Santa Claus puppies

In today's Telegraph blog, I talked about my first day back at work after Christmas, and in the comments section, there was an interesting discussion about the dog licensing system in the UK. Click here to read it. Click here for full post

Cat kicked by horse

Geraldine Tuite's two-year-old cat Snowy suffered serious injuries after a nasty kick from a horse When Geraldine’s two kittens, Sooty and Snowy, were young, she made sure that she signed them both up for pet insurance. Her previous cat, Domino, had died of kidney failure at the age of thirteen, and during his illness, Geraldine had learned that vets’ bills could be expensive. She decided that in future she’d pay out the small monthly amount for pet insurance, so that if there was an accident or illness, her new cats would be able to have the best possible veterinary care without putting a strain on the family budget.
Snowy and Sooty grew up as the best of friends. They did everything together – from sleeping in the same basket to playing around the home to hunting in the garden. Geraldine has two palm trees at the front of the house, and the two cats used to play a game where each of them dashed up a tree as fast as possible. When Geraldine came home, she would find one cat sitting at the top of each tree, as if they were keeping a lookout for her.

Snowy has had to stop climbing trees for the past few months: he’s recovering from a nasty accident affecting his left hind leg. It happened on a Sunday afternoon. Geraldine knows her cats very well – they are creatures of habit. When she noticed Sooty moping about the house alone, with no sign of Snowy, she knew that something must be amiss. She went looking for him, and it didn’t take long to find him. He was skulking beneath one of the cars in the driveway, and he refused to come out when Geraldine called him. She eventually had to grab him with both hands and pull him out from under the car, and that’s when it was obvious that he’d been hurt.
His left hind leg was dangling at an unnatural angle, and there was a nasty, bleeding wound. Geraldine took him to the emergency veterinary service at once, and he was admitted to the hospital. He was given sedation and pain relief, and a series of x-pictures were taken. The precise nature of his injuries was soon explained to Geraldine. Snowy was not in any danger – he had no life-threatening injuries – but the injury to his leg was very serious. The upper leg bone – the femur – had a fracture of the worst possible type. The broken bone was classified as a “compound, comminuted fracture”. In layman’s terms, “compound” means that there is an open wound overlying the broken bone, exposing the fracture site to the environment, with the associated high risk of contamination and bacterial infection. “Comminuted” means that the leg bone was not just broken in two: it was in smithereens. It was as if someone had smashed the bone with a hammer – there were multiple small pieces of broken bone.
When Geraldine heard this, she realised what must have happened. She lives in the countryside, and there are horses in the field beside her house. She had often seen Snowy interacting with the horses, and she had worried about his behaviour. He went right up to the horses, showing no fear of them at all. He ran beside them, and even darted between their feet. One of the horses must have been given a fright when he did this, lashing with one of their back legs. It was the only way that Snowy could have received a single blow of such force.
The emergency clinic patched Snowy up as best they could, wrapping his damaged leg in a supportive dressing and giving him plenty of pain relief. He was transferred to our clinic the following morning, and a treatment plan to repair his leg was put into place. At first, we were concerned that he might lose his leg. There was so much damage to the muscles and blood vessels, as well as to the bones. He underwent an operation lasting several hours. A complicated assembly of stainless steel pins was used to line up the broken pieces of bone into a shape that was similar to the bone before it had been smashed to pieces. The pins were held in place by more metal work that surrounded his leg like a metal cage.
By the time the operation was finished, we were satisfied that he could make a good recovery, but it was going to take a long time.Snowy stayed in our vet clinic for three days initially, and for the past six weeks, he has been confined to one room at home. He lives in the porch, where he has been joined by Sooty to keep him company. He has been on many return visits to our clinic, for wound dressings and for more x-rays, and he has made good progress. We hope to be able to remove the metal apparatus in two weeks, and he should soon be able to venture out into the garden again.
It hasn’t been cheap to fix Snowy’s broken leg, with the bill heading for two thousand euro, but thanks to the pet insurance, Geraldine will only have to cover the €75 excess, with the rest being paid by the insurance company. Geraldine has simple advice for anyone thinking about New Years Resolutions at this time of year: make sure you get your pet insured. You just never know when you’ll need it.
Tips:
+ Cats that allowed outdoors are prone to accidents
+ New veterinary techniques mean that even very serious injuries can now be repaired
+ Pet insurance is the best way of making sure that veterinary bills can be paid without upsetting the family budget
Click here for full post

