Blood

[CJR]

Came home from boyfriend's apartment this morning, checked on my girls, and saw that Tia's cage has several blood spatters on it. On her wooden ledge, a dot on her liner, and two dots on her lava ledge. I checked her over and all I could see was a bit of blood on her hiney. It's hard for me to check her very thoroughly, because she doesn't like to be held and I'm constantly afraid of rebreaking her pelvis.

In any case, she escaped from my hands and is now hiding under the bed. This happens occasionally, and I'll catch her when she comes back out. The emergency is the bleeding.

What should I do, everyone? I am terrified.

There is nothing sharp in her cage, I checked. She has been eating and pooping and playing normally, the only difference is that lately she will sleep in the corner of her cage instead of in her tube.

Could it be possible that (since she has a lava ledge) she cut herself on that? Or perhaps she ingested a large chunk and it "cut" coming out?

Please advise.

 

[Harleychin]

Stay calm Sweetie.Now we need to see where the blood is coming from.
Alot of the time it's a cut on the feet.Could the blood on her butt be from her sitting on some or do you think it's comming out of her butt?

 

[CJR]

I caught her. She is safely back in her cage. Here are some pictures I took.

Ledge.

Lava ledge.

She spends a lot of time in here, but there is no blood.

Back in the cage.

 

[RDZCRanch]

The blood spots in the cage definitely look like a foot injury. I know you can't get a picture of the foot since she's so wiggly and you saw a sore on the one foot. I think your best option would be to take her to the vet and have them do initial treatment on the foot and show you the best way to handle her for continued treatment.

 

[CJR]

Tia has a vet appointment on Thursday at 10am. It was the earliest I could get. I need to go to work now, thanks for everyone's help. Here is my game plan until the appointment -

Change her liner every day
Blukote on all her feet

Does that sound all right?

Thanks again.

 

[Harleychin]

I'd clean everthing in cage just to be safe.
You can sand down the wood shelves and wash the pvc.

 

[StevieP]

Use peroxide on the wooden ledges after you sand them, and sanitize it daily as well as the rest of the surfaces that she will be on.

Also I would remove the lava ledge -- those are pretty abrasive.

Personally I would not treat all feet with blu-kote unless they all had a wound. Neosporin is also an option which you can use on all feet and it may help with dryness.

 

[RDZCRanch]

Neosporin tends to promote healing. When dealing with a foot injury, you don't want it to close before you kill the bacteria. Blu kote tends to travel deeper into the cuts/injuries as well since it's a liquid solution and not an ointment. You want to use blu kote for the initial treatment to ensure you kill all the bacteria before trying to get the wounds to heal.

Definitely, you want to get a better look at her feet. Try again tonight as I'm sure she's stressed right now. Do what I suggested earlier. Hold her by the base of the tail and gently lift her hind end, make sure her front feet are still planted on the ground. This should make it easy to inspect her back feet.

 

[Brittney]

I came home to the same sight several months ago. I could have sworn there was a fight that had broken out between two of my boys. I checked everyone over and couldn't find anything until I looked at Dylan's foot. Sure enough, he was the culprit. Just had dry feet. Moisturized them up and he was good to go.

 

[CJR]

Well, I now have a very upset (and very purple) princess. I removed her ledge and her tube for cleaning and put in a hammock for her. She won't lay in it, but she likes to hide under it.

I was looking at her feet again today and I couldn't find any wounds. Her back feet were very dry, but that was it.

She hasn't bled since the first night. Should she still go to the vet?

 

[addictedtochins]

She hasn't bled since the first night. Should she still go to the vet?

I wouldn't, it will just stress her out for nothing. Just keep and eye out for lameness and infection