To ensure the health and wellbeing of your chin, it's very important that you regularly look over your chin for any early signs of potential issues.  Some checks should be conducted more often than others, however, always remember prevention is better than a cure and early treatment can be life saving.

• Check teeth for mouth and teeth issues

Teeth should be yellow/orange in colour. They should be straight, not overgrown or misaligned. White teeth are a sign of a calcium deficiency.

Drooling, discharges, difficulty eating, bold patches of fur around the eyes are signs of dental issues. 

• Respiratory issues

Loss of appetite, nasal discharge and laboured breathing are signs of respiratory distress. Seek urgent veterinary advice.

• Healthy faece's

Faece's should be healthy in appearance and quality, they should be dark brown in colour, firm, plump and odourless. Pointy or strangely shaped faece's are a sign of constipation. If you see mucus covered droppings or air bubbles this can be sign of serious health issue. See a vet immediately and take samples with you.

• Check fur

Check fur for bald patches, sores or scale skin. These could be signs of bacterial infections, stress or fungus. Seek veterinary advice. If you have a male chin check for fur rings around penis. These can be removed as described previously.  However, if you are not comfortable doing this yourself, seek veterinary advice as fur rings can result in blood circulation being cut off.

• Signs of heat stroke

Your chin will be reluctant to move, lying stretched out, red eyes and ears are the first sign of heatstroke. This can progress to panting, high temperature and loss of consciousness. This  can be deadly for your chin, if you see your chin displaying signs of heatstroke seek urgent veterinary advice. If temperature and humdity of habitat are maintained to ideal levels then risk of heatstroke is greatly reduced.