Feeding Christmas left-overs to pets

A seasonal post to my Telegraph blog. Click here to read it. Click here for full post

Pet emergencies

Pet emergencies – is anyone there to help at Christmas? See here for the latest post to my Telegraph blog. Click here for full post

Christmas hazards for pets

Christmas should be a time for enjoying the company of family, friends and pets. We should be able to relax and forget our normal daily worries. However, there are risks for pets, and the last thing you want to be doing on Christmas Day is rushing your pet to the vet.Chocolate is now a well-known hazard to pets. Although chocolate can poison animals, the amount that needs to be eaten for toxicity is quite large. Very few dogs would be given enough chocolate as treats to become poisoned, unless there were very unusual circumstances. I know that many people give their pets pieces of chocolate, and I have only seen a few cases of chocolate poisoning. The most common crises happen when dogs manage to sniff out stashes of chocolate. Dogs don’t know when to stop and they will happily eat bar after bar, or layer after layer of rich chocolate. That’s when fatalities can be seen.
Chocolate contains a substance called theobromine, which affects the heart by causing the steady beat of the heart to become irregular. If an animal ate enough chocolate to become poisoned, you would see some or all of the following symptoms: vomiting, diarrhoea, increased urination, muscle tremors, and finally seizures and coma . Seizure and coma occurs because the heartbeat can become so erratic that the blood supply to the brain is disrupted, and the brain stops functioning.
The type of chocolate that is eaten may determine whether poisoning occurs because different types of chocolate have different amounts of theobromine. Dark chocolate contains more theobromine than milk chocolate. A small dog like a Jack Russell would have to consume 15 ounces (3/4 lb) of dark chocolate or 40 ounces (2 lb.) of milk chocolate. I doubt that someone would accidentally leave this large amount of chocolate around the house or that most pets would eat it even if they had access. And certainly nobody would every give that sort of quantity of chocolate to their pet as a treat!
There are other equally dangerous things to keep away from pets over the holidays, and to ensure a happy holiday for everyone, it is worth mentioning a few of the hazards.
Watch out for extension cords. Both dogs and cats may be inquisitive about an electric cord that might sway from the tree branches or meander across the floor. Young pets especially may be tempted to bite on the cord, which might give them a nasty mouth burn, even cause electrocution.
Tree decorations, such as garlands, strings of beads and even glass balls can all be accidentally swallowed by pets, and can potentially cause an obstruction. Pet owners should make sure that decorations are high enough to be out of the reach of their pets. Festive plants can also cause a hazard. The leaves and stems are often chewed by pets while humans are out of the house. Although most are not poisonous they can irritate the mouth and stomach causing retching and vomiting.
Liquid potpourri is toxic to cats. Inquisitive cats may attempt to taste this scented liquid if it is left within reach, so again, care should be taken.
Bones and meat wrappers from holiday meals are like magnets for pets. Vets often see pets a day or two after a Christmas with stomach upsets, as a consequence of irritations and obstructions caused by these. Make sure that such items are firmly placed in the fridge or a tamper-proof bin!
Lastly, don't forget about Christmas wrapping materials. Colourful string, ribbons, pieces of plastic and wrapping paper (especially if it was wrapped around food) are all tempting to your pet. What can you do about this? You can't lock up the tree and presents in a room by themselves and although you can put up a gate to keep the dogs out, keeping a cat out of a main room that people are waking in and out of is next to impossible. The next best thing to do is make sure that your cat has his own amusement- perhaps a scratching post with lots of toys and catnip to keep him interested and away from the tree.
It is important to be aware of the potential hazards to pets at Christmas time, but it is equally important not to worry too much! Christmas is a time for enjoyment. Go on –spoil your pets a bit. Buy each animal a small present! Give them a little extra food!
May I take this opportunity to wish everyone out there (two-legged and four-legged) a very happy Christmas! Click here for full post

