He has depression which will make things hard but I am confident he will pull through and recover   He has not chewed his fur once which is great, and he is also eating which is even better! 

I was not going to mention this as it gets me upset when I even think about it also because of who the owner was, so I have been debating for a while whether too say, but then I think for the reason of so many people who think following breeding standards does not apply to them, in either sifting out and only doing what they feel is needed, or not following any, I need to mention ALL the Rescues no matter how hard.  Billy sadly passed away due to internal injuries, it was also found in an autopsy his main organs were deformed.  Remember this was a vet and breeder of 20+ years, please think before you breed and FOLLOW breeding standards for these creatures as there is a reason why they are there.  When people do not follow or sift out - they do not have to deal with the consequences of doing this, the new owners of that bred chin do and Rescues like myself do, as you see with these Diary’s.

He believes in ‘free-range’ Chinchillas in his house sharing also with a Dog and a Cat, and yes sadly breeding them free-range also.  Ty and Billy were a result of this, the Fur-chewing this owner told me was from to much ‘love’ the mother gives and to themselves.  Ty is in the worst condition, he has open wounds which are a little infected, well the breeder did not know he had any, but these were from the Dog and Cat using him as what I call a ‘Toy’. The owner swore they are all “friends” and the Dog and Cat leave them alone, this coming from a Vet who should understand a Cats nature, just cannot believe it.

Ty has gone in for an Operation to stitch up his open wounds, they are both very skinny/malnourished and very lethargic, bless you both poor wee things   I have reported this case so fingers crossed. Photos below are of Ty.

I picked her up today not long after the call and she has settled in nicely, she is such a hunny of a chin, very placid but still has her checks to go yet but so far she just needs good food and proper dust  The people requested she stay here as a permanent chin so that I am happy to do

He is deformed and only has three toes all up, two on one back leg, and one toe on his front paw, so he does not know how to eat solids, more so because the owners did not socialise him either in his condition - even though he still would have been on mothers milk now, he should have already be eating solids also.  I have a foster Grandad Chin that fosters Rescue babies, he is so lovely, so I am hoping he will show Peanut what to do!!

Peanut is very cute though, he loves racing around chasing after everything even when whatever it is is not moving, then he jumps up and down in front of it as if to say "look at me!" sooo cute!  Sorry the photo is not to good it is very hard to get one of this wee man!

Amber is now settled down in her new home with her new owner who loves her to bits!  I found out from the new owner that he cannot have children and so Amber will be the replacement for this, she is living like a Queen in a ‘chinny-mansion’ 

I loved having her here with me and it is a blessing she now has a even better home, but she will still be missed dearly

Jessica has damage to her Liver but thankfully nothing that is life threatening.  This was a result of nuts and seeds in her diet, but this has obviously been corrected and she will go onto a more special diet with some herbs which I have made up for her Liver.  Following an x-ray she had her teeth Burred and her Jaw had to be put back into alignment, but she is doing very well and very keen to eat her solids!  Polo unfortunately was not so lucky and she had to be put down on the 10^th only just a couple of days after they arrived, due to Liver Failure.  Rest in Peace little angel xoxox

Some good news that I just have to share with all of you, a 10 year old girl has been reading these Diary’s and has now for the past 3 weeks been writing to the Rescues.  Her mother called yesterday to say they would like to adopt a Chinchilla into their family, and have chosen Jessica when she is ready to be re-homed   So now Jessica is getting more letters than the other rescues so I am 100% sure she has the best home!!

Two chinchilla sisters arrived here a few days ago, one with suspected liver problems and definite dental problems are there, for now I could only find spurring (and praying it is not the roots also but a further x-ray will be done...), apart from all the usual checks, bloods have also been done and we are just waiting for results….the waiting game is the worst thing I reckon!!   I start to get restless and moan abit tee-hee!  The other chin is fine and healthy, but does seem to be abit ‘sad’…

Hopefully with these two it is all issues that can be corrected or prevention for further problems can be done

Her recovery from the op is going great and at this stage should be off to her new forever home in a few weeks.

Good on you hunny

Samantha, one of 4 females that arrived here in 2004 due to neglected breeding, is off to a forever home this afternoon   She has come a long way and has put allot of effort into trusting people again.

Abit of history, she was 4 years old, heavily pregnant when she first arrived and delivered 4 babies the next day, although she was a good mum she lacked milk and went berserk at anyone who came near her cage, to the point of attacking herself and almost her babies.  This emotional trauma was due to a irresponsible breeder of 16 years.  She had little time for them, kept them outside in a shed, feeding only every 3 days and unsurprisingly fed Rabbit Pellets, never separating dads from mums, and selling the young off to Pet Shops on demand, sometimes at only 5 weeks old as I recently found out.  I am sure there was more than this but this unfortunately was all I was able to find out.

