Those Poor Chinchillas...

I wasn't even sure what to title this, I'm still sort of in shock from this whole thing.  Let me start at the beginning.

I had this family, mom and two kids, come to adopt a chin... maybe a month or two ago now.  They took home a standard grey female.  When she was here, she was super sweet, super nice chinchilla.  Nice even, level personality, no biting / spraying, nothing.  Calm chin, good for a family with kids.  The family came and adopted her, family seemed great. 

Later that day, I get a call from the older of the two boys (maybe 9-10 years old), telling me that the chinchilla had bitten his brother and drawn blood, and they wanted to exchange the chinchilla for another one.  As they hadn't had the chinchilla for more than a few hours at that point, I told them to let her settle in for a bit and to not pester her for a few days, and see how it goes.  I told them, if things didn't improve, I would swap her out for another one.

Now, let me say that occasionally this sort of thing does happen.  Sometimes it's just not a good fit, the animal doesn't get along with the adoptive family, and they return, swap out for another, and usually, they are super happy with the second.  This has happened maybe... 5ish times in 15 years.  So, not super common, but it does happen now and then.  No red flags, yet.

Time passes, and the female chin progresses to then start spraying in addition to the biting.  Eventually, we talk again and they bring her back. 

This is what she looked like when they brought her back (and you may recognize, this is the currently listed 3 year old female that doesn't get along with kids):

Does her body condition look kind of off to you?  I thought so as well (these were pics from shortly after re-intake).  At the time (and this is what it currently says in her ad), I assumed that when they were going to catch her to bring her back, she slipped a bunch of fur, and I didn't think much of it.  Also, she was a heck of a lot skinnier than when she was adopted out, when she came back.  But again, I figured, well, if she was stressed out enough to be biting and spraying, she may also have been stressed out enough to not be eating all that well.  It happens.  Giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Moving along.

I swap her out for this gorgeous show quality standard grey male adult, as they wanted a super calm one and super nice one.  He was what I had that best matched what they were looking for, and I actually felt kind of bad that they'd had a bad experience with the first one, as the kid had been telling me about how he was trying to do everything right and how he wasn't sure if it was something he did, or whatnot, and he was telling me how he cleaned the cage and was trying to make the chin happy and whatnot...so I wanted him to be happy.  So, he went home with a super nice chin.

They take home the second chin, the really nice male.  My health guarantee is for 7 days... day 8, I get a text from the mom, I need to call her, the chin is really sick and needs to go to the vet.  I call her, and her "story" was that they changed the bedding on the chinchilla and their guinea pig, and almost immediately, both had labored breathing and weren't doing well.  Now, she said that this is what her sons told her... she did not have first-hand experience of this, other than seeing the chin not doing well.  In her words, she rushed the chinchilla to the vet, still alive, but they couldn't save it despite trying for some time.  According to her, they told her that it was the horrible pine shavings and they told her to NEVER use them with small animals, and said that that was what caused the death.  This is all important later, remember this. 

I told her, pine shavings aren't the devil, and that even if there was something wrong in the shavings, it wouldn't cause immediate labored breathing and death.  But of course, I wasn't trying to be mean, and they did just have a chin die after all, so even though it was after my health guarantee was over and even though it wasn't just like the chin randomly died, I told her I would replace it.  Again.

Of course, they wanted another one that was just as sweet and cuddly and awesome as that one.  At the time, I didn't have any other standard males that were nice (you know, rescues are often rescues for a reason), so I told her, check back in a week or so.  The kid called and texted several times, for about a month, all while I told them, I didn't have a chin for them yet (and legitimately, I didn't).  Then I got in a nice 5 year old culled breeder.  Very similar to the previous one they'd had, SUPER nice, super calm, super chill.  We set up an appointment for them to come by.

They adopted the third chin 9/30.  They told me, they were going to name him Chow Chow.  They said, oh this is the one!!  They even asked if the first chinchilla (the female) was still here, and I said that she was, and they went over to her and said hi.  They left all happy.  Nothing seemed unusual.

