help! chinchilla is chewing foot / toes off

[lilymannycharlie]

i have a chin that injured her leg. i took her to the vet and they bandaged it up. i took the bandage off a day and a half later as the vet instructed. i thought she was getting better because the past couple days she has been using her leg more, instead of dragging it like she was 6 days ago. the swelling has gone down dramatically but the redness is still there. but now she took off all the hair on her foot and is chewing her toes off. im wondering if someone would know if this may be due to stress from the injury, fungus, reaction to health x soother ointment, or something else? and if i get her little leg back to normal, is it likely for her to start chewing at it again? im taking her to the vet to to tomorrow but i wanted to try and get some info from other chin parents, before going in to the vet blindly.. i just want her to get better already.... im not sure either of the 3 vets ive been to in tha past are all that knowldgeable about chins as they say...
btw she was on metacam and sulfatrim but the vet decided to change sulfatrim for healthx soother ointment that is supposed to help with swelling and infection.
so now shes only on metacam and i apply the ointment 2 times daily
when her leg first got injured i didnt see any open wounds an she wasnt picking at her leg.... until 2 days after the bandage was removed and i started applying the ointment
here is a photo of right when her leg originally got hurt/sprained
http://tinypic.com/r/1622ver/5

http://i39.tinypic.com/1622ver.jpg

here is how it looks now after she started picking at it
http://tinypic.com/r/208w9kl/5

http://i40.tinypic.com/208w9kl.jpg

 

[Chinmama]

She is probably chewing it because it hurts. Call the vet and let them know what she is doing and see what they would recommend you do. As soon as possible.

 

[lilymannycharlie]

i applied ointment and wrapped her leg as soon as i saw she was chewing it.
i took her to the vet this morning and left her there with the supplies for them to syring feed her until the vet can squeeze her in for a checkup because they were all booked when i called at 7:05 this morning. but i wanted her to be seen today and no later, he will try to squeeze in a checkup between appointments.. meanwhile thwy will syringe feed her what i took them (critical care and blended pellets since she doesnt want to eat on her own)
im just wondering what i should expect his disgnosis to be.
i just hope that if he gives her a cone or somehow stops her from chewing, that she doesnt start mutilating her foot again after it is healed, because i really dont want to have her foot amputated..

 

[ticklechin]

Chin needs to go back to the vet ASAP, they need to see that in person, I would want a oral antibiotic and a topical, maybe soak it in epson salts, chin also needs a collar to prevent it from chewing it. That looks really nasty, chin needs more care from this vet they it is getting.

 

[lilymannycharlie]

idropped her off at the vet this morning so now im waiting on them tocall me to pick her up. but i posted on here to see if anyone would know why she is chewing her foot? and what should i expect the vet to say? does it look like this chewing could be caused by irritation from fungus, nerve damage, or stress? and should i expect her to chew her foot again once it is healed? if she does start chewing again, would the best option be to amputate? im lost and want her to recover already... i feel bad for her

 

[EMSChins]

She is obviously in pain from something. The metacam may not be working for her or there is something wrong with the leg the vet did not see. There may be nerve damage.

How did she injure the leg?

 

[Kansas City Chinchillas]

She may need to have the leg amputated. Even though that sounds bad chins often heal quicker. They adapt to missing limps surprisingly easy.

 

[lilymannycharlie]

the vet i took her to (Abbot) last week said that 'its broken but not broken..and he was also very rough when handling her. i didnt like it there so i took the xrays from him and showed it to another vet (Avian) where they said it looked fine, and that i should apply the ointment and increase the metacam dosage. i thought it would all get better from there, but yesterday she ripped all the hair off her leg and started chewing the middle toe. i dont understand why she would do this to herself. im still waiting on the call from the Avian vet to what their solution is.

 

[Shadow]

I went through a very similar thing to you. My chinchilla began chewing her toes after a foot injury, she chewed her middle toe down to the bone in only 10 mins (the time it took me to get her to the vet). Firstly check whether the vet has done a prick test with a needle on the toes. My vet did this and it establishes if the toes are still getting a blood supply - if there is no blood supply it indicates the tissue COULD be dead. An animal's natural reaction in the wild would be to chew off damaged or painful tissue as it would only cause them more problems. Also in my chinchilla's case we didn't apply any ointment directly to the injury, the vet put on a large bandage to stop my chinchilla having access to her foot and we gave her oral antibiotics and metacam.

I don't want to scare you, but my chinchilla eventually had to undergo a leg amputation. She went into surgery and it was clear that the tissue in certain areas of her foot was beyond repair and a leg amputation was the kindest thing to do. Chinchillas do great with three legs. It is just over a month since my chin's surgery and she is running around happily, bouncing off the walls etc. It doesn't even worry her!

 

[lilymannycharlie]

here are the most recent photos of Lily.
the vet ended up doing reconstructive surgery on one toe because she chewed all the way to the bone, and they removed another toe that she nearly chewed completely off.
i was instructed to start start giving her the oral sulfatrim since i cant apply the healthx antibiotic oinment.
i have to go to the vet every 3 days to get her leg rebandaged until it heals conpletely. i feel like they took very good care of her and she got the treatment she needed.
also, does anyone know if it is normal for the hair around her eyes to look like this? maybe its damp because she cried a little due to the surgery?
in the photo i am syringe feeding her because she still doesnt want to eat solid pellets. (i did wipe her fur with a baby wipe after feeding her because she still cant have a dust bath)

 

[Shadow]

My chinchillas eyes were damp after surgery because they kept them moist with saline eye drops while she was under anaesthetic.. If it persists, point it out to your vet but I'm sure it's fine. Fingers crossed your chin has a speedy recovery!