Christmas turkey on TV3

This week on Ireland AM, my companion was a pet turkey called Francois. Click here to watch the video. And here is the rest of it. Click here for full post

A Christmas goose

Eddie Drew of Copsewood Farm, Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow has an eleven-year-old gander called Gilbert.Christmas is coming and Gilbert the goose is getting fat, but he definitely isn't going to be eaten – this year or any year. Gilbert is a cross-bred goose – his father was a Chinese goose, and his mother
was a classical white Embden goose. is He is the self-appointed patriarch of a small flock of seven geese on Eddie's. Eddie keeps the geese partly for ornamental reasons – they add a traditional touch to his farm, which is open to the public – and partly for their functionality.
The geese carry out three jobs in a highly effective manner. Firstly, they keep the grass short by grazing. Eddie has several small lawns on his small holding, but he never needs to get the lawn mower out. The geese are busy trimming the grass on his behalf, seven days a week. Unlike some other herbivores (like goats), geese don't eat every plant within range, so they can be let loose in a garden without risking the destruction of favourite new plants. There are downsides to geese– they tend to leave messy deposits in their wake – but they do manage to maintain neat and tidy lawns, all year round. Eddie needs to give them supplementary feeding of wheat and crushed oats, especially in the winter, but the grass is an essential part of their diet.
The second job that Gilbert and his team carry out highly effectively involves security. Eddie's farm includes an aviary and pet shop that are open to the public, and there is a risk of burglars and other unwanted intruders. At the close of business, Eddie releases his flock of geese to roam freely, and they are better than any electronic or human monitoring and defence system. If there are unexpected visitors, the geese raise a deafening chorus of hoots and hisses, which alerts
Eddie up in the farm house. If an intruder was bold enough to try to slip past the gang of geese, they would find themselves in physical danger. The geese launch themselves at people in a terrifying way.They don't present a risk to human life, but they can inflict unpleasant pain and minor injuries. Eddie tells me that the most
common consequence is a nasty bruise on the back of the leg, and he doesn't need to explain why it is always the back of the leg that is bitten. With a flapping, hissing, goose rushing towards you, the only rational option is to turn and run. In the spring time, when the geese are breeding, they can become even more dangerous, using their wings to beat off strangers as well as battering them with their beaks.

Unlike other poultry, like hens and turkeys, Eddie's geese don't need to be locked up at night for protection against roaming foxes: they are well able to look after themselves. Eddie keeps his geese behind closed doors when the public are on his farm, but the birds are friendly and calm with people that they know. For most of their lives, the birds stroll contentedly around the farmyard while Eddie and his
family go about their daily business. They are easy birds to herd, and they are very well behaved unless irritated by strangers.
Gilbert himself is not directly involved in the third role performed by the geese: egg production. The female geese start to lay eggs around the end of February, and they continue to produce a daily egg throughout the spring, until Eddie decides to allow them to become broody. At that point, he starts to allow the eggs to accumulate on the nest. Once a batch of sixteen or more eggs have gathered, the
goose starts to sit on the eggs, and a month later, Eddie's farmyard is blessed with a batch of noisy goslings.
Goose eggs are known for being a culinary delicacy – chef Marco Pierre White has a recipe that uses them with double cream to produce delicious scrambled eggs – but Eddie doesn't use the eggs for cooking.
Instead, he uses them as a highly nutritious supplement to feed his monkeys. Eddie is passionate about animals, running an aviary and petshop as side-shoots to his farm. His squirrel monkeys live in a large outdoor enclosure, adding an exotic touch to his traditional Irish farmyard.
Eddie has been fascinated by birds since he was given a couple of fan-tailed pigeons by a friend when he was a teenager, and his farm has allowed him to develop bird-keeping into a business. As well as the geese, his current poultry population includes hens, ducks and peacocks. He also has smaller, more exotic birds, in the form of hand-reared parrots, budgies, canaries and finches that he keeps in
aviaries. And to complete his range of livestock, he has rabbits,guinea pigs, rats, mice, hamsters and chinchillas. His birds and animals are a passion, but they have become his means of earning a living too. He runs his farm on weekdays, and he opens the pet shop and aviaries on weekends and bank holidays.
Tips
+ Geese are often kept as "functional pets" on farmyards
+ They work as unpaid gardeners and security personnel
+ Copsewood Aviaries is just off the N11 at Kilmacanogue, if you want to
meet Gilbert and the rest of the geese. Click here for full post

