PLEASE HELP! Possible broken leg?

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JennyBug

Sometimes I love too much
Joined
Feb 1, 2009
Messages
658
Location
Indiana
My cuddlebug baby Carmen is not using her right front paw for anything more than grooming her whiskers or holding a piece of hay! She was fine earlier today, but I think she might have gotten a foot caught in the wire ladder separating her from the lower level of the cage and our other chin.

We have taken her wheel out of her cage, taken the upper shelf out of the cage, and covered the wire hole, but we're still worried. I contacted one of the few exotics specialists in the area, but he was in appointments and will have to call me tomorrow morning. She's still eating and drinking, but she's obviously bothered by her foot/leg since she's not using it.

We have to wait for the weekend to take her to the vet because my husband and I both work full time. Will she be okay if her leg is broken until Saturday? I don't want her to be in any pain, but I can't tell if she is or not (I know chins typically don't cry out because of the fact that they are prey animals).

I also want to know about options. I'm hoping they tell us it's a sprain and that she'll be fine, but I know chins are fragile. She's still running around, but we're minimizing that. I want to know about repairing the leg versus amputation. I hate even thinking of it, but we'll have to move funds around if she requires surgery. Have any of you had something like this happen before? PLEASE HELP US!:(
 
Would you be ok if your arm were broken and you couldn't see the dr until the weekend?

Shock and pain can kill a chinchilla. Call in sick and take your chin to the vet tomorrow.

Personally, rarely does repair work. It's faster and easier on the animal to amputate.
 
I'm definitely not a chinchilla expert. However, I had a guinea pig when I was a teenager that got her leg caught briefly when hopping back into her cage one day. I thought it might be broken because of how she was acting, but seeing that it was a $25 pet my mom didn't want to pay a vet bill and I didn't push the issue. She died about 3 days later.

If there is a break that isn't dealt with properly then all kinds of bad things can happen in a short period of time. From even my beginner knowledge of chins I know how stressed they can get and how even stress can kill them...and how stressful is pain?!? I think there can be other complications like blood clots and such too.

Good luck taking care of your chin!
 
I will call the vet and set up an appointment for tomorrow. My husband will have to take her. Hedgemom, I'm sorry if I upset you or seem like an irresponsible chin owner. Yes, I have had to wait for time to have a bone set, and yes I know it hurts. These are my first chins, I have very little experience, and I'm scared to death of losing my baby girl. I ask questions for answers, not to be made to feel bad for my ignorance.
 
p.s. is there any swelling, redness, or extra heat from her leg/foot. Again, I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure those are all big indicators that there is something more serious than just simply not using the paw.
 
When she hops around is she putting any weight on it?

You want to minimize her movement right now, do you have a smaller travel cage you can put her in with no shelves or anything to hop up on?

Did you take her out and look at the front paw to see if there's any cuts or anything on it?
 
She won't let me pick her up, but then she really never likes being picked up too much. She's still letting me pet her. It doesn't look like there is much swelling if there is any at all, but I'm afraid of hurting her worse. We've taken anything out of her cage that she could jump on - she's just got her house and food and hay. She let me lightly handle her paw, and I didn't see any cuts and there is no blood anywhere. My husband thinks it might be a sprain since she is using it just not as much, but he's not a vet.

She mostly hops on her three other legs, but she occasionally puts the sore one down. She doesn't seem to be putting any weight on it.

We're going to take her to the vet tomorrow. I'm sorry, I didn't know stress could kill them so quickly. I would take her tonight, but I can't, the nearest e-vet is over an hour away and if e-vets are like e-docs, I worry about the care she might get (sorry if I offended anyone with that comment, my family hasn't had good luck with e-docs).
 
OK I got her house out of her cage and set it on my lap and she crawled out and let me hold her. I felt along her leg and she didn't make any move to wiggle away. I'm not a vet, but I didn't feel any clean breaks (the bone was smooth and straight in her leg). Maybe a fracture or a sprain?
 
Does anyone have any ideas how much chin x-rays usually run and how stressful they are to the chin? With how squirmy they are, I can't imagine them being done without anesthesia, and I've read that is very risky with chins.
 
When my chin got hurt during playtime once and I thought he broke something because he was hopping/moving around like he did, the first thing the vet (over the phone) told me is to put him in a smaller cage to limit his movements until he saw him. Can you block part of her cage or put her in a smaller cage until you can get to your vet?
 
The only smaller cages we have are wire-bottomed, which I wouldn't think would feel good on her little feet. She has no shelves and no wheel, so she has nothing to jump on or run on. She's a pretty mellow girl, so she's just sitting here, watching TV with me. What ended up being wrong with your chin?
 
We've had some experience with the whole broken leg scenario...

