self multation

[lsknc]

can anyone help me with this? i have a female that was a first time mom. the kits ended up attacking her nursesing region. bloody mess. we took the kits away and are hand feeding them. we have been treating the wounds, everything is healing fine. then we moved her back out to the barn since everything was going great. then one night after about a week or so back into the barn and she attacks her arm. all the fur is gone, and it looks like the main area of attack was around the elbow. her whole arm is swollen and looks painful. we have an appointment with the vet later on today. this is the first time we have had anything like this happen. but what would cause her to do this?

 

[threewingedfury]

Is it possible that she has an infection, or is in some sort of pain?

 

[Stackie]

I have experienced a chin chewing himself to the point of drawing blood when he was in pain. That may be her reason.

 

[alli713]

My guess is pain or something bothering her in the general area. The top teat is close to the arm, so she could just be attacking the area.

MuShu, one of my females (never bred or anything though) recently had to go on meds because it was believed she was biting herself. She also had to wear a cone, so if she is hurting herself, you may want to look into that so that she can't reach the area for a bit until it heals more.

 

[lsknc]

we have been checking signs of infection but havent seen any. the first layer of her arm is completely gone and the only fur left is around the toes. she wont put any pressure on it or anything. she keeps reopening the top areas of the wounds from where the kits attacked her. hoping the vet will shed some light.

 

[VolunteerChin22]

Ugh - Poor girl - hope she gets better. Maybe if the wounds are healing they are itchy...

 

[Kansas City Chinchillas]

It sounds as though she is in pain and possibly has an infection. Hope the vet can help.

 

[alli713]

If she keeps reopening the wound I would highly suggest asking for a cone. If you can get a flexible one, there isn't any issues with eating. MuShu has shredded her collar now, but it did work fine for 3 weeks.

There has to be a reason for her reopening the wounds and attacking her arm, if it's just pain you can get meds for that, but hopefully the vet will be able to tell for sure if it's infected or not. They can take some blood and look for abnormal cells and bacteria.

 

[starleomach]

could she have mastitis???? the only time I have heard of such "mutilation" there was an underlying problem

 

[saphire]

could she have mastitis???? the only time I have heard of such "mutilation" there was an underlying problem

I was thinking the same, it might well be mastitis...

Could she give metacam to relieve her of pain caused by mastitis until she sees the vet?

 

[lsknc]

sorry for the late update

we got her to the vet a few hours earlier then our appointment but since she kept freaken out when he was trying to look at her, we opted to have her sediated via gas so we can look at what she caused to herself. it was much much worse then what i could have ever believe. she had chewed herself to the bone on her front leg and had already too a big chuck out of the bone itself. most of the wound around the nipple area had healed but there was one or two spots that had reopened. she has also started on a area between a fold and also around her chest. after talking to the vet about what to do next and what to expect...etc. he thinks that it may turn into a development habit and we would have to do surgery to remove the leg..etc. however he did not see any outward signs of infection. finally about after an hour of thinking really hard about everything i made the decision to put her down. its hard to believe what a chin can do to itself in a few hours.

 

[threewingedfury]

I'm so sorry Kayla :-( That's got to be a tough decision to make.

 

[starleomach]

I am very sorry it ended that way