Too Much Change?

Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum

Help Support Chinchilla & Hedgehog Pet Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

KingBoris

Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2011
Messages
8
Yesterday, we took Ed to the vet, and after having x-rays done, we found out she has two fractures in one of legs. For about the next month, she's to have no wheel and is not allowed to climb. She has also been given pain killers. I have put a larger cave over her current one to help prevent her from climbing.

She currently has he wood pellet bedding, but I am contemplating switching to liners or something else so that her walking surface is more smooth. She does like to dig in the bedding, and she enjoys "throwing" the bedding all over with her toilet paper tube.

I was wondering if switching bedding would be too much change for her right now. I remember when I asked the vet about her cave, he mentioned to try to find a way to alter the outside of it so she can't climb, but she can still have her hiding place (rather than changing to just blanket hiding).
 
Oh boy! Did the fractures come from falling after climbing. I'm so sorry that happened to him.

Could you post a pic of the cage/cave. I'm having a hard time trying to picture it in my mind.

I'd go ahead and make the change to fleece. Yes, it'll be an adjustment, but I think a good one at this time.
 
The vet believes the injury came from the wheel. The other night, she was on the wheel when her back legs slipped and she sort of fell. It happened twice, so I decided to take her in. The vet wants her to take it easy so no wheel and no climbing.

Sometimes she crawls over her cave, so I was concerned about that. I don't have any photos, but I found something similar online to five an idea.

This would be her cave (it's large enough for her to go under, I'm not sure if it's the same size): http://www.amazon.com/pet-supplies/dp/B0049H3F7K

Over the cave, I put: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3598009&f=PAD/psNotAvailInUS/No

The cover is tall and straight up the sides, so she's not able to climb.
 
Cute cave. I can definitely see how she'd be able to climb over that and get herself into trouble - especially now that she's injured. Glad you were able to find a way to help ensure that she can't climb up and over.

What kind of wheel do you have for her? Depending on the type, there are different modifications you might be able to make to help protect her when she's ready to run again.
 
Sorry for the late response; things have been pretty hectic at home. Ed does seem to still be in good spirits.
She was using the Carolina Storm Wheel; which has started to become very wobbly. We also have the Petsmart Comfort wheel, but had given that up because of squeaking. Our vet did suggest to use vegetable oil for it to stop the squeaking and to prevent any toxicity to her.
 
Regarding the Carolina Storm Wheel - get in contact with Larry. He's pretty good a diagnosing and fixing issues with his wheels.

Glad your little one remains in good spirits :)
 
Ed had her check-up appointment; her leg is healing very nicely, but she does have the beginning stages of arthritis. The vet prefers to keep the wheel out of the cage to avoid any further/future injuries. For exercise, he mentioned having her run around outside the cage and creating mazes/ramps/obstacles in the cage. I have contemplated putting the wheel in for supervised wheeling, but I will be using the previous wheel we had which has the solid surface, but has traction and no wobbliness.
 
Glad she's on the mend.

I do like the idea of creating mazes... you can get a bunch of socks and stuff them to create walls. I have a few fleece ones that I used with Texie when he was beginning to lose his balance. Later, I put in a stacks of wall tiles held together with fun-tac and covered in fleece. They didn't move like the socks did and provided some nice stability.

Sounds like she's doing much better than Texie was. I'd probably go ahead and let her have some supervised wheeling. They seem so happy when they're running. I hope she's not a closet wheeler!!
 
Back
Top