Kiwi broke her leg!!!!

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R

randro

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Kiwi was wierd this morning and very lethargic and i noticed that she was laying down on the ground which she never does so i open the door and pick her up and her leg was just dangeling at a wierd angle I am taking her to the vet as soon as possible but my mom and dad are both at very important buisness meeting and cannot take me until later today! Is there any thing that i can do to make her more comfortable or just ease her pain?
It doesnt look like she is in pain but i have read they are good at hiding pain
 
Put her on something soft and give her her favorite treat. The best you can do right now is just keep her as happy as you can. The thing to worry about is her going into shock. Even if the leg isn't broken, she may have struggled and really worn herself out. I'd give her hay and just hang out with her until she can go to the vet. Calmly talk to her and keep her spirits up.

Poor little fuzzy punkin. Is it dangling really bad or is she just holding it off to the side? Do you think it really is broken?

Just don't freak out too bad. That's the worst thing you can do, stay as calm as you can because Kiwi will pick up on your anxiety and nervousness. Keep us updated. I am so worried about you and Kiwi...I am just praying that the vet can help her soon.
 
Ditto on exactly what Susan said, also make sure that she is in some place either in her cage or with you outside of it that she can't try to jump on a ledge or something so she doesn't hurt it more. She needs to be in a carrier probably, but I hope she's ok and please get her to the vets asap. Can you call someone else to take you to a vet?
 
Poor girl... as stated, make sure she's kept so that she can't be jumping/running around, as that will only do more damage. Are there any breaks in the skin or visible damage? Definitely get to the vet ASAP, and make sure they do xrays to see the extent of the damage.

If it is broken, you'll have probably one or two options. The most likely course of action will be amputation - I know it sounds bad, but chins are amazing at adapting, and soon enough she'd never know the difference. The other option may be pinning and/or casting. We took this risk on our boy when he broke his leg, but it usually only has a moderate chance of success (and if it doesn't work, you'll end up with amputation anyway). I don't want to worry/upset you more, just want you to be prepared for what decision you may be faced with when you get to the vet. Good luck and keep us updated!!
 
Until going to the vet you can splint it as long as she isn't chewing on the splint. I have one here who was in a splint and did fine with the chewing (as in he didn't chew). The bad things is it can get infected then she will get amputated. Thumper (the one I had splinted) got an infection and was amputated today. He seems to be doing ok. Time will tell.
 
Kiwis leg looks like it is just dangeling with no bone attaching it, As far as i can tell she cannot move it. THe bad news is that the vet is closed and the closest vet that might know about chins is a 1/2 hour away and isnt open or returning my calls right now. There is no visable damage besides it can move any direction with out resistance. i have another chin in there with her right now should i take her out?
 
I would take her out and put her in a carrier on towels for now - she doesn't need to be in a cage that has shelves to tempt her into jumping for the time being. Keep her as calm as possible until the vet visit, which I hope is very soon.
 
Definitely sounds broken. You need to keep her in a tiny carrier with towels. You need to discourage her from moving; fold a towel in half, shove it to the back and make the carrier smaller. Try not to bother her too much as she may go into shock, which you don't want. Make sure her water and food is accessible without her having to move much, or at all. Keep calling the vets. If you get a hold of the one 30 min away, go to that one. No since in making her wait longer. Most likely if it is just dangling, a splint or cast is going to be useless, but not always. Amputation may be required with this little one. Urg, wish I was closer than 8 hours away, I could snag some pain meds and bring her some. Poor baby :( Keep us updated!
 
So i had a small cage from the person i bought and i was thinking that i might put two pillows in it because that roughly takes up 3/4 of the cage. I cannot get her to the vet until tommorow, Is there any things for pain i can give her that are naturally in the house or at a place that is open at 9:30 pm?
 
Not unless you have Metacam on hand. Other than that, there's nothing.

I'm just amazed that there isn't a single emergency vet available. This isn't a case where it's something tricky to diagnose. The chin has an obvious broken leg, that's dangling useless. Even if you wanted to verify by x-ray, that's nothing a "specialist" needs to see. Anesthetize, remove the limb, sew up the wound.
 
The vet doesn't have to be an exotic vet. I would call all the vets within a couples hours drive and keep calling until I found one. If the vet has done amputations on other animals it should be that much of problem for them do a chinchilla. Though if you could find an exotic vet that would be better.

This past tuesday I had one of my chins (Dimitri) back left leg amputated. Though his had been like that for at least 2 months prior to my getting him. And he was really lucky he didn't go into shock or die. The vet who did the surgery isn't an exotic vet but she does have some experience with them. The closest exotic vet to me was around 4 1/2 hours away. The vet did a really good job with the amputation. I couldn't be happier with how well he's doing and how his leg looks and is healing.
 
tunes said:
I'm just amazed that there isn't a single emergency vet available. This isn't a case where it's something tricky to diagnose. The chin has an obvious broken leg, that's dangling useless. Even if you wanted to verify by x-ray, that's nothing a "specialist" needs to see. Anesthetize, remove the limb, sew up the wound.
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The hard part isn't the surgery (though surgery on really little things is harder than the same surgery on something larger). The hard part is the anesthesia and not killing the animal with wrong drug doses. Not every vet is going to want to try.

Hope you found somewhere to take your chin. Good luck with Kiwi :)
 
The hard part is the anesthesia and not killing the animal with wrong drug doses. Not every vet is going to want to try.
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That's what reference books are for. Any vet worth his salt has reference books on hand where it could easily be looked up, or for that matter, surely there is somewhere on the internet. I had a 3 month old chin's leg removed at the hip by a newly graduated med student, who worked in a large animal practice, who had never even seen an exotic before. His focus was on large animals and dogs. He dove right in, looked it up, and took care of it.

Oh yeah, he even built an anesthesia chamber while I waited. Sent one of the techs to a local hardware store and built it from a diagram.
 
Depending on where it's broken it could be corrected and not amputated, and that would generally not require any anesthesia
 
They have kiwi on pain meds until tommorow and that is when the exotic doctor will be there. they are going to keep her overnight and it looks like the people there knew nothing about chinchillas( they are an emergency care clinic on weekends and a exotic pet clinic from mon. to fri.) so they are going to wait until tommorow untill they do anything.
 
tunes said:
That's what reference books are for. Any vet worth his salt has reference books on hand where it could easily be looked up, or for that matter, surely there is somewhere on the internet. I had a 3 month old chin's leg removed at the hip by a newly graduated med student, who worked in a large animal practice, who had never even seen an exotic before. His focus was on large animals and dogs. He dove right in, looked it up, and took care of it.

Oh yeah, he even built an anesthesia chamber while I waited. Sent one of the techs to a local hardware store and built it from a diagram.
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The further out of your comfort zone, the more likely at least some people aren't going to try. Yes, reference texts exist, but they tend to be scant on good info, and many vets who don't have a specific interest aren't going to have the books anyway. Yes, there's places on the internet, but the good ones are paid membership, and not everyone knows about them or are members if they do. Some vets are going to be willing to try, others are going to be afraid of killing the pet (because after all, accidentally killing an animal isn't why we're in the business) and are going to refuse. Further, just cos the vet is willing doesn't mean the tech (who is typically going to be doing the anesthesia monitoring) will want to try it. Most of us aren't in James Herriot land and have to turn our hand to anything that might come our way, and most people who choose a species or group of species to work with do so because they don't want to or aren't interested in doing anything else.

Hopefully Kiwi's doing well. :)
 
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