Degloved tail tip

johnbstewart · Jul 6, 2009

Hello Everyone,

I've never posted before but just trying to get some opinions on an injury my chinchilla sustained last night.

So, last night during playtime my girlfriend accidently stepped on the very tip of one of my chins tail. It literally ripped the fur/skin from the last 2-4mm of tail. And the tiny tip of the tail is exposed. I was able to stop the bleeing almost immdiately. We consulted a 24 hour animal hospital and took him in. They give him fluids and started him on antibiotics. Due to the fact that the tail wasn't bleeding at all and there was no bone break the dr recommened not putting him under/amputating the tip. She advised just to keep it clean and gave instructions on daily soaks with epsom salt and water. I believe this is the standard practice for a rat/degu's, I've just never heard it for chins before.

Does anyone have any experience with this type of injury? Any help or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Our regular chin vet is out of town until wednesday AM, but I made an appt for then.

tunes · Jul 6, 2009

I've seen this happen before when someone grabbed the tail too close to the tip and the end literally popped off. There was no bleeding, she got a a clean dust bath, and that was that. It's never slowed her down and there were no issues after that. It was a very short part of the tail, maybe a half inch at the very end.

It sounds like the vet took care of things and your boy should be fine. Just watch for signs of infection and make sure he is doing all things chin - peeing, pooping, etc.

johnbstewart · Jul 6, 2009

tunes said:
I've seen this happen before when someone grabbed the tail too close to the tip and the end literally popped off. There was no bleeding, she got a a clean dust bath, and that was that. It's never slowed her down and there were no issues after that. It was a very short part of the tail, maybe a half inch at the very end.

It sounds like the vet took care of things and your boy should be fine. Just watch for signs of infection and make sure he is doing all things chin - peeing, pooping, etc.

Yep, thats almost exactly what happened. The ER vet said it may or may not grow back over the tip. And that if it doesn't grow back, the very tip may fall off on its own.

As of this morning its almost like nothing happened other than he doesnt want me touching his tail at all. He's very friendly and jumps in my hands but if I get close to his tail he does whimper some. Eating and pooping like a machine, as usual... no problems there.

Thanks for the reassurance!

ticklechin · Jul 6, 2009

If you have Blue kote on hand I would dab some on it.

johnbstewart · Aug 17, 2009

Recieved a few pms, thought I would send an update:
The epsom soaks + blue kote did the trick. He only lost the very tip (only the very last bone segment). It took a couple weeks to dry up and fall off. The skin grew back about 2-3mm which was surprising, he had a little scab but it finally grew over the tip as well. And his hair is finally filling in..

I kinda went crazy with the hair clippers when it first happened, if I had to do it again I would have maybe not trimmed so much tail hair off lol. I think the loss of fur on the tail threw off his balance a lot. That seemed to annoy him more than the pain.

I think we kinda lucked out too, my vet said usually they have to amputate more bone if the skin doesn't grow back.

Thanks again everyone for the advice and comfort.