Sudden head wound...

[Pookinaround]

I have an 8 month old girl who has not yet had her jump hole opened up for breeding. She is all by herself and just now while feeding everyone I noticed a pretty nice sized cut going across the top of her head. It isn't bad enough to require stitches or anything but it is deep enough. I applied Blu-Kote and I gave her a raisin because I heard the sugar can help with the stress and I was scared of her maybe going into shock.

She is in a run but the male does not yet have access to her and it doesn't look like a bite from him at all. It is a straight wound that appears to have been sliced on something. I felt all around the cage and other than the normal metal found in a run there is nothing out of the ordinary.

Has anyone else experienced a chin being injured like this??? For the life of me I don't understand how this could have happened...I know that there is no substitute for proper vet care but I really don't think it is bad enough to go that far and I think that she will be ok but I was just wondering if this is common or not and if anyone has any suggestions as to what I can look for or maybe do to the cage itself to prevent this from happening again.

 

[jags]

I have hundreds of females in runs and have not seen anything like that other than if a fight has occurred.

 

[Pookinaround]

She does like to sit at the front of her cage and her head is right under the feeder...if she were to suddenly popcorn up she might have done it on the corner of that but that is all I can think of....

 

[javachin]

She does like to sit at the front of her cage and her head is right under the feeder...if she were to suddenly popcorn up she might have done it on the corner of that but that is all I can think of....

I was thinking feeder. Do you have the J-shaped one?

 

[Spoof]

I agree with the feeder speculation and might add the pophole cover depending on the type it is. I now have Ronda's cages that she kept hundreds of females in for years... and found a baby hanging by it's toe pad from a feeder last night. Pretty sure she's never run across that one.

Chins do the strangest things sometimes. The good news is that they normally don't repeat the experience!

 

[saphire]

same here, thought of the feeder instantly

 

[Pookinaround]

It is just the standard 2 piece feeder that comes standard on all of them. It is a Shoots run. Checked on her first thing this morning and she seems fine. I had no idea they could do something like that...Scared me a bit and boy was I scratching my head as to why/how it happened....

 

[EMSChins]

If you can't find any rought edges of wire in the cage then I agree - she either caught the corner of the feeder just right or the folded over edge of the hole cover - where the solid piece slides in. I had a grower lose a toe getting it caught in there while popcorning.

 

[Pookinaround]

Has anyone replaced the feeders with something else that might be more rounded now that she has proven herself to be accident prone? I'll ask Shoots if they make a different type of feeder but is there a J-feeder out there that is made to fit as a replacement that anyone knows of?

 

[Riven]

No sense in changing out the feeder for a freak incident that you're not even sure if that's what caused it. I too thought feeder corner, or if there is a space between the pan and the door maybe she attempted to escape and got her head stuff cutting it pulling it back out?

 

[Vyxxin]

I wanted to add, as it hasn't been addressed and I'm not sure how familiar you are with wound care...be sure to remove a good bit of fur around the wound. Chin fur, being what it is, likes to mat over wounds causing infection issues...especially with deeper wounds.

 

[Pookinaround]

I wanted to add, as it hasn't been addressed and I'm not sure how familiar you are with wound care...be sure to remove a good bit of fur around the wound. Chin fur, being what it is, likes to mat over wounds causing infection issues...especially with deeper wounds.

Hey THANKS! I didn't know that.... Great tip!

 

[Pookinaround]

Ok just went and gave her a new "do" which looks more like a scalping, used a neosporin wound cleanser then re-applied the Blu-Kote. Think her chances of being shown in March/April are shot??? I wanted to take a pic of her head but between the Blue-Kote and her being a violet chin that just wasn't showing anything worth looking at....

 

[Vyxxin]

Well, if you hadn't used blu kote I might have said maybe to the showing but Blu Kote takes FOREVER to come out...I have a mosaic who needed it back in June...she's STILL got blue in her fur! That said, chins usually regrow fur in 3months...it's possible but lets get her through her ordeal first worry about showing later!

 

[ticklechin]

My PW was a BW for 6 mon!

 

[Riven]

A full prime takes 9 months. Even if the color was gone I've found that often when chins get head wounds the fur does not grow back the same. I had a female who always had a funny "mohawk" thing where she had to have her scalp stitched. It really depends on how it heals and how it scars. Even if you can't show her you could take her and have her graded after the show explaining what happened.