Chinchilla won't stop going for his foot

[selfprodigy]

I posted a thread a good while back when my Chinchilla got it's leg caught in his ferret nation ladder. He was rushed to the emergency vet where he got an xray and was diagnosed with a sprained leg.

A few days after the sprain he catering his leg but all seemed well. We had separated him into a smaller cage. One day we woke up and he chewed the back of his leg and the top of his foot down to the tendendon.

We took him to our exotic vet she gaves us antibiotics and some pain medication. This is what his foot looked like at the time

Now fast forward a few weeks after coning, and bandage him.

His leg was almost fully healed. We were weighing him daily and feeding him critical care. The back of his leg is fully healed and he's jumping around just as fast and as hard as he used to.

We were happy it looked like this whole ordeal was almost behind us. He foot had big ol scab on it and we thought in a few days we might be able to reintroduce him to his friend and stick them back together.

Well about 10 days ago we woke up and instead of chewing into the top of his foot he chewed on his front middle toe. He's done it some many times i can't really recognize the toe any more.

It's scabbing up again and we are bandaging him up. His knee is fully healed so he has no problems jumping or running around during play time. But he does have a hard little bump at the end of this toe.

I'm going to take a picture of it tonight when i have some help and we are changing the bandages.

He's had xrays and seen exotic vets. This over 1,000 in vet bills already. I have no clue what to do. I'm ready to ask to vet to cut off his toe. She told me has has nerve damage and it feels like pins and needles to him. She said it takes three times as long as nerve damage to heal than skin damage.

Im at my wits end. I just wanna get him healed and back into his new home.

 

[AZChins]

If he's chewing at it like that, amputation of the toe may be a good idea. I had a chin that had to have her front paw amputated because she wouldn't leave it alone. We suspect it was because she had some nerve damage and it was really bothering her - the paw looked completely normal with no infection or any real problems, she just wouldn't leave it alone. Sometimes they just do this. I'd definitely ask about amputation since he just keep mutilating himself.

 

[Spoof]

I'm with Susan, but it looks like it's a little further up than the toe, if that is the case I'd amputate the whole leg because it is a hind leg. You don't want to leave a stub or they tend to bang it up on things and it's hard to keep it from getting wear wounds.

 

[selfprodigy]

Spoof that's and older picture i'll have to get an updated one. Thats what it used to look like. The top part of his foot is fully healed and has hair again. He attacked he toe recently twice in two weeks.

 

[selfprodigy]

Okay we just got finished dressing his wound. I took some update photos.

As you can see the top of his foot healed (thanks to Mankua honey and iodine)

Recently he went for his foot. This is what it looks like now.

It looks better than it did two days ago. Manuka honey helps a lot.

 

[AZChins]

He already chewed the toe off. Poor guy, that must have felt awful for him to do that to it. Is it bleeding badly? Is he still going after it? I hope he's leaving it alone. Still, you probably will want to make an appointment at the vet and maybe do another course of antibiotics. That isn't just a scratch at this point, you don't want it to get infected and you definitely want for that to scab over as soon as possible.

 

[selfprodigy]

This little guy has seen the vet four times in the last six weeks. I'm not opposed to taking him again. It's just that my two exotic vets are out this upcoming saturday. We live about 100 miles away from them so Saturday's are our only day's we can take him.

He is on a course of antibotics. Last time we were at the vet she took a sample and tested for whatever bacteria he had. She switched his antibotics and said these would work better and they have. We are also giving him .01-.02 cc of metacam a day for pain.

The last time the vet saw his foot it was well on it's way to being healed. So her advice was to keep cleaning rewrapping, and applying the oinment she gave us. I switch off between that and manuka honey. Anyways when we were ready to take of the bandages we were going to give him pain meds just in case the nerve damage was still bothering him but he got through the bandages about a week ago and mutilated his toe.

Here is what is foot originally looked like when it was healing. You can see the top of his foot where he chewed it.

Here is what it looked like tonight.

The antibotics were having an effect on his eating so we have been giving him CC. He is at 490 grams now which is pretty good and he's more energetic than before.

 

[AZChins]

He's already on antibiotics, so that (hopefully) will be a good preventative to infection. You can call the vet and see if you can get some advice on what the vet thinks you should do. Sometimes it's just so hard to get them to just leave things alone.

One time I had Ingrid chew at her toe for weeks and weeks before she stopped. I'd clean it out and try to get it under control along with going to the vet (it seemed like) constantly. Eventually she just stopped and it healed up. Sometimes all you can do it go to the vet and wait it out.

I hope that your little guy has stopped chewing at the toe. Please keep an eye on him though, I would hate for him to keep chewing up his foot.

 

[selfprodigy]

Thanks for your advice I'm glad im not the only one with these problems. We have had a heck of a time with this little guy. But I am thankful that his knee fully healed and that he can jump just as high as my other chin.

If anyone else has issues like this in the future here is how we treat it.

Supplies

Spray bottle with saline solution
Gauze and waterproof gauze
lots of paper tape
manuka honey
silversulfasizide
iodine with lanacane (numbing agent seems to help)
metacam
antibotics
critical care
pumpkin spice (actually makes our chin like CC) A pinch goes a long way

Procedure

We spray his wound with a saline solution and dry it off. Next, we use iodine to clean the wound. Again we wipe any excess and let it dry. Then we either apply a generous amount of munka honey or silversulfiziade. I try to switch off every other night. Next we wrap his foot with some waterproof gauze and tape it. Then we wrap the soft gauze around his foot and around the back of his foot into a "bootie" shape. Then we put a generous amount of tape on there.

We do this pretty much every night. The manuka honey does wonders for bringing the swelling down.

Then we give him his meds... A bath and go to sleep.

It has worked fairly well thus far.

We will try to also give it some air during play time and once and a while we cone the chin.

 

[addictedtochins]

Wow, what a hassle to help him out. I have no advice but I thought I'd tell you what I did in place of that expensive medical tape. I used that blue painters tape. It is water proof, as far as sterile pfft, I doubt it's any germ-ier than they way it's being done now and it's cheap. I almost lost my leg in a dirt bike accident 6 years ago. I had to clean and wrap it twice a day for 6 months and I couldn't work because of it so no money. It's good stuff!

 

[selfprodigy]

I just wanted to let everyone know the status of Little Boo.

It took us about six months but his foot is fully healed. What i've learned from this... Our chin would overheat himself with a cone on. I had ordered a special one online, made one out of fleece and it literally did me no good.

In the end we ended up cleaning, and wrapping his foot every night for six months. This depressed him and he wouldn't eat so we also force fed him. BTW pumpkin spice mixed in with critical care does wonders. I even warmed it up a tad and he willing took it after while.

To keep our chinnie entertained he was provided with 12 hours of cartoons on our HD TV. When we finally removed his bandages we also provided him with a 16 inch running wheel from quality cages. He nibbled and then decided to run instead. You couldn't tell his foot was ever injured now. I will upload some pics later.

The vet was right though. We just had to wait out the nerve damage and keep a close eye on him.