Pets and Christmas

This week, I discussed various issues about pets and Christmas with Declan Meehan of East Coast Fm. Click on the "Play" button below to listen.

xmaspets.mp3

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"Buy a Stray Dog Christmas Dinner" on TV3

This week on Ireland AM, we discussed the good work done by animal charities - and an annual campaign to help them by donating funds and pet food over Christmas Feeding pets can be expensive. A large dog might eat three or four tins of food a day. The annual cost of feeding such an animal is often as much as paying for a family holiday. Dry food, even using the high quality premium diets, is less expensive, but it still adds up.
Animal sanctuaries around the country spend many thousands of euro on food for the rescued animals under their care. The cost of feeding stray animals is one of the biggest strains on the budgets of rescue centres. Our animal hospital in Bray is currently running a campaign called "Please Give a Stray A Christmas Dinner". We are asking members of the public to donate either food or money to be used to help out local animal charities over the Christmas period. If you are passing through Bray, why not drop in to our hospital to help out with this appeal? Click here for full post

Halitosis in a cat

Sheila Cleisham had noticed that her five year old cat Pasha was not quite his normal self, and he had foul-smelling breath. Sheila visited Sharpes Hill Animal Sanctuary in County Wicklow shortly after reading a book about the First World War, featuring a soldier called Pasha. During her visit, she came across a particularly good-looking cat, who had been dumped and who had been rejected by every visitor so far. Sheila fell for him at once. She felt as if he had been through his own war, and so she christened him Pasha, after the soldier she had been reading about.
He was two years old when she took him in. He settled in well with Sheila, and he soon had his own routine. Three years passed by, and soon it was as if Pasha had always been a part of her life.
Last month, when Pasha didn’t come home one evening, Sheila knew that there was something odd going on. When there was no sign of him the next morning, she knew that something had gone wrong. She searched the locality, calling him, but there was no sign. She asked neighbours, but no-one had seen him.
When a week had passed, Sheila was beginning to resign herself to his absence, and she presumed that he had either been killed in an accident, or he had simply decided to head off on his own. Then one evening, she heard a “miaow”, and there he was at the back door, hungrier than usual, but otherwise, behaving as if nothing had happened.
As he sat in Sheila’s lap that evening, she realised that he had lost weight. It wasn’t a surprise, if he had been missing his meals for a full week. But on reflection, she realised that he might have lost weight even before he had gone missing. He had not been thriving in recent months. The changes were subtle enough, but it was almost as if he had become depressed. He had been walking around the house with his head down, and had taken to hiding in her bedroom, instead of staying in the living room with Sheila. He had stopped interacting with Sheila in his usual friendly way.
When she thought about it, Sheila also realised that he had begun to behave strangely with his food. Instead of just tucking into his bowl in the normal way, he had started lifting it carefully out of the bowl, and placing it on the floor. He sometimes dragged it around a bit, before nibbling at it, and he rarely finished it. Sheila had sometimes thought that she should take him to the vet about this, but he had suffered from bouts of gingivitis in the past. Maybe this was the cause. It had always settled down in the past, so maybe it would do the same this time. She also noticed that Pasha’s breath had become smelly in recent months. Again, she blamed the gingivitis, but it had become so severe that when he yawned, she could smell him across the room.
Sheila decided to take Pasha to the vet in the morning. After being missing for a week, it made sense to have him checked out in case there were any underlying illnesses or injuries. And she could use the opportunity to ask the vet about these other niggling issues that were going on.

