Ear wounds.

[Chisu]

Hi
This is luigi's ear. Luigi is housed with another male chinchilla (Mario). We are unsure of what happened to luigi. we suspect his brother did this. But it is on both ears in the same location, which is suspicious. This happened today and hasn't gotten any worse. Have any of you seen this type of lesion before in paired chinnies? do you think it might be mites (mario is not affected)? thank you for any input you may have!

 

[Chisu]

any one?

 

[Kalandra]

I have no advice except that looks pretty nasty. Did you take the chin to the vet to have it looked at? If so did the vet have any opinions as to what happened. Any signs of bite wounds that may have gotten infected?

How is your little one's ear doing now?

 

[starleomach]

Ear wounds (any appendage) always look worse then they are I would clean it up with a cotton ball and some water, put some blue Kote on and moniter it. I would be worried though about the two chinchillas fighting now. if all he got was the ear you (and he) got lucky. If there are any skin bits under the fur you will very likely need a vet for a prescription to prevent abscesses

 

[RDZCRanch]

Because they are in the same areas on both ears, it is more likely that the wounds came from his bother. Ear biting is common when one chinchilla is on the other's back and the ears are all they can reach. If you don't have blu kote, you can clean the wounds with betadine and rinse them a couple times and they will heal on their own. The wounds aren't that deep and chinchilla ears generally heal very well.

Is Luigi missing any fur? More than likely his brother got to humping him, got frustrated and attacked his ears. If there are no signs of chasing or fur pulling, I would not say they are fighting. If anything else happens to Luigi, you'll want to separate them. For now, I would just keep a close eye on them.

 

[Lindsey]

I have seen this exact thing actually. I have two sisters that live together and one day I noticed the rash/wounds in one of the chins ears. They never fight. And is looks like more of a rash type thing than a bite from a cagemate since it's in the same spot on both ears and only on the inner shell of the ear and nowhere else.

I took her to the vet and she gave me a cream to put on her ears twice a day and they healed right up in about a week and there's never been a reoccurance. Sorry I can't recall the name of the cream as it was quite a while ago. The vet had no answers to what it actually was as she'd never seen anything like it before but she said it was most likely a rash or irritation from something.