Horrible accident need help!!!!

[soqrbrad]

:update:

Just got back, Dr. Fitzgerald was amazing! Aside from the $100.18 ER fee we paid on Saturday when we first brought him in, Dr. Fitzgerald waived everything else.

But on to the more important stuff. Pachuco should be fine!!!! :hammockr. Fitzgerald said that with his young age he should be able to bounce back. He said how the middle toe (the one that was totally off of center and looked bad on the x-ray) "broke" at the joint. So basically its a badly dislocated toe with ligament damage. He thinks that once they set it and keep Pachuco in that same type bandage for 2-4 weeks, the ligaments should regrow and everything will return to what it was. Yay young healing factor!!:thumbsup:

Thanks for everyone's knowledge and input you have no idea how much it helped and how much it means to me. :cute:

 

[soqrbrad]

Update full of good news

:update:

I just took in Pachuco in to Dr. Fitzgerald to get his bandages/splint changed this morning. He says the toes are looking a lot better and that he wants to keep the splint on for another week and have one more appointment to come look at it. He gave the indication though that after this next appointment, we could take the spint off and Pachuco should be good as new!! :hug2:

 

[JennyBug]

Yay, Pachuco!!

 

[andymilo]

yay thats great news!!! hope the recovery is speedy!!! all the best!!

 

[heymom32000]

That's wonderful news!

 

[Rickman]

Glad he'll be good as new!!!

 

[Claire D]

:thumbsup: That all sounds promising

 

[soqrbrad]

Additional Update

So after taking him in on Monday Dr. Fitzgerald thought it was about time to take off the splint and see how he does. The toes looked good and straight but that didn't last long.

For being such a good boy with the cast, Pachuco just won't seem to leave the toes alone. The main middle toe which had the open fracture seems to be fine but he is continually biting the inside toe. They haven't taken any x-rays since the initial break so I don't think they can really tell if it's back perfectly healed all the way.

We left pachuco at the vet last night because he was just not having the cone on his head. He was fighting it so much and rolling around that we thought he was going to hurt something else. So we got a call this morning from the vet and they too said he just was not taking the cone well at all and all they could really do was check on him every once in a while and see if he was biting or not.

Dr. Fitzgerald is out until Thursday but Pachuco is going to see another exotic specialist around 1 today. Does anyone have any last minute ideas we could try to possibly avoid him losing his toe? Should we push for the xrays to see if everything is healed properly or should we just go ahead and lop the toe off and see how things go and hope he doesn't nibble at the other 2?

So promising and so close to a full recovery.... *sigh* :cry2:

 

[Stackie]

It's common for chins to chew at their toes if they've been injured. I had a boy rip all the fur out of his when he had a little scratch on it. Other than the cone, I'm not really sure what else you can do to keep him from biting. I wish you and your chinnie luck and a speedy recovery!

 

[Claire D]

To be honest, if it were my chin and the toe was bottering him that much, I'd ask for it to be removed. Chins cope very well without digits - it's no big deal to them but I think it upsets us more.

 

[tunes]

I'm with Claire. If he's chewing at it, most likely it's causing him pain. He's already been through weeks of pain and in a cast, another cast isn't going to do much different, is it? I personally would just have the toe snipped and let him heal up. Trust me, they do just as well without that toe as with. He will never even miss it.

 

[soqrbrad]

That is what I was thinking and leaning to. I just want to be sure we can just survive with taking the one toe rather than losing the whole foot or leg.

Upon closer inspection, not only has Pachuco lost a few tips of his fingers on his left hand, the injured left foot already looks like some of the tops of the toes were removed also. Must have happened when he was really young with whoever bred him. Amazingly we never even noticed until this whole fiasco started.

 

[Claire D]

As an aside: Chins cope without legs too - there are many chins happily bombing around their cages and play times etc minus a limb. As Peggy says they just adapt and don't seem to care.

You chin will feel a whole lot better without a painful toe.

