2002 Story Set
| May 23, 2002 My chinchilla looked dead thing morning and scared me. But I saw, when she sat up, that she was not moving well and having trouble. I called the ranch. Valley View Chinchilla Ranch in Vista, down near to my other house. They walked me through treatments. I have the pink stuff. It comes from Mexico. I got some drops into her. I also got a little molasses into her and put Gatorade into a water bottle. I am off to get an eyedropper and the health food stuff (a laxative) and will try to medicate her again. She is leaning on the diet coke box (switched her boxes) sitting on her hind legs and panting. I could not feel that she was blocked (no lumps). She has shed a lot of fur this spring - it's everywhere - a real heavy molt - I had just got the fresh alfalfa for her but she is ignoring it.- she does that - eats a twig and ignores the rest so that is normal behavior for her. She nests in it and dirties it. She also hates alfalfa blocks. She is bright-eyed - and feisty - my son had a hard time holding her for me as I dripped in molasses. She had wood chew blocks - bit she still prefers the clothespins - I need to get her some more. She "nests" in her soda box - a 12-can box - that I have to replace periodically for cleanliness. She gets very upset with me when I give her a new box and spends hours usually chewing on the new one. She has not been well all day and after a fruitless search for the other medication, I came home and knew she would not make it. The ranch had said, on hearing her symptoms, "That's not good." I was considering driving her down in the morning to the ranch - in Vista - 500 miles away. I just came out and she had keeled over. I will bury her later. Right next to where I put the other one a few years back. I am not very happy. I will clean and store the cage. When I go back to So. Cal - I will get a new pair of grays. They are such cute creatures. We had her for 12 years. My older son, at 14, nagged me for hours at the Del Mar Fair one year so we got her and a mate. She was 4 months old then. She give birth to 14 litters. Paid for herself and all the others. We sold the babies back to the ranch. We always carried them around under our chins. "Velcro mice" - our babies were always very tame and easy to sell. She outlived 2 mates so I stopped breeding her. She had a mirror to look in after all the others died off. We lost all our stock when I moved up here. I lost them all one by one. The beige female died giving birth to 3 kits and I found all of them dead when I came home from work. The male followed. He was called bumble because as a baby he would leap and miss. I would put them into big cardboard boxes - long ones - and they would run up and down. In San Diego they would come out and run around the family room and end up on the top of the sofa. My black died while I was at an RT convention - we thought she was ill when we left. I lost a black just before the move - he was this one's mate and had bad teeth. I lost shadow (black male) I forget - I believe up here. They just kept dropping off and I refused to replace them I hate northern California! I will miss her - she was the kid's pet (they all were - we had three mated pairs) but I was the keeper and handled them and fed them and rushed to the farm when there was a problem. The ranch is only 40-45 minutes from the house in San Diego. I did not handle her much since my younger son got sick - except yesterday to put medication into her. She was soft and fluffy as ever - I think she had trouble breathing. My older son used to pick her up and cuddle her when he visited. They thought constipation but there were dropping in the cage and I had just cleaned it. She used to like to chew clothespins instead of her wood blocks. And she loved shredded wheat. She would scold at me unless I fed her right away. She chittered when I came in the kitchen. She often liked to have the wheat squares twice a day. The kids loved playing with the adults and the babies. They were little people. It was so cute to watch the male take care of the babies! Each had a personality. Her original mate used to try to get away from the kits and she would bounce up the stairs and kick him down. The babies would climb on his tail. and swing. My son cannot handle death - he never takes care of dying animals. I of course buried this little body - out in the dark when it was cool enough to move and I had calmed down a bit. Then I found she had bit the cage and died that way - probably a spasm - I couldn't get her out! I had to get wire cutters - I was a total wreck! My son was of course no help. I cut the cage wire and buried her with a brick on top - next to where I buried one other. By tree. I had wine and went to bed. I have a hard time with this. I will miss her. |
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