Bella's Broken Arm

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spochins

spochins

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 28, 2009
Messages
50
Location
BrynMawr, PA
My chin, Bella, broke her right front arm. The "flying saucer" wheel came dettached from the side of the cage. I heard a load crash and when I went to investigate the source of the noise, I noticed the wheel on the bottom of the chins' cage. Bella's right front arm was hanging limply from her body.
I reattached the wheel to the side of the cage (in a much more secure fashion) and took Bella to the vet as soon as the doctor's office opened the next morning.
The vet took some x-rays of Bella's arm. The upper arm bone (tibia?) was fractured in a number of locations. Luckily the broken bones had not pierced her skin. The vet placed her arm in a splint and recommended that she be kept in her crate to limit her movement.
I have taken her to the vet weekly since the split was applied. The vet has checked her weight and the condition of the splint. About every 2 weeks, the vet has taken new x-rays.
It has been about 6 weeks since the accident. The x-rays show no evidence of the bones mending. However, last week the vet removed the splint. He felt her arm and found it to be rigid leading him to believe that the fracture had healed dispite the x-rays. Bella's toes are curled in a claw-like manner. It still hangs limply by her side.
About 2 weeks ago, upon the recommendation of the vet, I transferred her to a cage that is approximately 1 X 2 feet. The bottom of her new cage is padded by layers of polartec. There are no ledges or toys in her cage. Although she's eating, she has slowly been losing weight. No wonder, I wouldn't want to be taken away from my chin buddies!
The vet now recommends that Bella be left in her new cage without the splint for an additional week. Then he is going to reevaluate the situation. He told me that the curling of Bella's paw is probably due to nerve dammage suffered during the original accident. He said that it is not necessary that the arm heal in a manner that is functional. Apparently chins can live very happily with only one functional arm. However, he did say that rodents have been know to knaw off limbs that have had nerve damage!
Has anyone had a similar experience with their chins?
I feel awful about the accident! My chins live in our guest room. When guests stay the night, I like to remove the wheel. In order to easily remove the wheel, I affixed the wheel to the mesh of the cage with about 10 large metal clips. I've learned my lesson and have now attached the wheel in a much more secure fashion.
 
First - A chin safe wheel shouldn't fall down or trap her arm in such a way as to break it. A flying saucer wheel is not meant to be constantly attached and detached. All it takes is one loose clamp or screw and that's that.

Second - An arm that "hangs down limply" is most likely not healed. If the arm had mended it would be rigid, possibly bent, but not just dangling. The fact that the toes are curling up would be very concerning to me. Yes, there may be nerve damage, but it may be that the limb is dying or already dead, which means, again, that the break did not heal.

Third - The time to place her in a small cage was right after the break - not 6 weeks later. The whole point to a smaller cage is rest and restriction of movement. If she was in a larger cage, despite being splinted, she would have been hopping around and trying to use the arm as she normally would, causing further damage.

Fourth - Though she may be losing weight due to being separated from her friends, more likely she's losing it due to the injury and the pain she is in. Has your vet not even remotely suggested amputating the broken limb? Rarely does a broken limb in a chin heal with just splinting, and even with pins it's not often seen. A lot of times amputation is recommended to free the chin from pain.

Have you considered seeking another vet? Does he have her on Metacam at all for the pain? Do you have critical care so that you can start to hand feed her? How much weight has she lost? Is she still pooping, peeing, drinking normally?

At this point, I would be hand/force feeding her. A chin that is continually losing weight is a chin in danger.
 
Bell'a Arm continued

I may not have been clear in my first post or included enough info so here goes...........
Bella was confined to her pet carrier immediately after her arm was splinted. The vet recommended that I give her metacam for pain twice a day. After recovering in the pet carrier for several weeks, the vet recommended that she could be moved to a slightly larger cage as long as it was padded and had nothing she could climb on or catch her arm on. She seems much more content now that she can see out. At night, I carry her cage very carefully from room to room so that she has some company.

I have been supplementing her Oxbox pellets with critical care. She seems to be eating and drinking only slightly less than normal quantities.I'm not sure how much weight she has lost but I will find out from the vet. She readily will take a treat when offered. Her poop and pee seems like it looks normally.
The vet has discussed amputation with me. He wanted to wait to see if the arm healed on its own rather than risk the operation. His main concern is she may not survive the aenethesia.
I have used this vet for the care of my chins for the past 2 years. To date, I have no reason to doubt his ability.
 
Okay - So I'm a little confused on what you want then? If you're already doing all that, there's not much more anybody can tell you. Although, I'm not real sure why she wouldn't survive surgery? If she's got a rotting limb hanging on her body, the infection would seem to be of greater concern.

