Horrible accident need help!!!!

[soqrbrad]

So my girlfriend and I stupidly stood up a heavy drafting board on a wall in the bedroom where we let Pachuco, our 1 year old chinchille run around in. We usually stay in there and watch him and play with him but we both stepped out for a bit to do other chores. All of a sudden we hear this big thud and both of us come running.

On first glance it looks like the board missed him The board is laying on the ground and Pachuco is just looking up at us about 2 feet from it like "what?" We sigh a temporary sigh of relief but then go to pick him up and surprisingly he lets us, usually we have to chase him a bit before we can put him back in his cage.

We pick him up and his back left hind foot is bleeding fairly badly. We both freak out and get a paper towel to stop the bleeding and immediately call the vet and get referred to the after hours emergency facility. We take him over there and have a few tests done and we are told that his middle toe has an "open fracture" where the toe is completely fractured and disconnected and bent to one side and the other two on the foot have other minor fractures.

Heart-breaking news, we were just praying some how he cut it because he was still really hyper and chipper and eating and everything. I forgot Chinchillas are prey animals and do a great job at hiding pain....

So the current prognosis is that we bandage/split the leg until the world-famous Exotic Vet, Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald can see him on Monday and give us a better estimate. I think I am lucky to live fairly close to Alameda East... I just thought I would come here first to see if anyone else has had experience with this and maybe some kind words as well. All I can find on google is that broken toe = amputation. Which I guess wouldn't be bad, except in all of those cases it was one toe. If we have to do each toe that would be worse but at least he could still function well. The vet already braced us for the fact he might have to lose his leg. We are not cool with that idea at all.

If anyone knows of any chinchilla owners who have gone through something similar or have a vet friend who knows about this sort of injury please get in touch with me on this thread or message me since I can't post my email address in this post.

Thanks all,

Give your healthy chinchillas a good hug for me tonight and send happy thoughts to pachuco for me.

 

[tunes]

First, don't panic. Chins lose toes all the time. It's not a big deal to them, it doesn't need to be a big deal to you. The worst part right now is he's most likely having pain from it and you want to be sure it doesn't get infected before he can have surgery. There's probably no chance of a completely severed fracture healing on it's own, especially on such a teeeeeeny little appendage, so amputation will be the way to go.

So, I would confine him to a small cat carrier and I would put him on layers of paper towels until tomorrow. That way he won't have a bunch of dirty, peed on shavings sticking to the wound area, and hopefully the confinement will keep from hopping around so much that he causes himself further pain.

Did the emergency vet offer you anything for pain? Metacam maybe?

Also, just as an aside, it's not a good idea to leave a chin unattended in an open room like that. There's no end of things they can get into or hurt themselves on. The only time I would leave mine unattended was when I used a play pen with a bottom and a top cover on it. There was pretty much no way they could hurt themselves in that thing, unless they could hurt themselves in their cages the same way.

Good luck! I'm SO envious that you get to live by Dr. Fitzgerald. It's almost worth moving to Colorado for.

 

[Show-MeChins]

i agree.. no need to splint or what not, i have one female that likes to get in the run and the female caged in the next spot just LOVES to bite her... i think i have finally fixed the problem but shes missing a few toes... doing just fine.

 

[Rickman]

I, too, have had a few come up with missing toes - not a problem!

 

[oxchincerelyxo]

Why are you so against your chin losing it's leg? I get being worried about the opporation and what not, but if that is what it has to come to , your chin will be fine. There are a lot of happy and healthy tri-pods on here. They all still play and hop and use their wheels-take a deep breath and learn from this mistake:thumbsup:

 

[soqrbrad]

Thanks,

I think the shock of the whole thing has finally wore off. You are right about leaving him unattended it was just for a few seconds that we stepped out and unfortunately something happened.

The emergency vet bandaged it up really well and gave us both pain meds and antibiotics. We are going to set up an appointment for monday to see Dr. Fitzgerald.

We put him last night in a basket with a big piece of wood over the top, some how cast and all he managed once or twice to squeeze out of the hole by the handle of the basket, cast and all. We sealed that up and he was fine the rest of the night.

We were given a collar too that he should wear to avoid biting at the bandages but he was so clumsy in it we decided to see if he would be good and not bite the bandages without the collar. We checked on him about every hour or so to see if there were any signs of bite marks at the bandages and surprisingly he was really good about it and made it through the whole night without chewing at it.

I'm not totally against the tripod idea, but I just feel horrible if this little oversight on our part would result in him having to lose an entire leg. I'm hoping we can get away with just the toes leaving the foot intact, but we will do what is best for Pachuco even if it means taking the whole leg.

Thanks everyone!

 

[oxchincerelyxo]

Just be careful with the basket to make sure he doesn't over heat. (I'm not sure what kind of basket it is).


I have a girl here (Lena) who is missing a toe on one of her paws, came to me that way. If I hadn't given her a good looking over when I first got her I would have never known!

I think the shock of the whole thing has finally wore off. You are right about leaving him unattended it was just for a few seconds that we stepped out and unfortunately something happened.

The emergency vet bandaged it up really well and gave us both pain meds and antibiotics. We are going to set up an appointment for monday to see Dr. Fitzgerald.

We put him last night in a basket with a big piece of wood over the top, some how cast and all he managed once or twice to squeeze out of the hole by the handle of the basket, cast and all. We sealed that up and he was fine the rest of the night.

We were given a collar too that he should wear to avoid biting at the bandages but he was so clumsy in it we decided to see if he would be good and not bite the bandages without the collar. We checked on him about every hour or so to see if there were any signs of bite marks at the bandages and surprisingly he was really good about it and made it through the whole night without chewing at it.