You can imagine my surprise when 10/1, barely 24 hours later, I got a call from one of the local vet's office telling me that a chinchilla named Chow Chow had been surrendered.  They were calling me because the family had told them that they had adopted him from my facility.

Oh but it gets worse.  Much much worse. 

My first thought, upon hearing the chin was surrendered, was that it bit them or something and they didn't want to face me again, so they dropped it off there.  Oh, it couldn't have been that nice of a situation.  No.  He was brought to the vet, examined, the vet talked with the family, and the family decided they didn't want to mess with trying to treat his injuries, and so the vet suggested surrendering him, which they did.

I should mention... it was the actual vet that called.  Not the secretary, not a tech, the VET.  That's NEVER a good sign.

In reality... the vet suspected abuse.  Chow Chow has several vertebral dislocations.  As of the time I write this (10/3), he is currently dragging his rear legs, has hind-end-paralysis, and has a weird kink at the base of his tail.  That kink is swollen, hot, and sensitive to touch.  The vet said this is clearly a super recent injury, and x-rays were done, which is what showed fractures and dislocations.

The family's excuse?  HE FELL.  *cough* bullshit *cough*  Even the vet thought so.  They did say, if a chin did somehow fall hard enough to cause these injuries, the injuries would not be limited to this one area, and the entire impact area would have fractures / breaks...and yet, the injuries were localized in the vertebrae / spine / base of tail.  So, I asked, what was the more likely reason for this diagnosis?  The vet said, the chinchilla was most likely swung around by his tail, causing the vertebral dislocations.

According to the vet, they don't have high hopes of Chow Chow pulling through, though he IS eating Critical Care and is peeing a bit.  Though again, all signs point to abuse.

But it still gets worse.  Remember that second chin that came into the vet?  Unlike what I was told (about them bringing it in, the vet spending all this time trying to save it), the vet said that the chinchilla was dead upon arrival.  Upon examination, the vet said the cause of death was severe trauma... upon hearing this, the family RAN OUT.  So, when the family came back with this chin, the whole vet's office was like "it's THEM!!!" 

I told the vet how the family had told me, oh the vet had said it was the shavings that caused the death.  The vet said they never told the family pine shavings were bad, and said it was definitely severe trauma that caused the death, not anything to do with shavings.

The vet had called me because, with knowing the chin came from here, and figuring the previous one had as well, they wanted me to be aware of what was going on with the family (so as to not adopt to them in the future) and to let me know what was going on with the chinchilla in their care.  They said that if Chow Chow did pull through, they potentially had a staff member who wanted to take him home, but wanted to check with me that if that did not work out, if I would be able to take him back.  Of course.  (of course, this all hinges on him significantly improving)

He's currently still at the vet and as far as I know, still being treated.  They are supposed to update me with what happens with him, whether he passes or improves, or whatever.  Should anyone want to donate to his care (they didn't ask for it, but as they clearly are saints...), he is at Glenwood Village Pet Hospital, and their phone number is 708-782-4573.

Now, it makes sense why the first chin was so worse for wear looking when she came back into the rescue.  With their 2nd chin dying as a result of severe trauma, and the third chin currently not having the greatest outlook, there's a high presumption that they weren't any "nicer" to the first chinchilla.  I should note, when she came back, I made a note on her card that she bit and sprayed them, and I left her alone for a week or two to let her settle back in.  She has NEVER bitten or sprayed anyone here, and is again, nice as a cupcake.  Heck, even the first day they brought her back, when the one kid said, "oh careful she might bite you"... I was able to reach into the carrier and get her out with no problem, no spraying, no biting.  If nothing else, that suggests hostility towards certain people who weren't nice to her, not just hostility in general.  She doesn't know it, but by being a little furry asshole to them, she basically escaped with her life.

I still have her listed as not going to a family with kids (and that won't change), as I believe that whatever happened to these chins, it was the kids that did it.  I won't put this girl through having to live with any kids again, nice or not, as she's been through enough.  Heck, she's lucky to be alive.  No need to further stress her out.

Those poor, poor chinchillas.