When I checked him over, he seemed healthy, but his mouth was definitely the source of quite a few problems. The gingivitis had deteriorated dramatically, and he had gone on to develop decay in a number of teeth. I recommended that he should be booked in for a full overhaul of his gums and teeth under anaesthesia.
The procedure was carried out the next day, and as expected, his mouth needed a significant amount of dental work. Four large molar teeth had to be extracted because their roots were rotten. The rest of his mouth was cleaned up, and despite the pain relief, he was very dull when he went home that evening.
Pasha stayed in for the following three days, and he was very quiet. Then, after a particularly deep and long sleep, he woke up as if he was a different cat. He was full of life, playing with Sheila in a way that he hadn’t played for a year. From that day onwards, he has been healthier than Sheila has ever seen him. He spends all of his time close to her, chatting to her with gentle miaows and small purrs. He enjoys his food now, tucking into his food bowl like a cat in an advertisement for pet food. He never plays with his food in the way that had become his habit. And his foul breath is completely cured. If he yawns right into Sheila’s face now, there’s no unpleasant odour at all.
With hindsight, it’s now obvious that Pasha had been suffering from dental disease that had clearly been causing him pain and making him feel unwell. Sheila now wishes that she had known about the cause of his problem sooner, and she has a message for Herald readers.
“If you’re thinking of buying Christmas presents for your pets, think about booking a trip up to your vet for a proper dental check. You may prefer to see your pet with a cute Christmas toy or outfit, but I can promise you, your pet would much prefer to have a clean, healthy, comfortable mouth as a present”.

Tips:
+ Dental disease can cause signs of illness that are not obvious
+ Halitosis and slowness to eat food are two common causes
+ Once painful teeth are extracted, pets often become more playful
Click here for full post

The short dark days of December

On TV3 this week, I discussed the effect of shortening daylength on animals. Click here to watch the video. I brought in one of my backyard hens, called Flamenco, who stops laying eggs in the winter months if we don't brighten up her life with an electric light timed to come on several hours before the "real" dawn. Click here for full post

Irish pig problem

On East Coast FM this week, I discussed the recent dioxin contamination of Irish pig meat with Declan Meehan, as well as dealing with pig farming in general.

Irishpigproblem.mp3

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Dogfight!

Ella Haslett was shocked when she returned hom from school with her mother, when she discovered her three-year-old Shih Tzu Daisy being attacked by a neighbour's dog.Ella’s mother had gone out to do the school run, leaving Daisy in her front garden. After collecting the children, she was driving home, and as she approached her house, she noticed a large black dog on the road opposite her driveway. The dog was tossing a grey object into the air, letting it fall to the ground, then grabbing it in its mouth to throw it up again. At first she thought it was somebody’s cat, and she drove right up to the dog, hooting her horn to try to scare it off. It was only then that she realised that the grey object was her own dog, Daisy. At this stage, the dog had its jaws around Daisy’s neck, swinging her from side to side.
She leapt out of the car, screaming, and finally the big dog dropped Daisy and loped off. Daisy picked herself up, and bolted back into her own garden. She is normally a white dog, but now she was brown and grey, dripping wet from being rolled around in muddy puddles during the attack. She lay shivering on the ground, and Ella helped her mother pick her up and bundle her into the car. They drove straight down to our vet clinic.
As they told me the details of the incident, I feared the worst. When a big dog attacks a smaller animal, the injuries are often very serious. The sharp canine teeth of a dog’s jaws penetrate the skin like sharp knives, causing deep lacerations as they jerk around. Then the pressure of the jaws closing on the smaller animal’s flesh causes severe crushing, damaging internal organs. Even if small animals survive the initial attack, they are often left with internal injuries that lead on to serious illness and even death after a few days.
As I examined Daisy, she was quiet, and in shock, but I was surprised to find that she had survived in remarkably unscathed physical condition. She had only one laceration on the underside of her neck. She had extensive grazes and bruising all around the front half of her body, but there was no sign of the usual serious complications that would be expected.
It was obvious what had saved Daisy’s life. She had an exceptionally long coat. The Hasletts had been planning to have her groomed for a few weeks, but the dog groomer had been fully booked. When the big dog had attacked Daisy, his teeth had closed on mouthfuls of long hair rather than her skin and flesh. When he had tossed her into the air, he had caught her by her fur each time, rather than by her skin. Her long coat had acted like a six-inch deep cushion all around her body. I had to clip off much of the long, bedraggled fur to check her body for other injuries, and it was obvious from the bruising that she had been bitten all over. Daisy was very fortunate that her grooming had been delayed - being bitten through a cushion is much less serious than a direct tooth-to-skin bite.
Once her fur had been clipped off, the full extent of the bruises and grazes could be seen. I cleaned her wounds with antiseptic, and used surgical staples to close the small laceration on her lower neck. She was given plenty of pain relief, and antibiotic cover. Ella and her mum took her home for sympathy and nursing.
I saw her again two days later, for a check up, and she was already much better. She was walking around, head held high, wagging her tail. The lacerated skin was healing well and the bruises were beginning to fade. Meanwhile, the Hasletts had found out more about the details of the incident.

