Chinchilla Paralysis- Dragging leg

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Tangloa

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Messages
6
Hey all,

I am concerned about one of my male chin's. He's 7 months old and was one of my kits. I recently moved him into his temporary cage while I find a good home for him. While in this cage, he has seemed to either get his foot stuck in the side bars or has done something to his foot. I got a text from my mom while in school today saying his leg is broken. So she arranged for a Vet appt at 10. so we go to the vet and he says that its not broken but there is a hematoma on his ligament. He also noticed he did not have any reaction to him touching or pinching his foot, which he also said could be a problem. When he walks he is tending to drag his left hind leg, which is being affected. I live in Bermuda, where there is no vets that deal with exotics so I took what he was saying with a grain of salt, despite them having handled chinchillas before. He told me to do a cold compress on the area and change it after 10 mins and do it twice. He also gave me metacam, an anti-inflammatory to be given orally every day once a day. I still don't seem to be convinced and I want to do everything I can to make sure its not something else. What do you guys think? Is there something else I should be doing? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
I would give him the metacam and anti-inflamatory but not ice.

I had a customer call me for her chin that got her front paw caught between a cage bar and the marble plaque that fell. Her leg was dangling freely. I brought her to the vet for my customer and she gave metacam and anti-inflammatory for 10 days and all came back to normal.

So yes, I would give the medication and see how it goes.
 
Last edited:
Thank you Saphire for your help! :) The whole issue is just a little worrying.

I should clarify that the cold compress wasn't with ice, but with gauze. He told me to gingerly damp a piece of gauze with water and freeze it so it could reduce some swelling in the area.
 
Put the chinchilla in a small cage or carrier with no shelves so that the leg gets a chance to heal. Otherwise, he will run and jump and could make things worse.
 
Yup he is in his own little cage with out any shelves or ledges, just the bottom and a bed which he loves.

Also I'm afraid he's not eating but he is occasionally eating some hay, some treats and I think a few pellets sometimes. I have already ordered in some oxbow critical care on express shipping so I'm crossing my fingers.

Is there any way I could possibly hand feed him in the mean time and what should I do it with?

How about him drinking water? I see him occasionally drinking but I don't want him to get dehydrated. Should I syringe water as well?
 
To hand feed him prior to getting your critical care in, you can take his current pellets and crush them up in a food processor or coffee grinder and add water to the mixture. That way you can syringe feed him.

To entice him to drink more, hang a second bottle of water and apple juice. Make sure that he still has access to his usual bottle of plain water.

Hope that helps!

Cheryl
 
I would not give apple juice to a chin who is stressed due to injury, you are just asking for bloat. If the hand feed mixture is mixed to a milkshake consistancy then its enough water for the chin in that. If you still want to hand feed water use 1cc syringes and just squirt a little bit behind the incisors.
 
Hey all

I just went downstairs where all my chin's cages are and i noticed one of his eyes wasn't opening. Upon closer inspection, I noticed it was completely shut. I took him in my arms and had to gently open his eye and when I did, his whole eye had like a eye boogey in it.

I don't know why but this is the first time ive ever seen one like this. I always see them when chins get a dust bath and in the corners of their eyes then they wipe them away, but never like this...

And he hasn't had a dustbath since his injury, so what could this be?
 
Chinchillas get eye infections, chin needs a vet visit to check if its from a scratch or just infection-the antibiotics are different for both issues so chin needs a vet. Eye infections are nothing to mess with since left untreated can lead to blindness.
 
Just scheduled an appointment for 12:30 today. Crossing my fingers it all goes well.

No if he does go on these antibiotics, are there any precautions or other symptoms I should be worried about?

Would these antibiotics kill off the bacteria in his gut? My Critical Care isnt in yet, so if these do cause stasis what should I?

I just want to prepare for the "what if"
 
My previous post isn't going through, so hopefully this one does:

So we went to the vet, we did the light test to see if there was a scratch and there wasn't any scratch or anything. She said it was an infection and prescribed be some ofloxacin eye drops for his eye. One drop twice a day.

She also checked out his leg again and the swelling has gone down a bit but she's still concerned about him getting movement back to his leg. He has begun to start moving his thigh but not his foot yet.

I also mentioned that he's been gingerly eating and drinking and that i've ordered in some critical care in. I told her that I worried about gut stasis, so she said she had some in the back I could use until I receive mine in.

I have just fed him just under a Table spoon of the critical care but I mixed it with 2 parts water. He fussed quite a bit but he did began to swallow it.
 
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