Just like human beings also our little darlings can get ill from time to time. Some diseases you can heal yourself, for others it´s absolutely necessaray that you go to a good vet, which has already experience with chinchillas. * Diarrhea This is the most common illness of chinchillas. If the diarrhea is not acute, that means the chin has normal droppings which is very soft and can be crushed very easylie you can try to heal your chin yourself. You should stop feeding pellets and just give him only hay and water for two days. After that time everything should be OK again. If it is not you should go to a vet to get some medicine for your chin. * Constipation If the droppings are always getting smaller the chin does not want to eat and looks inert than you can be sure that it has constipation. In this case you have to stop giving them goodies and you should give him more exercise as normal. Additional you should give him a little bit "Karlsbader Salt" in his drinking bottle. After two days there should be an improvement. If it is not you should consult a vet immediatly, because there could come up intestinal problems, which can end up deadly. * Constipation after littering Because of eating the placenta it can happen that the chin-mommy suffers from constipation because of the meat she ate. To provide this I give my chin-mommies after littering for about two to three days two times a day Bird Bene Bac (you can get this at the vet), which helps the mommy to digest the heavy food. * Fungus The normal way to get a fungus in your farm is by bringing a new chinchilla into the farm, which already has a fungus. If you are not very careful all chins will get the fungus in short time. Normally you can detect a fungus at the chin´s snout and it´s eyes. There the fur starts getting out. If you see this at your chins just go to the vet, who can examine this. If he finds out that the chin has fungus he will give you a medicine which you can mix into the chinchilla´s dust-bath. To be on the safe side you should mix this powder in the dust-bath of your other chinchillas, too to protect them from getting the fungus, too. * Hairrings by male chinchillas It can happen that at the male´s penis are coming up hairrings, which have to be removed by you instantly, because the chin can´t do this alone. If you are not removing them the penis can go numb and the chin can die cruely. A symptom for hairrings can be, that the chin conspicuos and often cleans his penis. In this case you should take the chin out of its cage and examine it very careful. If you determine hairrings you have to remove them with dull forceps. You can soften it before with lukewarm water. If you don´t dare to do that you should go to the vet who can also remove them. * Anomaly of the molar teeth If your chin eats very slowly or slobbers during the meals there can be a anomaly of the molar teeth. This anomaly can be heriditary indicated. If you have such a chin you should not use them for breeding. If one of your chins has this problem you have to go to the vet with him, which can shorten the molar teeth under narcosis. The problem just is, that you have to do this regular, because the teeth are growing again. * Fractures Caused through various accidents it can happen the chinchilla gets a fracture. If you see that the chinchilla is motionless or has abnormal posture of his legs, etc. or if there is a fracture where you can see parts of its bones you have to go the the vet immediatly. He will x-ray the chin and then take the right steps. * Small wounds If you have more then one chinchilla it can happen that they start fighting and injure each other. If you see a injury you have to examine the chin. If it is only a small wound you can try to stop the bleeding with hydrogene peroxide (available at the pharmacy). Then you have to take care that the chin does not get a dust-bath for not bringing something in the wound and infect it. If it is a bigger wound or the bleeding does not stop you have to go to the vet. * Ophthalmitis If the chinchilla has lactic-aqueous defluxion from the eyes and the eye´s environment is wet and stuck together then the chin has probably an ophthalmitis. This can appear as an additional symptom to another disease or it could be a conjunctivitis because of dust, sand or smaller wounds. If you detect such an ophthalmitis remove the dust-bath until the inflammation is healed up and go to the vet to get an ointment for the healing up.