Tag: mocha

Mocha

20th August 2016 – 16th November 2018

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Mocha was named for his colouring and because he was a sweet boy and full of energy. He was never very interested in his humans but was calm being handled. Once he had a playpen he was happier coming out of his cage because he knew how to ask to go back. He would climb in to my lap, walk up to my knee then look up at the cage while standing on his hind legs. I put my hand out in front of him and he would step on to it for a lift back to his cage. Sometimes he would come back out, more often than not he would fill up his pouches and go back to his hoard.

Mocha was healthy until 6 weeks ago, it’s only 1 week ago that his health really started to decline. He got some medication which helped but his little body just gave up.

I’ll miss his little face 🐹🌈

Health update

Just a short update this time because four of the degus are healthy

Jack (degu)

Jack lost a small patch of fur and has developed a small lump, it’s not looking like cancer but it’s going to be removed the next time he goes in for a dental (probably in the next few weeks) unless it changes in appearance before then and it’ll be sent off for analysis.

Mocha (hamster)

Mocha isn’t doing so well, he’s 2 years and nearly 3 months old now. He’s been to the vet more in the last month than in the previous two years. He’s lost a lot of fur, his skin is dry and he’s developed some balance problems. It could be any number of things, we’re trying a treatment which we’re hoping will help and if it does it’ll rule out some of the possibilities.

Health update

Scott: Scott has been getting regular eye infections for some time now so we got a referral to a specialist, the most likely cause is a blocked tear duct which they can’t do anything about because degus are too small so unfortunately it’s going to be a case of continue with the dreaded eye drops.

Scott did not appreciate having to drive further for the specialist and was agitated in the travel cage, he was chewing at the seat belt (he was strapped in in addition to me holding on to the cage), when I moved the seat belt he shoved his face though the cage bars and gave me possibly the worst bite I’ve had from any of them. The vet suggested something called Pet Remedy, so we’ll be trying that next time.

Jack: Jack just had a dental and is eating loads better again now, it had been about 6 months since his previous one so that’s pretty good.

Sam: Sam took advantage of Jack being a bit out of it and there was lots of mounting and Sam ended up with quite the fur ring, which I noticed because his cone wasn’t the normal shape. He’s fine though, it was removed before it could cause any problems and is otherwise in good health.

Tobias: Tobias has had blood in his eye for a week and half, he’s been to the vet a couple of times, the vet has been in contact with an exotics specialist and we’re currently waiting to hear back from an optometrist. Unfortunately the optometrist is based about 4 hours away and I’m not sure if keeping Tobias in a travel cage for probably 9-10 hours would be worth it but we’ll see what they have to say and whether there’s much they can do or if they could just guide my vet through the next steps.

Tobias has also been showing high levels of glucose in his urine recently (so he might have diabetes), and now blood which might be related to the eye and could indicate kidney disease or it could be unrelated as it is something he’s had before.

Ben and Zach: *screams internally* Puberty. I can’t wait for it to be over. Health-wise they’re ok but oh my goodness the fighting. They’re separated at the moment because they’ve been doing the scary serious fighting where they lock together in a ball. Neither of them have had lasting injuries, Zach has lost his bottom incisors twice from having bitten Ben. They’ve been reintroduced a few times and been ok for a few days but then gone back to fighting. They skip the scrapping stage. They go from agitated to ball. When the others scrap I feel safe putting my hand in-between them, but not with the pups, they also don’t seem to realise that they can give me a warning nip and go straight to biting.

Ben has a little white in his eyes, not sure if they’re cataracts, he doesn’t seem to have diabetes and can see fine. The vet said monitor it.

Mocha: Mocha is well, he’s going a bit grey but he’s still very active and hamstering well. His teeth are a little crooked, if they don’t sort themselves out he might need a dental but for the time being he’s eating well and his weight is consistent so my vet doesn’t think it’s currently worth the risk of an anaesthetic at his age.

(Mocha is a hamster, the rest are all degus)