Her babies that she had here all found forever homes at 4 months old and this gave me allot of time to correct her, now she is the most huggable chin out and it is sad she has to go, I do wish her breeder could see her now!  If anyone is wondering about her ears in the below photo, they were folded down due to been so poor in nutrition for all those years.

    Samantha 2004 a week after arriving:                                                                Samantha 2006 now :

With the help of the lovely people who found him, we are going to try and put a stop to the breeding of chins from his lines, far fetched but worth a go all the same, hoping the people will be honest also in giving us all the information needed.

Bosh has been clinically confirmed in having myopathy.  He has what is called muscular dystrophy which is a genetic disorder caused by muscle destruction in Bosh, but sadly there is no cure following the onset of this as far as what we know.  Going into this abit more (I will try and keep it as basic as I can), while muscular dystrophy is considered a separate group of diseases, this also technically involves muscle wasting and so is described as myopathy.  Most genetic myopathies including this one, are dominant, meaning the chin has to inherit it from one parent only, so only one copy of the defective gene is needed for it to have the disease, so every kit born from the parent with the defective gene has a 50% of inheriting it.  Very scary.

I am wondering why this was not picked up in the blood tests he had done before the operation and only now in the tests from yesterday (he also had a muscle biopsy yesterday), the Vet has been in touch with them to find out more about this.

For this to onset in Boshes case only now, it was the stress of the operation he had that triggered this, it would have ‘come out’ so to say in the near future, so you could say that the op just hurried it along.

He is to be pts today, since this particular genetic disorder has no cure or treatment and is a serious condition, it is fatal and only a matter of time now…those who know me will know, but otherwise you have no idea how hard this has been writing this up, it has now been 20 minutes just to do this update…I am hoping some miracle will come along now telling us no there is something you can do for him.

Bosh is doing well, I am hoping from here on his recovery will now be speedy, I want him to start feeling more comfortable ASAP!  

He is booked in too see the exotics vet (just a check up) next Friday, I am very interested in seeing for myself how the apicectomy now truly has gone, not only to ease my mind about Bosh but for future reference also to do with this type of operation, since it is still a learning curve for us all here in nz including the vet.  Fingers crossed all is as well as we are hoping for!!

I found out a Vet Clinic in Wellington (hours away from here *sighs*) is doing free De-sexing this weekend!  Always too far away.  Never mind, that would be great but I will still get by regardless

X-Rays showed up with what we knew, root elongation.  This is something that is out of mine and my Vets hands, she is also not particularly comfortable which is understandable, so this has been handed over to a exotics specialist who has to travel here as it will only be added stress for the chin any other way.  The lovely people who found him named him Bosh so will keep to that, suits him!

I managed to get some weight gain and of course hydrated and nourished again through nutritional first aid, this is always sooo wonderful to see, even though it does not fix Malocclusion it still adds big smiles all round!

At much debate at the seriousness of the operation considered for this wee guy, the lovely Vet gave it a go :)  So far in NZ, for this type of surgery it has only been performed on Rabbits so this is a first on a chin (you can see why it needed an exotics vet and why we did not make a decision straight away).  

Surgery in basic for Bosh- The point of this surgery is too basically ‘kill’ all the lower teeth to stop them from growing any more, thus stopping the over-growing.  This is performed by drilling the pulp and roots out of his lower Jaw, using a very small drill. Regardless of how this method sounds for life after surgery, the teeth will stay perfectly in place and can be used as normal again without the aching pain!  Obviously the Teeth will wear down over a few years due to them been dead and now not growing, but this operation still gives him (and any chin that has this) back a excellent quality of life that has been tainted because of humans, I think it is only fair enough for it to be rectified by a human, if that makes sense.

This operation has obviously taken it’s toll on him as it is fairly hard on any chin let alone a rescue that has already had a bad life, but recovery is starting to look great and he has started eating solids!!  He has been on antibiotics and strong pain relief, also I have continued nutritional first aid, so fingers crossed he continues to improve!

Picked up a Chin today from Taupo, he was found on the side of a road in a wooden box nailed down. The people who found him (outside their neighbours flat) suspect someone put him there to ‘go out with the trash’ as apparently the box was there with the rubbish bags but the men did not take it.  The people checked their mail and heard some ‘scrapping’ from it so brought it in to have a look.  They thought it was a kitten from the noises coming from it, turned out to be a chin. 

He is severely dehydrated and malnourished, he also has malocclusion, not a good start to the poor boy, so at this stage I am weighing up possible options such as surgery, I am just awaiting for the X-Rays he had to be developed and also blood test results, first.  For now I am treating him for dehydration and malnutrition.