I'm not totally against the tripod idea, but I just feel horrible if this little oversight on our part would result in him having to lose an entire leg. I'm hoping we can get away with just the toes leaving the foot intact, but we will do what is best for Pachuco even if it means taking the whole leg.

Thanks everyone!

 

[tunes]

Even if he lost all the toes on his foot, it still wouldn't mean a leg amputation is necessary. That's kind of like throwing out a dozen eggs because two are broken. There are lots of people who have had kits born with bizarre injuries like this, missing toes on one foot, half a foot missing, etc. The chins do wonderfully. They don't let it slow them down a bit.

We'll all keep good thoughts for your little guy (what does Pachuco mean, BTW?) and hopefully he'll be taken care of with minimal fuss.

 

[Riven]

I'm with Peggy, you said it's the toe... so why are people talking about taking the whole leg? I mean.. it's not all one bone for crying out loud.

A friend of mine has two chins, they got into a fight and one had to have a toe amputated, it didn't even phase him a bit. Get him fixed up and he'll be great!

 

[Claire D]

Even if he lost all the toes on his foot, it still wouldn't mean a leg amputation is necessary. That's kind of like throwing out a dozen eggs because two are broken. There are lots of people who have had kits born with bizarre injuries like this, missing toes on one foot, half a foot missing, etc. The chins do wonderfully. They don't let it slow them down a bit.

I'll second that - I have a chin here who has only the little toe on one front paw - the rest were removed by his mother at birth. You'd never know he has a problem when you see him whizzing around his cage like a nutter.
Chins really are very adaptable.

Fingers crossed everything works out well and your chin gets away with minimal surgery etc.

 

[soqrbrad]

Even if he lost all the toes on his foot, it still wouldn't mean a leg amputation is necessary. That's kind of like throwing out a dozen eggs because two are broken. There are lots of people who have had kits born with bizarre injuries like this, missing toes on one foot, half a foot missing, etc. The chins do wonderfully. They don't let it slow them down a bit.

We'll all keep good thoughts for your little guy (what does Pachuco mean, BTW?) and hopefully he'll be taken care of with minimal fuss.

a Pachuco is a mexican gangster a "zoot-suiter" is the more common name. Just think of the oversized suits of the '50's and '60s in the US.

We moved him from the basket, (it was a basic plastic basket with small holes all around). We kept the window open all night to make sure it was really cold in there. Now he is in his old cage, both wheel and little wooden house have been removed, and we turned his 3 level cage into a 1 level by using all the platforms as ceiling tiles. He can't jump and maybe has about 2 feet by 1 foot to move around in. Like about the size of a medium cat carrier. He seems to be doing really well and as hyper as he ever was.

That is why we are not too concerned about the toes, we too thought it was a little strange to loose the entire leg when there was only damage to the toes and that is what got us a bit worried. Given it was only a er vet tech after hours who admittedly said she didn't know too much about chinchillas. So maybe it was just a conservative estimate to brace us should it come to that.

 

[oxchincerelyxo]

I'm glad you were able to set up his cage so he can be more comfortable in a place he knows. Sounds like you are doing very well by him. Good luck and keep us posted!!


p.s. I love the name :thumbsup:

 

[Chinniechantel]

He will be just fine! I have quite a few chinnies here without toes, one has not toes at all on her back foot, one has none on one of her front feet. There is no problems, and they are the fastest runners on the wheel! I also had to have a toe amputated, and he is also perfectly fine. Just make sure to have some critical care on hand, and lots of sryinges. You sound like you are doing a great job.

 

[soqrbrad]

So I got a new question for the bunch if anyone is still looking for updates. The bandage wrap that the vet tech put on him I think encompasses his toes, toe connection (ankle?), and then first joint up to his leg so its a long peg leg. To me this seemed fairly substantial but who was to complain, they were helping my Pachuco.

Now that we have gotten a good look at him we look at him dragging this cast around and it drags behind him. Like almost straight back. I'm trying to picture the anatomy of a chinchilla leg and each time I do, I am thinking that his hip has to be dislocated in order for his leg to bend like that. Shouldn't the cast be pointing forward? Can anyone explain so I don't worry more before our appointment in 16 hours and 40 minutes? (not that I am counting to get my baby fixed...)

I am going to take pictures tomorrow but I sketched up one using a cute baby chin as an example.

 

[CerLynn]

Straight behind him does sound a little odd... can his hip rotate at all to bring it more toward the side or front? It's probably fine until your appointment... if you can imagine a chin standing up on its back legs, but I'm not sure how comfortable that would be. When Koko was in a splint for his broken leg his was completely extended like that, but his hip could rotate somewhat freely so sometimes it was dragging toward the back, sometimes it was more toward the front. Good luck at the vet!

 

[soqrbrad]

Sometimes he moves it to the front. I guess upon looking at the picture the leg would be pointed in the direction of my arrow... I've been lucky with all my past pets in the fact I've never had crisis like this before. I think I'm just getting overly paranoid....

Thanks for your imput, I'll see how everything goes, T - 4 hours 30 minutes and counting.

 

[soqrbrad]

So here is my little guy, broken toes and all getting some much needed shut eye. Still hoping for the best!

 

[CerLynn]

Aw, poor little guy... at least he's able to rest. That's quite a wrapping he's got there! I'm sure he'll be just fine though - as many have said, toe issues usually aren't too serious as long as they're treated quickly. Good luck!

ETA: I'm not sure how to really check for this with that type of wrap, but the one thing I might worry a bit about is whether the leg is getting enough circulation. Just keep an eye on him and he'll probably be just fine until your appointment.

 

[Essentia]

Awww. He looks so helpless. He needs lots of love and scritchens.

 

[Parkerspetchins]

Best wishes and healing thoughts for Pachuco!