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Rocket not well! :( U/D fine now!

Amethyst

Warren Veteran
Our little Rocket man seems to have felt the heat (two days at 33C and a third at 25C with humid nights). Despite leaving fans on and doors open I found him this morning lying on his side looking pretty sorry for himself. No open-mouthed breathing thankfully but he felt hot to the touch and his eyes were wide. I took him to the vets and they gave him sub-cut fluids and said I should keep a close eye on him. It's much cooler today (only 18C) and they said to keep plenty of cool water in a bowl for him, and if he shows no signs of improvement they gave me a rehydration fluid which I administer via syringe-feeding.

Does anyone else have any advice on how I can help my little man?

AMETHYST
 
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You can make your own ice packs with empty 2ltr bottles of fizzy drink, fill with water and pop in the freezer and once frozen wrap in a thin towel and place around the house/run/garden for him to lay next to.
You could get some marble (some pet stores sell it for chinchillas) as that generally stays cold and they like to lay on them.
The snuggle safe company do a cooling version of the traditional snuggle safe too I think?
 
As well as what Leanne says, (yes snugglesafe do also make a freezer version), it sounds stupid but have you tried leaving the doors (and curtains/shutters etc) closed instead of opening them. When it's really hot, often you can actually be letting more hot air in rather than you are letting out, and the place can really cool down if you have everything shut up and stop the sun from getting in.
 
Spray cool water on the fur side of his ear, every few hours during the morning and afternoon. Their ear are radiator, they dissipate the heat.
 
One trick I learnt when having chinchillas (as they don't fare well with heat) was to put towels in really cold water (can even freeze them) and aim the fans at the towels, so the air cuts across the cold surface and spreads around cold air. Animals don't sweat so fans don't work like they do with us - in humans the air current helps the (hot) sweat evaporate, leaving our skin cooler. With animals it just really circulates the hot air, unless you work on a way to cool the air down. This method can raise the humidity a bit though, I suppose aiming a fan across some frozen water bottles or something may do the job almost as well without adding more moisture to the air
 
Thanks guys, Rocket is fine. I'd taken a day off to sort him out and it worked. I had to rehydrate him several times with the syringed rehydration fluid but then he perked up in the evening and was fine by about 11pm. I did a few of your suggestions too like spraying the water onto his ears and freezing a bottle of water to put in the cage with him (although he ignored it! :roll:).

Thanks for all your help!

AMETHYST
 
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