User:SmUX

Proud owner of 4 baby degus; Loki, Damien, Theresa and Gizmo. Unable to tell them apart straight away (Loki limps, Gizmo's tiny, Damien has congenital cataract in his right eye and Theresa's female and has congenital cataract in her left eye), but that's their names :-)

Theresa was Thor, but I realised he's a she so she's got her own cage.

Also the proud owner of 3 lovely 2-year-old female degus, as yet un-named but I am not 100% sure I will be keeping them. At the moment I am looking after them until the owner is 100% sure she doesn't want them in her new home or I can find a new home for them, or I might keep them myself as they really are lovely little girls

20th May 2010: Loki managed to escape onto the balcony and jumped, falling approximately 20 feet onto concrete and making a squeaking sound when he landed that I'll never forget. Smart little bugger that he is, he stretched his arms and legs out and landed fairly well considering...I gave up looking for him at one point but from then on I always went out to the balcony to look for any signs of him and I convinced myself I could hear noises that sounded like playful degu chittering so I decided to take another look for him and found him hiding in a bush about 2 metres away from where he landed, visibly in shock but otherwise seeming fine. Took him to the RSPCA who gave him a painkiller shot and will have him checked out again tomorrow and I'll update this page then...but at least the little bugger's alive! IMO prognosis is good, he seems to have got over a lot of the shock of the fall and has shown some of the old Loki traits, he's just a little mopey at the moment (probably due to the painkillers)

23rd May 2010: Loki is much better mentally (although still a lot tamer than he used to be), and seems physically fine except for his left hind leg which he holds up while walking around (and obviously can't and doesn't run). He's a lot more mobile than before, and he WASN'T eating or drinking before...then he started selectively eating food so I've been treating him a lot with fatty treats (to give him his medicine and to keep his weight up a little) and also hand-feeding him some of the normal foods as he can't hold them with both paws AND stand on his hind legs. He is also now drinking although I didn't think he was but I "caught" him having a sip from his bottle earlier. I also gave him some water by hand using the syringe his medicine was in (confirmed to be okay by the RSPCA hospital, I cleaned out the syringe first, and I syringed out a tiny drop at a time and put it near his mouth...perseverance paid off and he did eventually realise it was for drinking and not gnawing) and he did take some of it and hopefully it was this which gave him his thirst for water again. I was worried at one point that there might have been tooth damage (grinding sounds he made alerted me to the possibility), but he's been using his teeth very well and his jaw is fine as I've seen him yawn on a couple of occasions. While I don't recommend this to ANYONE with their fit and healthy degus, if you have a degu that is in the same mopey and immobile state as my Loki, you might find a trip to the park and a little free wandering (supervised all the time, of course) will do them the world of good. Loki has had a trip out to the local park almost every day since, and he enjoys nibbling at the grass and "tunnelling" through the tall or thick grassy areas, and he enjoys coming over to me and climbing up onto my leg then onto my shoulders (I support him with a hand below him but not actually touching him, in case he falls) and then carefully climbing down again. It goes without saying that you should be careful exactly WHERE you let them wander and also where you "pitch" your starting area...I always chose a shady spot as it was a sunny day each time, and he could venture out into the sunny area if he wished. He also liked to climb back into his carry box and play around getting in and out (again with me supporting him). I suggest you fill the box with bedding and cover it with a tea towel, and let your degu explore it so they know what's in there, then when they are bored and want to go home they will probably go over to the carry box and climb in or wait for you to help them in, and when they get in they will burrow into the bedding and not come out again or poke their nose out but not come completely out of it.

24th May 2010: Loki (with Damien for company, see pic on right) took a trip to the animal hospital today with the intention of Loki having an x-ray to see if there's anything that has been missed which needs sorting out. The vet decided that as Loki was now eating and drinking fine that there probably isn't anything internally wrong and it would be better to continue the treatment of Metacam and add Baytril (as an added precaution) and the x-ray wouldn't be required as the results wouldn't make much difference to the treatment. I am very relieved about this because of the mortality issues surrounding the anaesthetic required for Loki to be x-rayed. When we got home, Damien and Loki shared the top of the cage but Damien got stir-crazy and tried to escape through the wire mesh floor (see video on left)thumb|300px|left so I returned him to his part of the cage with his brothers and Loki stayed on his own for the night.

When it was time for Loki to take his medicine, he was a good boy when it came to the Metacam (I spread a drop over one of his favourite treats, a leaf from a treat bag) and although it took a bit of time he was also a VERY good boy when it came to the Baytril...I held him on his back and coaxed him into opening his mouth and taking the syringe and a few times he did it but I didn't get to push the plunger as I was trying to only give him a little bit at a time and I wasn't getting the right amount of pressure. Eventually I managed to give him the whole load (0.2ml) in one go, totally accidentally, and after a bit of cute lip-smacking and such he was fine with it (although he did seem a bit "drunk" afterwards, but he soon recovered from it) and he got a lot of "good boy!"s from me and the kind of attention he needs.

He's been such a good boy recently that I think it might be time for him to mingle with his brothers properly (he is a bit more like his normal self than yesterday, each day brings more of the old Loki back, and I think he's almost ready to fend for himself)...I'll keep the top part of the cage free in case he needs to return there, but he's going to share the lower two floors with his brothers properly for the first time in a while. While he's with his brothers, I am going to be intently monitoring them and if I see any signs of them trying to dominate him I will put a stop to it instantly...it may be natural for them to do this, but Loki is not his normal self and deserves me dominating anyone who tries to dominate him, and dominate I will, hell, I already have when I've caught them at it recently!

8th June 2010: It's been a while since I've done any updating to this, but Loki's been getting on very well with his brothers and even with his sister. He's a lot like his old self, and a lot more inquisitive than before, and he loves to climb out of the cage when I am trying to put stuff in there for him and his brothers. He's still not alpha male material but I don't think the others bug him or anything, they're all good little brothers. When it came to giving him the Baytril, I found it a lot more comfortable (for me anyway) to give him 0.1mg at a time so 2 doses...he may be able to handle 0.2mg shoved into his mouth like that but I think 0.1mg is much easier to handle this way even though it's done twice. Since then I also noticed that he had a bump on the small of his back (just above the tail), which is how I now tell him apart from the others, and also that his tail was a bit limp (well, very limp...not moving at all and he doesn't notice when I touch it) so I went back to the vet's and they gave me more metacam and tomorrow I am going in to see what they say. It may end up needing to be x-rayed, and I get the feeling it may have to be amputated although I will give it careful consideration and get the advice of some VERY degu-knowledgeable people first as he seems to be fine with his tail how it is, just it doesn't do anything...it's like it's partially dislocated from his backbone or something and it's no longer under his control.