Well, Bella’s little fella (must not keep referring to him as “shorty” or it is going to stick!) seems to be doing great considering how wobbly he was when first born. Bella is now in full mothering mode and is very protective of him; open the cage door to take him out to weigh him and she’s there like a short, all grumpy and defensive.

He’s putting on weight slowly but surely and the tell-tale curly tail has appeared. He spends most of his time tucked happily under his mother, back legs waving in the air as he’s upside down.

He’s looking more chin-like too.

Bella's Kit at 2 days old

Leila’s kits, on the other hand, are being complete monsters. They have been climbing the bars and pinging off backwards and are currently still jostling for teat position. Leila is being brilliant, bless her, and is separating the offenders when scuffles break out.

What is not so helpful is that Leila also seems to be grooming off the pen marks we put in the kits’ ears so we could distinguish them. We ut fresh marks on today - what’s the betting they are nowhere to be seen again tomorrow?

Anyway ……….. kit photos as promised. These were all taken by Talie yesterday.

Leila with the male kit

1st standard female, just born

2nd Female Kit Born

Looking for milk

Bella’s kit is a male (checked earlier today) and he seems to be doing pretty well. He is getting to grips with the whole suckling thing and Bella appears to be finally settling down to motherhood. He’s a cutey - very quiet and shy. He’s also very small, weighing 44g yesterday but surprisingly (kits usually lose weight in the first 24 hours or so before the mother’s milk comes in) he had gained 1g today.

Here is the little chap:

"Shorty"

I popped into the chin room this morning to check on “Shorty” (I do hope that name does not stick - like “Thug“) and from the corner of my eye I noticed that Leila had gone into labour. She’s not due until Monday and I was on my way out to Roman & Jane’s Chinchilla Rescue to help out - I made a quick phonecall to Jane to tell her that Leila had changed my plans for me and I would be late. I then started hopping from foot to foot and banged on Talie’s door so she could watch the kits being born.

Leila is another Manor character. She is feisty and can be a real stroppy madam when she wants to be but I love her dearly and she has the ability to always make me smile. One of her favourite hobbies is taking off my glasses. I got her about 4 years ago from a breeder who literally gave her to me because she had a couple of tiny (5 pence piece sized) fur chew marks on her hip and so was of no use to the breeder at all.

I brought her home to The Manor and settled her into a cage which was just about at eye level and spent weeks slowly and carefully interacting with her. This is when I discovered she liked my glasses. It took all of a couple of days for Leila to settle into The Manor and she stopped fur chewing instantly; it was clearly stress/boredom related. With some toys and gentle attention Leila turned into a beautiful chinchilla - both in character and in body.The only time she has ever shown any sign of fur chewing again was when I moved her to a cage she did not like - it was too high for her and she could not “chat” to me quite so readily. She took one small nibble of her fur in exactly the same place as when she originally arrived. Moving her back to an eye level cage stopped the habit again - so now she stays in the same cage level and is perfectly happy.

Leila’s last litter produced two cracking standards (Griselda and Genville) who both won group awards - Griselda won a 3rd (dark standard female group) at the National in April 2006 which I was very chuffed with since these were the first standard chinchillas I had bred. Grenville now lives the life O’Reilly with a friend of mine, shares a cage with a chin that Debbie bred called Moley (big, squishy, cuddly lump of a chin!), and still managed to win 1st, Reserve Best Adult Standard Male and Reserve Best Standard at a show last September (Southern Region) - that’s not bad going for a 3 year old.

Both Grenville and Griselda have inherited Leila’s character - George, their father (and the father of the latest litter) is quiet, a bit aloof but absolutely amazing as a breeding male - he is suave and very gentle with his girlies and never misses a trick. Currently he’s looking a bit porky because he’s got 3 females and he pops up in each cage when you go round with the treats - if you’re not paying attention he’s snaffled 3 treats before you’ve noticed!

Currently it is difficult to tell which of the two chins is pregnant - as this photo demonstrates

George (on the shelf) and Leila a few days ago

Thankfully Leila’s labour was pretty uneventful - she had triplets this time: 2 females and a male. She was pretty tired by the end of it and when she finally expelled the placentas I did not let her eat them. I removed them, gave her a raisin instead, and left her to settle with the kits.

Talie took some excellent photos - will upload them tomorrow. Right now I’m off to watch the kits settle with their mother.

 We have urine!!

Sad, I know - but I’ve just come back from delivering a decent sample of urine to the vet. Otto is back in his cage, has had a dustbath (”Silly human got water down my front!” ) and is currently snuggled up on his toasty cuddle cup fast asleep.

Now all we have to do is wait for the results.

Well poor Otto has spent the day at the vets - no stones on Xray (in fact, his Xray looks very good) and he did not produce any urine for Jade all day (despite being catherterised! ) So he’s now back home and looking somewhat undignified because he’s been shaved in his nether regions so he could have an ultrasound and full examination.

So…….. having fully expected stones and surgery we’re almost none the wiser  As I said to Jade, “well it’s one of my chins and I never bring you anything that’s boring!” 

I’ve got to get a urine sample off him (easier said than done!) to take into the vets quickly so it can be tested and sent off to a lab for analysis. Guess what I’m doing tomrrow?
Otto is not amused!!

Oh, almost forgot, his squishy foot seems to be clearing up nicely with the Septrin - and his urine seems to be a bit clearer too (hence the need for a further sample to test for bacteria and full lab analysis).

I’ve been watching Mr Otto closely since he arrived at The Manor and it’s pretty obvious he has some problems.

Taking in rescues is never easy, especially when one does not know the chin’s history - it is always a risk. Sometimes problems are not initially apparent and a quick veterinay check is not sufficient to identify all the underlying problems/issues - although Otto was apparently initially veterinary checked when dumped he has several potentially serious problems - these really should have been spotted because they are fairly obvious - it’s a bit frustrating that they were not since he could have started treatment sooner. 

Anyway …………. I noticed that Otto had dark urine when he arrived (easy to spot because he has his cage lined with soft light coloured towels). Initially his dark urine could have been attributed to a little dehydration because he did not have access to water during ther show day (not normally a problem since chins don’t tend to drink much during the day anyway) but the dark urine has continued to be present. He’s not obviously dehydrated - the rough test for this is if you gently pinch the skin on the back of an animal’s neck and it remains in a tented position the chances are the animal is dehydrated. If the skin immediately returns to it’s original position (ie. flat) then the animal is considered to be sufficiently hydrated. 

 Also he continues to throw his weight a little onto his front feet while resting and is somewhat awkward when he mobilises (he looks like a clockwork toy when he runs and throws his right hip out).

So he went to see Jade today and he’s definitely got arthritis in his back legs - he’s been started on Metacam daily for that.  He’s also got signs of bumblefoot and a fluctuant /squishy (meaning there is fluid under the skin - i.e. a hidden ulcer) rear left foot which will need treating if it breaks open - If necessary I’ll be dressing that on alternate days to help with healing.

In himself, Otto is bright and seems perfectly happy - he’s a real sweety and he is bouncing about like a spring lamb at times and is obviously enjoying his heat mat, exercise (within limits) and the Manor life in general.  He looks like he’s probably been a breeding male at some point in his life - he has only a few digits on his front paws.