Daisy had strolled from her own garden to the edge of the public roadway, and the big dog, which belonged to a neighbour, and come upon her. The big dog had attacked her viciously, and luckily Ella and her mum had come home just in time to save her life. While they had been down at the vet with Daisy, the police had arrived, and soon the dog warden was involved as well. Under the Control of Dogs Act, all dogs must be kept under effective control. Owners may be held liable for any injury or damage caused if their dog attacks a person or livestock. To the Hasletts, it seemed obvious that Daisy was the innocent party, but under the law, both dogs were equally “guilty”. Both dogs were in a public area, without being under the control of their owners.
The owner of other dog has been given a warning, and if the big dog is seen again in a public area without a lead, then they will be prosecuted and the dog may be removed. Meanwhile, Daisy will no longer be allowed out into the front garden unless the gate onto the road is closed.
I saw Daisy again yesterday, to remove the staples from her wound. She looks like a completely different animal now, following a visit to the dog groomer. She is definitely never going out alone again. Now that her protective cushion of fur is gone, she’d be in serious trouble if she got into another scrap.

Tips
+ Dogs need to be kept under the effective control of their owners at all times
+ If two dogs that are out loose together get into a fight, then both owners are equally liable for any injuries
+ If one of the dogs is on a lead, then the responsibility lies with the dog that not controlled.

Click here for full post

Dogs out on the loose

In this discussion with Declan Meehan on East Coast FM, we talk about dogs roaming off the leash. Click below to listen.

dogsontheloose.mp3

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Antifreeze poisoning on TV3

On Ireland AM today, I discussed antifreeze poisoning of pets with Mark Cagney. This is common, because pets like the taste of this highly toxic substance.Click here to see the video. Antifreeze causes severe kidney failure, and if a pet is ever suspected of ingesting the substance, it's very important that they are rushed to the vet as soon as possible. Early treatment can make the difference between life and death.
Motorists can help prevent accidental ingestion of antifreeze. Most cases of antifreeze poisoning occur around the pet's own home and are usually due to improper storage or disposal. The safe use, storage and disposal of antifreeze is the best way to hlp prevent accidental ingestion.

The following guidelines help pet owners avoid pet exposures to antifreeze.

Antifreeze Poisoning Prevention Tips

* Always clean up antifreeze spills immediately.
* Check your car regularly for leaks.
* Always store antifreeze containers in clearly marked containers and in areas that are inaccessible to your pets.
* Never allow your pets to have access to the area when you are draining antifreeze from your car.
* Propylene glycol-containing products are a less toxic form of antifreeze and could be used instead of conventional ethylene glycol antifreeze. Click here for full post