 

[menagerie]

If the toe is causing him pain, he'll be much happier once it is removed. Animals are extremely resilient and cope with losing parts much better than humans. I have two girls that came to me after having rear leg amputations. The way they run around, you'd never know they are missing limbs.

I had a dog that had to have his toenail amputated as the other dog and dislocated it while they were playing. A week later he was still limping. His nail bed had gotten infected, despite returning to the vet every other day for a bandage change. He ended up having his toe amputated up to the knuckle and was so much happier after the infection and pain was removed. Other than having a unique footprint. You'd never know anything was different about Bear.

 

[soqrbrad]

:update:

So the split has been of now for a few days and he seems to be leaving everything alone. He still won't put too much pressure on the foot but I have seen him stand up on his back feet. I think it still hurts a bit when he puts pressure on it or bangs it but it is a lot better. The scab is fully intact and I don't see any signs of infection. He has an appointment with Dr. Fitzgerald in about an hour and he can give his opinion on which way to go.

Before I get more of the "just take the toe" posts, I want to say that I agree and will go that route if we need. I'm still going to get the advice of one of the best vets in the nation first rather than making a hasty decision. I know he can live a fully healthy life without the toe/foot/leg but just put yourself in my position. Could you really live with yourself knowing that through a dumb move you single handedly caused your chin to lose a body part? I don't want him to be in pain and if the toe/foot will always be a problem then yes, it's gone, but I want to still have the chance for him to return to 100% on his own if at all possible.

Does that make any sense at all? I don't want to see him in pain and if Dr. F says that's the way to go I'm all for it, but do you see the implications it might have on my mental state and my girlfriends mental state knowing that we did this?

 

[CerLynn]

I understand where you're coming from... but it does go the other way as well. I completely agree that you should see what the prognosis is before making a decision - he can likely give you an indication of whether this will be a chronic issue or will heal up just fine. It really depends on the circumstances.

Our situation was similar when Kokomo broke his leg. We were told that he had a good chance of full recovery, so we went with pinning it rather than amputating. However, for a while, it wasn't looking too promising. We got very lucky that he did end up fully healing, but honestly, I would have hated myself for making that decision if we ended up having to amputate after putting him through nearly 3 months of torture all for nothing (6 weeks with splint, another 5 of further healing and physical therapy before we could get a definitive xray). If I could do it over, I think I would have felt better amputating without knowing if it would heal rather than trying the pinning without knowing if it'd all be for nothing.

Now, that's probably a more severe case than a broken toe (as it probably wouldn't take six weeks of pain and immobilization to find out whether it worked), but I just thought I'd give my perspective having been in a similar situation. As I said, it really depends on the situation, so just see what Dr. Fitzgerald has to say about it and make a decision from there. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

 

[soqrbrad]

Just got word from my girlfriend saying that Dr. Fitz thinks it's looking great!

Mallory said that he is starting to put more weight on it and that Dr. F said the scab is looking exactly like it is supposed to.

WHEW!

Now Mal and I can really get to work on his new cage this weekend. I think that is a good reward for everything we have put him through. A 6 foot tall cage with tons of ledges and places to hide and such. I'll be posting pictures soon. Oh and I will be in the market for a decent amount of fleece hiding places (tubes, houses, and hammocks) and toys too. Any fleece creators or toy sellers with $$ in their eyes should contact me with their ideas of where we should put the fleece or toys once I post initial pictures of the cage probably late Saturday.

Hehe the news of Pachuco just made my week :thumbsup:

 

[Azure Chinchillas]

My chin Mac (now 16) had a big back toe amputated (he actually had a cancer). He recovered quickly and does just fine without it.

As has been said - it is a consideration .

 

[Sasha]

Good to hear he is doing better, I hope he continues to improve. Shelve that cage up good, you don't want any accidents happening! I get all my fleece items from Alli by the way (she's got couches, hangy houses, corner hammocks, regular hammocks, pillows..etcetc), and for neat interesting and even custom fleece "houses" (shape of cars, helmets, supermariobros mushroom, etc) check out Angela/gella.

Good luck!

 

[Rickman]

I'm very happy this is all working out for you! Needed a happy ending!