Another bite wound (warning: photos)

It seems to be an annual occurrence. Nibbler has yet again incurred what I can only presume is a bite wound (some of you from the old forum may remember a similar incident early February of last year. the timing is ominous). I don't know how long it has been there as I haven't been home for a couple of days, but it doesn't seem nearly as bad as the one I found on him last year. I can only assume from looking at it that it is 24-48 hours old, though you guys will be able to tell me better I'm sure. Aside from some puffiness, fur loss, and redness it doesn't seem to be in too bad of shape... at least relatively.

I laid their dust bath in and handed each of the boys a wood chunk, and noticed that Nibbler wasn't looking like his normal self or even jumping down to get a much needed and long overdue roll. I reached in to pet him and felt something crunchy in his fur, so I pulled him out and there it was. My boyfriend and I took him into the bathroom so he could hop around, as both my boys have been smooshed up in their temp cage for the past couple of weeks while I get my room painted, carpet shampooed, and various shelving units installed. Probably not the best idea to have him moving, but I wanted to make sure that the lethargic look he had in the cage wasn't an infection that had already gotten to him. Aside from the injury, he seems to be behaving alright. Still eating and drinking well, took to the bathroom (he'd never been in there before) rather well and climbed up into my arms from time to time.

I set him up in the fleece-lined travel cage with some hay, a wood chew, and a bottle of water so that we can head to the vet immediately after my meeting in the morning. I thought about doing compresses on it but I was worried that it might make him uncomfortable and encourage him to chew or otherwise fidget at the wound. We'll see what the vet has to say in the morning, but I was wondering what you all thought I should be sure to say, do, ask for while I'm there or even do until then. When this happened before, the wound had abscessed and the vet had to cut away some surrounding tissue so she gave us anti- and pro-biotics and I hand fed him for the week that he received them. Is this necessary this time? I have attached some photos so you could all give me better advice in case it mattered.

owie! he looks so sad in the little carrier =[ I hope he gets better soon!

As the wound hasn't abcessed yet I don't know if the vet will prescribe antibiotics. I would be prepared to feed critical care though as he may become depressed and not eat will. Do you think you need to separate the boys, Jesse? I wouldn't want anything more serious to happen when you weren't there to break it up immediately.

Did you say that you have them in a temporary cage? If it is smaller than their normal cage they probably need to have their own space. I have a pair of boys here that get along great but when you put them in a smaller space together they bicker at each other.

If it's happened before, I would not put those two chins back together. That is not a nip, it is an absolute bite...and a pretty bad one at that. IMO putting them back together after this has happened numerous times is just asking for trouble. Next time it could be more than a bite, it can be an attack. I had a chin attack his cage mate, and he ended up dying. It's not worth the risk.

The vet may prescribe antibiotics just to keep the risk of infection down. Be sure that the chin continues to eat on his own as they sometimes go off feed after being attacked and injured, as well as being in pain, stressed, or even going on meds. I would put some blu-kote on the wound as well.

I agree, do you have some blu-kote you can put on there? That will help it from becoming infected.
And I do also agree that seeing as this is the second time, I would not put those chins back together. You're just asking for it to escalate. It can happen overnight and then it's too late.

I do think that this may have been a small squabble over something like Nibbler stepping on Brock's face trying to get into the hammock, or perhaps just them needing space from one another. This temp cage is substantially smaller than their normal one (2' x 2' x 1.5' rather than the usual 3' x 3' x5') so there is no doubt in my mind that it was the catalyst. Regardless, I about 85% sure that I'll be separating them. Because their cage is so tall, splitting it would only be a matter of putting a solid level of full-width pine shelves across the center. Unfortunately with the design of my cage I will be unable to have a pull out pan on the top half, but I think the long-awaited switch to fleece liners will pick up that slack if I can find some urine guards to fasten at that level...

I don't have any blu-kote; where can I pick some up? The vet appointment is at 9 and about an hour away, so I would have to pick it up on the way home. Even if the vet does something else, it would be nice to have on hand. I found out last night that my CC expired last month, so I'll have to pick up more from the vet.

When I went to bed last night, Brock was sitting in the corner of the cage pouting and occasionally lifting his head up when he heard Nibbler in the carrier (I put the carrier on the table next to the cage, but the sides of it are practically solid so they can't really see one another). He seems to miss him, which makes it so much harder for me to make the 100% decision to separate them. Yesterday morning when I came home to shower, they were just piled on top of each other in the hammock snoozin' the day away in a cuddle puddle. This just bums me out Last year when this happened, I found Nibbler wounded while he was cuddling with Brock, which made it even weirder. How can chinchillas be so forgiving of one another? If someone bit me, I'd certainly not be sleeping on a leapin' ledge with him or her.