Chinchillas with sore eyes

Zoe O’Brien has two Chinchillas, called Neo and Charlie. They were brought to see me recently when they developed sore eyes.Name:
Neo was Zoe’s first chinchilla – she bought him on his own. Neo settled in well to his new home, but he started to make strange calling noises – the type of sound that you might hear in the jungle. It was a throaty sound, similar to dog’s bark, but it went on and on, like a howl. Zoe was intrigued by her new pet, and did some research on the Internet to find out more about chinchilla care. She discovered a website at www.chinchillaplanet.com which has an online library of all the sounds that chinchillas make. She was able to double click on each sound file, and listen to the noise. The website then explained what each sound meant in the world of chinchilla communication. Zoe soon discovered that Neo was making a calling noise, looking for his family.
She then decided that she ought to find a friend for him. She decided to get a “rescued animal”, because chinchillas are often abandoned. People fall in love with their cute, toy-like appearance, but then discover that they are more challenging pets than expected. Despite their appearance, they are not at all cuddly. They won't sit on your lap for long, and they don't like to be petted. They don’t make good pets for children in the same way as other small mammals like guinea pigs. Zoe found an unwanted chinchilla through the ISPCA – Charlie was looking for a new home, and she was happy to take him in.

Male chinchillas are prone to fighting, so Zoe had to introduce them to each other very slowly and carefully. Neo and Charlie lived in separate cages, side by side for a full year. Once they had grown used to the sight and smell of each other, Zoe started to let them out of their cages at the same time, so that they could run around the room together. At first, they fought with each other. Their battles were noisy, with fur flying into the air around them, but they never hurt each other. After each fight, Zoe put them back into their own cages, and as time passed, the fights became less frequent. Eventually, they stopped fighting altogether, and Zoe knew that it was safe to put them together into the same cage. The two chinchillas have now become best buddies, even snuggling up to each other when they sleep. Neo still occasionally makes those strange calling noises, but far less frequently than before. On the occasions when he does call, Charlie rushes over to him, and Neo immediately quietens down. It’s as Charlie is saying “It’s OK, I’m here”.
Neo and Charlie have a significant place in the O’Brien household. They live in a large cage, measuring six feet high, which contains branches, hammocks, climbing frames, wheels and other toys. There are plenty of shelves for them to clamber onto, because chinchillas love climbing. The cage is in a spare bedroom and they are such active animals that there is not room for much else other than the chinchillas. They stay in the cage all day, whilst people in the house are out at work, but in the evening, they start to get excited and playful. Zoe lets them out for an hour between eight and nine, and they charge around the room, running around in excitement. They are quiet at first when they go back into the cage, but as nocturnal creatures, they get very active later on. Zoe can often hear them between three and four in the morning, rushing around their cage, despite the fact that she sleeps in a different room.
The chinchillas have been healthy pets, but recently, they both started to rub at their eyes. The skin around their eyes began to go bald, and there was a mild discharge from the corner of each eye. When Zoe brought them to see me, it was difficult to examine them closely. They are such lively, rapidly moving creatures, and they just would not stay still. I could see enough to know that there was nothing serious wrong with their eyes. They were suffering from conjunctivitis, and whilst this tends to be aggravated by bacterial infections, the cause is usually something in the environment. I asked Zoe if there was anything in their home area that could be causing an irritation.
We talked about the various possibilities. They did have a sand bath, which is an enclosed plastic container full of special chinchilla bathing sand. They like to roll around in their, and the fine sand keeps their coat clean as it’s rubbed into their fur. Zoe had not changed the type of sand that she used, so it seemed unlikely that this was causing the sore eyes.
I then asked her what sort of foodstuffs she had in their cage. She explained that their standard diet was chinchilla mix, with pellets, but they also ate fresh leaves (like dandelions) and occasional raisins (she didn’t give them too many of these, since she knows they are fattening.) They also have continual access to hay. It turned out that Zoe had bought a new batch of hay just a few weeks previously, and it was quite dusty compared to previous batches. This seemed to be the likely cause of the problem.
I prescribed some eye ointment for the chinchillas, and Zoe immediately bought a new batch of dust-free hay. Neo and Charlie responded well to the treatment, and their eyes were back to normal within a week.

Tips
+ Chinchillas are not idea family pets, despite their cute appearance
+ They are happiest when living in pairs, or small groups
+ Chinchillas have sensitive eyes, which are easily irritated by dust or aerosols



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