I would highly suggest x-rays. Yes, she will have to be put under anesthesia, but after all is said and done, Kokomo has been put under 5 times for xrays (just a mask) and once for surgery (longer term, intubation), and he has come out just fine every time.... usually hungry too :) For us, a set of two xrays has cost $143 each time, but I imagine they are much cheaper elsewhere, as we take our chinnies to the animal hospital at Tufts vet school.

As far as surgical options, if it's a break, you will need to do something. The first option is repair. We chose this option with Kokomo. He had two breaks in the femur (large upper bone) of his right hindleg and had a pin inserted to hold everything in place, along with a large splint that kept him in traction. He was in his splint for ~6 weeks... the bone essentially collapsed on itself within the first week or two and the pin/splint had to be readjusted, prolonging the healing process. Luckily, there has been enough callous formation to stabilize his leg, but it's been a long and unsteady process. The second option is amputation. Honestly, if her leg is broken, I'd go with this option. The healing process will be much simpler and faster. There are many members here who have tripod chinnies, and you (and they) would never know that they're missing a leg. It may be hard to imagine, but trust me, they won't miss it all that much. And even after all that Kokomo has gone through with his repair, if the bone does not heal fully or the physical therapy to restore joint/muscle movement does not work, we may end up at this option anyway.

Also, if money is an issue, amputation will also likely be cheaper in the end. As it is a shorter and simpler process, you will likely be having fewer checkups/adjustments/etc. I'm not trying to discourage the repair route, but be aware that there are definitely more unknowns and potential complications.

I apologize for the long, drawn-out story, but I wanted to make you more aware of what you may be dealing with and what your options are. Best of luck and keep us updated.
 
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Thank you for your honest response. If you don't mind my asking, how much do x-rays typically run for chinnies? If you don't want to post on the site, please email me.
 
The only smaller cages we have are wire-bottomed, which I wouldn't think would feel good on her little feet. She has no shelves and no wheel, so she has nothing to jump on or run on. She's a pretty mellow girl, so she's just sitting here, watching TV with me. What ended up being wrong with your chin?

This happened about 3 years ago, and I learned alot with my first chin. We were in the bathroom for playtime and I had taken everything out of the bathroom that I believed he could have gotten hurt with BUT I never knew at that time that chins could jump/hop or what seemed to me like fly. He went from the floor to my lap to the top of the sink and then to the floor. But when he landed he started stumbling around and I got scared and thought he broke a leg or something. Thats when I called the vet and told him he looked disoriented and that he was moving/hopping around like he was limping and thats when they told me to limit his movement. I was very lucky, after I got to the vet where they immediately did an xray, nothing showed that was broken, and by that time (about an hour and a half after his fall) he was back to his usual normal self. That was the last time I used the bathroom for his playroom.
 
Sorry, I forgot to mention the xray cost - I edited it into my previous post. If you're curious about other costs we've incurred through this process, PM me.

I also forgot to mention that the quality of the surgery really depends on the vet. Kokomo had a small animal orthopedic surgeon perform his, so we felt pretty good about trying the repair. If you're unsure about the experience etc of the vet you're seeing, that may be another reason to take the amputation route.
 
I had a chin whom i noticed was very lethargic. when i took him out of his cage, i saw he was favoring one of his hind legs. i picked him up and touched it and he didn't seem to react to me touching it. Nor did it look red or bruised or swollen. I took him to the vet, and it was broken!!

xrays cost me a hundred and something dollars, but it was worth it. We put a pin in his leg, and it was a long process only cuz we had to keep going back to get xrays to see if enough bone had formed to take the pins out, and he kept chewing on his wrapping, which caused more vet trips to either rewrap it, plus one emergency trip cuz the wrapping was too tight and it swelled his toes. Needless to say, the whole ordeal ended up costing me $1400 (part of that was a boarding fee cuz I would have to leave him at the vet for the day because of my job). Next time I'll go with amputation, I think.
 
Xrays for me (my chin) were $45 plus $80 for the emergency visit, a regualar office appt. is $40
 
I had a chin whom i noticed was very lethargic. when i took him out of his cage, i saw he was favoring one of his hind legs. i picked him up and touched it and he didn't seem to react to me touching it. Nor did it look red or bruised or swollen. I took him to the vet, and it was broken!!

xrays cost me a hundred and something dollars, but it was worth it. We put a pin in his leg, and it was a long process only cuz we had to keep going back to get xrays to see if enough bone had formed to take the pins out, and he kept chewing on his wrapping, which caused more vet trips to either rewrap it, plus one emergency trip cuz the wrapping was too tight and it swelled his toes. Needless to say, the whole ordeal ended up costing me $1400 (part of that was a boarding fee cuz I would have to leave him at the vet for the day because of my job). Next time I'll go with amputation, I think.

Ah yes, we dealt with that as well. After the bone collapsed on itself, they had to find a better way to wrap his leg. What was supposed to be an afternoon outpatient checkup turned into a 4-night stay because the wrap kept causing swelling/decreased circulation.
 
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