Sadly Pearl passed away today Friday 23rd July 2010.
This thread will help us remember her life.
I got Pearl with Abigail in september 2008. Pearl was 3 1/2 years old and Abigail was 4 years old. Their owners were moving abroad. At the time i was just looking for a Dilute female but the owners wanted Abigail who was called Fudge at the time to be rehomed with Pearl. Pearl was very friendly from the start and soon was taking nuts from my hand, Abigail took longer but eventually she would take nuts aswell. Pearl seemed a healthy girl when we got her apart from her weight, she was badly over weight, 149g, the only other thing which was different was her ears, she didn't have any, although i thought she looked odd at first we soon found she looked very cute. Mum said her ears looked like a bow. Pearl seemed quite active at her old owners, her and Abigail were not easy to catch, although they were friendly they decided to hide in the shed which was their house in the aviary. Finally they came out and then the owner blocked the holes which lead into the shed and we used food to tempt them into the carriers. Pearl was the first to leave the carrier when we got home and next day she was first up. I soon noticed that Pearl seemed less active than my other Chipmunks but didn't suspect anything was wrong at first. A month later she started having seizures and we then discovered that she had Metabolic Bone Disease. Somehow she pulled through this although she came so very close to death. I was amazed when she survived and i remember thinking she must be a fighter. A month after the seizures had started they had stopped and slowly Pearl's coat became sleek again and she regrow the patches she had lost, the fur looked really good. She also lost some weight i had put her on a diet. 2009 she appeared very well, apart from an eye infection in her right eye in march which cleared up in a week. Although her seizures stopped in november 2008 the bone marrow took longer to build up but by march 2009 her skinny legs were much less skinny and she had much more strength in them. Living in the aviary she soon put all the weight back on and by autumn she looked obese again. She came indoors autumn 2009 and i then put her on another diet. Early 2010, january she had one seizure but recovered straight away and never had another one. In March Pearl had lost 50g and was looking much better, she was now 120g, the fat she had under her legs was much reduced and she was climbing much better. When Pearl went back into the aviary she was running around and climbing very well. Pearl always required more calcium than the others.
My first suspicions that Pearl was not right again was her fur, she began lossing fur and her fur was going spiky, she had the same look with the fur she had when she had MBD. I also was sure she had lost more weight, i weighed her and she was 110g so hadn't lost that much but this week i could tell she had lost more as i could feel her spine and her ribs, she also looked very skinny. She began drinking obsessively, some days she was drinking 6 times a day and spending long periods at the bottle. In this last week though she seemed to have reduced her drinking considerably and i found she was dehydrated, i then tried syringing fluid into her but by yesterday she really was not wanting any water or food and kept fighting me.
I won't go much into her final minutes of life but now she is at last at peace.
I still can't believe one small animal went through all that. I only had her 1 year and 10 months but we really got attached to her. She became my favourite after i lost Hazel and she was always my mum's favourite. We loved the way she would climb up the cage when we came over to see her and i think thats what she will always been remembered for. Also she was friendly we everyone, she loved other Chipmunks, she's never attacked another Chipmunk, she lived well with any Chipmunk who would accept her. She was not the most tame of Chipmunks but she would never bite. I will always remember just how much of a fighter she was.
I hope she is now pain free and happy with Hazel, Ginger, all my other Chipmunks who have gone and Dayle's Fidget who Pearl would have loved as Fidget had a nature just like Pearl's.
Rest in Peace, Pearl xx
