I noticed on Wednesday evening that one of my two chins had scabby lumps at the side of his neck and going down to under his chin. Googled and thought maybe it was fungus so got some athletes foot cream and powder.
Last night as I was putting the cream on I thought that the main scabby area was really big with like a large flap. So took him to the vet today as I was worried.
Vet says its not fungus and pulled the scab off. It came off really easily, loads of fur came off as well. So I can see the wound now. One big one, a cople of inches long and a couple of cm wide. It's into the muscle layer. Then a smaller wound under the chin/front of neck.
Vet has prescribed antibiotics and we have to go back next week. Vet says it may need surgery to close it up. I'm a dr and from my experience of suturing humans don't think it does need stitches but I think it will probably take some weeks if not longer to heal. It's not bleeding at all.
Anyway my main worry is how the heck did he get the injury. Vet didn't seem to have any idea. So either my two boys have been fighting or he's hurt himself maybe falling? The two chinchillas are six years old and have been together five years. I've never seen them fight. They sleep in my daughters bedroom and she hasn't heard or seen any squabbling.
They've got a John hopewell built cage so no sharp edges or plastic, etc in the cage. They have ledges in the cage, they've got a wooden nesting box at the bottom. I suppose he might have fallen out the top hammock and scraped his neck on the box as he landed on it?
The vet kept asking if he ever tries to escape from his cage? Never seen any sign of this at all. They have out of cage time nearly every day and I must admit they're not always supervised for this. They go in the bathroom with their sand bath. Now I'd say the bathroom is fairly chinchilla proof. Toilet seat is put down, there's a bath and a sink and that's it. They do sometimes jump up on the edge of the bath but even if they fell off there I can't see how they'd get an injury.
Any ideas? I really hope I don't have to separate them.
Last night as I was putting the cream on I thought that the main scabby area was really big with like a large flap. So took him to the vet today as I was worried.
Vet says its not fungus and pulled the scab off. It came off really easily, loads of fur came off as well. So I can see the wound now. One big one, a cople of inches long and a couple of cm wide. It's into the muscle layer. Then a smaller wound under the chin/front of neck.
Vet has prescribed antibiotics and we have to go back next week. Vet says it may need surgery to close it up. I'm a dr and from my experience of suturing humans don't think it does need stitches but I think it will probably take some weeks if not longer to heal. It's not bleeding at all.
Anyway my main worry is how the heck did he get the injury. Vet didn't seem to have any idea. So either my two boys have been fighting or he's hurt himself maybe falling? The two chinchillas are six years old and have been together five years. I've never seen them fight. They sleep in my daughters bedroom and she hasn't heard or seen any squabbling.
They've got a John hopewell built cage so no sharp edges or plastic, etc in the cage. They have ledges in the cage, they've got a wooden nesting box at the bottom. I suppose he might have fallen out the top hammock and scraped his neck on the box as he landed on it?
The vet kept asking if he ever tries to escape from his cage? Never seen any sign of this at all. They have out of cage time nearly every day and I must admit they're not always supervised for this. They go in the bathroom with their sand bath. Now I'd say the bathroom is fairly chinchilla proof. Toilet seat is put down, there's a bath and a sink and that's it. They do sometimes jump up on the edge of the bath but even if they fell off there I can't see how they'd get an injury.
Any ideas? I really hope I don't have to separate them.