Were you just asking if anybody had ever had this happen? Yes, people have, and yes, they will gnaw attempt to gnaw off their leg if it is causing them pain.
 
oops, sorry, already been said... :dance3:
 
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To my knowledge the limb is not dead. The vet never mentioned gangreene or a loss of blood flow although I will ask him about it on Monday.
The specific reason for my post is that
I was hoping that others may have had their own chins suffer a similar break and what steps were taken to heal the injury. I have searched this site and many others on the internet. All the info (very limited) that I came across dealt with fractues to chin's hind legs. Although I have only owned chins for two years, I love the little critters and appreciate any insights, advice, or moral support other more knowledgable owners may be able to offer.
 
Unfortunately, I can't give you links to people who have gone through this before, because the forum that was on is now dead.

I will say there are quite a few people who have had their chins break their front and hind paws and they came throught it fairly unscathed. Some had to have amputation, some attempted pinning then got amputated, and a few pinnings were successful.

ETA: They do quite well as a tripod, no matter which leg is taken. After the initial surgery is done and the healing takes place, they take off like nothing flat. :)
 
Have you met my Little Two Paws Shakur??? He was born with only right front and back paws, no left front from the shoulder, chicken leg nubbin on rear left.

He gets around pretty well. He lives the life of Riley in a fleece lined one-level cage. :thumbsup:
 
I'll try to attack this...

Starlight was surrendered to me because she had dislocated her knee. The vet recommended to amputate the limb, but the family didn't want to put the money into her. So she came to me after two weeks of no pain meds and she was chewing off her foot where it was sticking out of the splint. Two days later she had her leg amputated. Her bone was dying and she was in severe pain. Post-op she recovered well. She had a subsequent infection on the amputation site, but it was cleared with antibiotics and warm compresses. She was about 450g when she underwent surgery.

I've had several chinchillas go through surgery and as long as the vet uses the proper anesthetic, the chin should be fine. I'm sure Bella weighs more than Starlight; almost every time I've heard of a chin with a broken limb, I have recommended amputation. It is very difficult for such little bones to heal properly. Even if they do heal, they seldom appear to heal properly.

The curling of the fingers says to me that the bone is dying. She is probably losing weight due to pain and discomfort. She needs to be forcefed critical care every four hours. Are you still giving her metacam? Even after a few weeks an injury like that still hurts.
 
I believe it was BellaBella who had to amputate her chin's front paw. She did very well, and hops around now like any other chinnie.
 
I think you're right Sasha...I just couldn't think of who it was.
 
Vet in Philly Area

Thanks for all your input. I think I need a new vet. Does anyone know of a qualified chin vet in the Philly area? The vet I go to is located in Radnor, PA and is a "exotics" vet and went to U of Penn. After hearing all your comments concerning Bella's broken arm I'm wondering if his advice is sound. How do I find a good vet?
 
I'd honestly just start calling around to the vet clinics in your area and ask them if they see chinchillas then ask how experienced they are in dealing with them. Speak to an actual vet if possible.

Good luck~
 
I definitely agree with the above posts. At this point, it doesn't sound like the limb is in good shape at all, and would probably be better off removed. We've had a chin go through a broken hind leg... we decided to try having the bone pinned (fairly invasive surgery), and he pulled through just fine. In hindsight, going with the pinning vs amputation was a risky decision and if I could do it over again, I would have pushed for amputation. The outcome of the long and painful healing process is just too much of an unknown (luckily he did end up healing well). Good luck and keep us updated!
 
The exotics vets at Univ. of Penn are really good, did you take him there at all? I took Nickel there and I was very impressed with the care he got by the E Vet and she was not an exotics vet. I have heard nothing but praise about Univ. of Penn's exotic vets.
 
I too would just amputate the limb. If you had she would've been heeled and free of pain and back to normal by now. You said it was broke in several places? What's the chance of several breaks heeling with a splint? Not very likely i would think.
 
I would think if the leg was healed (although I doubt it) that you would see callus formation around the bone on the xray. If she were my chin I'd have the leg removed. Animals do quite well with having limbs removed. I would think once shes healed she shouldn't need any real special care except maybe some extra ledges. jmo
 
I guess I can understand the vet trying to save the arm since it was not a compound fracture, but I'd say due to the fact that it was broken in several places it would be more difficult to heal.

My Kiwi had a compound fracture of her left arm after boinging in the wrong place in a cage she wasn't used to (I had just begun the intro process with her and my other girl, Bella and they were in each others cages) and so she had an amputation at the e-vets as it was at night, on a weekend AND a holiday. She still has the arm to the elbow, it's a little nubbin.

She was very sad the first couple of days after the operation, but once she started to heal there was no stopping her. She had nothing in her cage except for her tube to sleep in which was placed very low so there was no climbing, and her food and water.

Today she runs top speed in her wheel, even fast than Bella goes and she has all her arms and legs.

here is a video of goofy Kiwi in all her 3 legged glory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8ax9SCxzSY

She does run a little funny, sometimes going sideways like a little crab, and when she gets running fast I think she only uses her hind legs and hops. But she's happy as a little chin gets.
 
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