Hi there. I'm new to this site but was told by some nice ladies that I should post this on here..
My 9 month old male chinchilla named Gizmo has an unusual problem with his toe. To start back, in Feb. he had an accident which resulted in a bad cut on his front left leg. It turned gangreen over night which had to be amputated. After that, he had 6 or so infections and was in and out of the vet at least 4 sometimes 5 time a week for about 2 months straight. Finally everything cleared up and he healed nicely!!!!
About a month after he was healed I came home to find blood all over the cage, I found that his toe had appeared to be split wide open and looked broken since it was hanging loose on the side. I freak out of course and rushed him to the emergency vet. She knocked him out, looked at the toe and found out it was not cut at all but was a mass that had grown LITERALLY OVERNIGHT!!! (we were there 2 days prior) and had burst. Because of all his health problems before she decided to just amputate the toe. We sent the toe with the mass out to the lab. It was thankfully non cancerous and they did not know what it was. He healed nicely with that and I thought the problems were over! a few weeks after his ampuated toe healed up, the other back legs (same toe) got a large round red mass on top. Both my vet (who is great w/ chinchillas) and my emergency vet still to this day have no idea what it is, or what causes it).She thought that it may be an immune system response, but hes healthy (knock on wood) The mass is hard to the touch, round, and red/pink. I've noticed that it reponds to activity and stress especially. Just when I think its maybe going away, he'll be very active that week or stressed out, it'll return- large and red. He is currently on eye ointment due to a infection, I've noticed that due to the stress from the vet( he crys loudly when we are there now) and the medicine, it has gotten extrememly large, and beat red. Over the past few days it has gone down though.
I've been toying with the idea in my head if I should get a him a friend or not in the near future. :hmm: I'm a bit worried that with all the stress of a new friend, the toe may get worse.Plus, they may not get along. Do you think thats a good or bad idea?
Has anyone ever experieced anything like this before? I'll try to get up a picture of his toe soon. Thanks for reading, and im sorry its so long!!!
My 9 month old male chinchilla named Gizmo has an unusual problem with his toe. To start back, in Feb. he had an accident which resulted in a bad cut on his front left leg. It turned gangreen over night which had to be amputated. After that, he had 6 or so infections and was in and out of the vet at least 4 sometimes 5 time a week for about 2 months straight. Finally everything cleared up and he healed nicely!!!!
About a month after he was healed I came home to find blood all over the cage, I found that his toe had appeared to be split wide open and looked broken since it was hanging loose on the side. I freak out of course and rushed him to the emergency vet. She knocked him out, looked at the toe and found out it was not cut at all but was a mass that had grown LITERALLY OVERNIGHT!!! (we were there 2 days prior) and had burst. Because of all his health problems before she decided to just amputate the toe. We sent the toe with the mass out to the lab. It was thankfully non cancerous and they did not know what it was. He healed nicely with that and I thought the problems were over! a few weeks after his ampuated toe healed up, the other back legs (same toe) got a large round red mass on top. Both my vet (who is great w/ chinchillas) and my emergency vet still to this day have no idea what it is, or what causes it).She thought that it may be an immune system response, but hes healthy (knock on wood) The mass is hard to the touch, round, and red/pink. I've noticed that it reponds to activity and stress especially. Just when I think its maybe going away, he'll be very active that week or stressed out, it'll return- large and red. He is currently on eye ointment due to a infection, I've noticed that due to the stress from the vet( he crys loudly when we are there now) and the medicine, it has gotten extrememly large, and beat red. Over the past few days it has gone down though.
I've been toying with the idea in my head if I should get a him a friend or not in the near future. :hmm: I'm a bit worried that with all the stress of a new friend, the toe may get worse.Plus, they may not get along. Do you think thats a good or bad idea?
Has anyone ever experieced anything like this before? I'll try to get up a picture of his toe soon. Thanks for reading, and im sorry its so long!!!
