Things have been, well, a bit tense on the home front lately. As our younger chinchillas grow into adulthood (and go through the various cycles associated therewith), spats and quarrels between cage mates — and between cages — become more frequent. Our senior male, Dudley, was bitten by Chihiro, our largest female, when he put his nose too close to her cage. Dudley meeped in displeasure and didn’t emerge from his quarters for forty-eight hours; his “spouse”, Joonko, was nearly frantic.
We’ve made some external changes that will keep “out time” safer. But we’ve also decided to address some of these squabbles homeopathically. All seven of our chinchillas have “issues”, as it were, just like their human guardians. And though I don’t rely on natural remedies to the exclusion of Western medicine, we do consult a homeopath regularly. And we’re going to start giving the chinchillas some flower essences, gently rubbed onto their tiny paws or lightly placed on a treat. Different chins will receive different remedies; Chihiro may benefit from “beech” to help her become more tolerant, while Dudley may need a bit of Gentian to restore his optimism as he continues to cope with the aftermath of his bite.
Tease and eye-roll to your heart’s content. We’re going to have the most well-adjusted chinchillas in town. Look, in a future post, for updates about our introduction of massage therapy to their weekly regimen.
Okay. Put me down for eye-roll, one, standard issue.
haha you’re kooky, but I love you anyway!
Hi, occasional reader/lurker checking in here for eye-rolling. Please, if you believe your chins are in need of medical treatment, treat them with some kind of medicine that is at least vaguely plausible according to the laws of physics as currently known - or, better yet, something that has empirical evidence for its effectiveness. Like making external changes to make “out time” safer.
Oh, please understand, tricia, we give them first rate veterinary care and do make all sorts of changes to their physical environment. Homeopathy is an “addition to”, not an “instead of.”
Hi, Hugo. Homeopathy has been used with chins (e.g., Bach’s Flower Essences: http://www.bachflower.com/), but it’s important to be aware of some of the dangers of oils/ derivatives from some woods that are toxic. Chins have some sensitivities that are not common to other animals: http://www.chincare.com/Pages/SafetyandSuppliers.htm#toxicwood (the long list)
Toxic Factors
Poisonous- Some wood is simply poisonous by nature: china berry, oleander, hemlock, etc.
Ingestion- Resinous wood (sap, gum, resin, pitch) is extremely harmful to the digestive system: birch, fir, maple, etc.
Inhalation- Aromatic wood (oils, phenols) will damage the liver and respiratory system: cedar, eucalyptus, pitch pine, sandalwood, etc.
We’ve used Bach’s Rescue Remedy, with limited success. This product is sometimes used by chin rescuers with extremely stressed (fur-biting, urine-spraying, biting) chins when they initially arrive at rescue: http://www.bachflower.com/Rescue_Remedy.htm
Most importantly, if you’re having cagemate conflicts, you should examine what in the environment (husbandry approach as well as physical environment) could potentially cause that: http://www.chincare.com/HealthLifestyle/Introductions.htm#groupcompatibility.
Homeopathy may induce a more relaxed or soothed state of mind in chins that are high-strung or oversensitive, but effectively it’s treating the symptom instead of the problem because most of the time chin conflicts are the result of some triggering environmental stress factor rather than temperament alone: http://www.chincare.com/HealthLifestyle/RelatingEnvironment.htm#environmentalstress.
I know you do a superb job with your chins, they absolutely couldn’t have better, my bet is that whatever’s going on will be easy to correct. ;)
Homeopathy? Oh, Hugo, I was going to let for for a little while your complete dismissal of your religion’s anti-feminist scripture, but now homeopathy too? You really consult a person who wants you to believe that a bottle of solution with one or less molecules of the original ingredient is as good as a bottle of the real stuff because she shook it up and all this other jazz? Wow.
Hey, you have to remember I was raised in an intensely academic family. A fondness for the irrational, the mystical, and the downright improbable (especially when slickly packaged) is one of my unfortunate character traits.
And jeepers, I took Airborne for years and still swear by it. I believe six impossible things before breakfast too.
Homeopathy for people is one thing; the placebo effect is powerful. Kind of a waste of energy for animals, but if it makes you feel better, who am I to tell you to waste your money in a different fashion?
I wouldn’t worry about the negative health effects of the homeopathic medicine. Water is pretty benign stuff, even water you’ve been conned into paying $10/oz for.
Hugo, I’m in your corner here. I use different flower remedies and essential oils for my pets (dog, cat and ferrets when we had them) and found them to work very well indeed. As bossanovachin stated, it is very wise to make sure that whatever animal you are thinking of using any of these remedies on is not allergic to them. One constant that I’ve found is that all animals that I’ve given Rescue Rememdy to have responded positively to it.