yellow bottle. It can be used for lots of injuries... we had a kit born here where mom pulled him out and he had a quarter-sized section of skin missing... we sprayed him with blu-kote (he was, of course, a white, so he was almost entirely purple), and he's doing fine! I believe blu-kote can also treat some types of ringworm? Someone please correct me if that's wrong --that's one health problem we've never run into...
If you plan on breeding, or getting any potentially-pregnant females, canned goat's milk is good to have around. I learned the hard way that it's good to have BEFORE you have a female that doesn't get milk in... cause then you'll be scrambling to find it. Same with dry baby rice cereal...
The last good thing to have on hand is simethicone drops... typically sold in the baby aisle (at least at Meijer, which is where I shop) - it's this pinkish liquid that's given to treat gas and bloat.
I swear I'll stop writing a book sooner or later, I just keep thinking of things to add! Another good thing to have is a gram scale. That way, you can keep track of how much your chin weighs. If you want, you can weigh your chin every so often to see that they're doing allright, but it becomes important to have a gram scale in the event the chin starts losing weight-- so that you can track how they're doing. It's also good to have if you plan on breeding, to check the kits are gaining weight.
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