They are animals, they will love eachother one minute, and can kill eachother the next. Please don't put them back together, it is a disaster waiting to happen. Look at poor Mako's thread- and they cuddled and loved each other all the time.

Well if it were me, I can tell you I would 100% not put them back together. So what happens if something like this happens again except he takes off a huge chunk of skin? And then Nibbler goes into shock and you aren't there to help him? You'll end up with a dead chin unfortunately. Listen to Stacie, she just went through that painful situation.
For it to happen twice is not a good sign at all. Even if they are cuddling afterwards. Next time it could be so much worse and then it will be too late.

Perhaps you could still try playtime with both of the boys, but I would be separating them when you're not around.

Blu-kote can be found at farm supply stores like Tractor Supply. Or you can buy it online if you don't have a store like that.

That's not a small squabble. A small squabble is perhaps a small chase, a bit of kacking. No blood.

When there's blood, there's a problem. Please don't put them back together. My two cuddled and squished together all of the time- I hardly ever saw them sleeping apart. They were like this up until the night Smudge attacked Mako. When I checked on them before I went to bed, they were grooming each other, then draped over each other's backs sleeping. When I woke up, I found Mako laying in the bottom of his cage covered in bite marks, blood, fur and blood everywhere in the cage.

I wish I had the warning signs that you had. I didn't have any warning. You do.

I agree with the other statements. That wound looks pretty bad - a lot more than a small squabble - that was an attack.

From now on you should keep them separated. Especially if it's happened before - a good sign that they should not be housed together.

Good luck with him, I hope he heals quickly!

I also agree with separating them. That is no small boo-boo. He was trying to hurt him. You're lucky he stopped with one. Generally during an attack, a chin will jump on the back of the attackee and just keep hammering him until he's either dead or beaten to the point where he wishes he was.

If this was a first time, I would have separated them. With it being a second (that you know of) I would definitely separate them. Trust me, it's no fun to walk in and find the chin that lost the fight laying there dying while the other one bounces around the cage like everything is fine. You were lucky enough to find him alive this time, next time you might not be.

If they seem to miss and care for each other, maybe just let them play together during SUPERVISED playtime. I would be TERRIFIED for my chinchilla if he had been bitten/attacked twice now! My 3 chins are in separate cages, but they talk to each other and seem to enjoy listening to the noises from one another. They are all VERY happy in their own cages.

I agree with separating them. It's just not worth the risk.

I agree about the mutual playtime but the separate living situation. I wouldn't take the chance of this, or something much, much worse happening.

I didn't mean to imply that the wound itself was the result of a small squabble. I meant that a small squabble might have escalated to the point that it became vicious in this manner. The vet appointment went extremely well and Nibbler hasn't stopped eating or anything at all. I received Baytril, Probiocin, Metacam, and some Apple/Banana Critical Care which Nibb has never had before - maybe he'll love it. I'm going to do the first dose of baytril tonight about 7, then the probiocin around 9. I wasn't sure, though, when to do the metacam. It's a once-daily dosage but I'm not sure if it needs to be specially scheduled in relation to the other meds the way probiotics and antibiotics must be. The last time I had to administer this type of stuff, the antibiotics were given to me in individual pre-measured syringes but this time they gave me a bottle and one syringe. I may need some help figuring out how to load it up as I've never really seen this kind of bottle before. The probiocin came in the regular tube and the metacam is in preloaded syringes, so that shouldn't be too hard. Should I begin supplementing his diet with the critical care now or wait to see if the baytril will have him go off eating? It did last time, but I'm thinking about trying some of the "chasing" ideas that were given in the other thread regarding baytril and appetite. Thoughts?

Kinda looks like a ruptured abcess to me, is there two holes, or only the one?

Just curious.

I agree with EP - there's a deep area in the middle of the biggest wound which looks to have fur embedded in it - it looks to have pus/slough in there too. There also look to be other smaller, more superficial wounds around the area.
I have highlighted the deep area on your photo - it is easier to see if you blow the picture up a bit too.



That wound does not look particularly new to me - did the vet check him all over for other wounds/damage?

The more I look at those pics, the more I see - in the second photo the superficial wounds linking to the deeper hole are more visible - it is possible an abscess built up and the chin chewed his own side because it was painful/irritating - the linear wounds are superficial.
It is impossible to know though and even if some of the wounds are self inflicted I'd still separate the chins just to be safe.



I'd strongly suggest clipping the fur away from around all the wounds - you need to take a good 1 1/2-2 cm around the edges so that the fur does not interfere with the wound healing.

The vet checked him over thoroughly, trimmed his fur, and has given me instructions for medication. She said that she didn't think it had abscessed but that it might have started to do so under the skin, so we're going to do the round of antibiotics and whatnot that she gave me then assess how much he has healed. What I really need right now is advice on how to give these medications. I need to know when to give the metacam.