Paralyzed bleeding foot post spay

[Chilibean]

Regrettably, we had our Chinchilla spayed a week and a half ago. The spay part of the procedure went fine, but she dragged her back right leg for a few days after the surgery. The vet said it was due to swelling, and that it should get better. She did start to use her leg more, but still dragged the foot from time to time. A few days ago, we noticed blood in her cage and found that the top of her bad foot was missing a chunk of skin. We took her to the vet, and they gave us some medicine to put on the foot. We put her in her own cage, and removed anything she could jump onto, hoping it would get better. This morning, we found that she had chewed her bad foot down to the bone.

This leads to a couple of questions. Does anyone have experience with leg paralysis after spaying a chinchilla? What should we do about the bleeding foot?

I've read on this forum that we should get an antibiotic to prevent/treat infection, possibly apply Blu-Kote to the affected foot, and possibly amputate toes to prevent exposed bone. Please help!

 

[Dragonflye]

I would get her to the vet right away. I would bet she needs antibiotics (and probably more treatment, maybe amputation) and I would imagine pain med too. She must be stressed and in alot of pain.

 

[Claire D]

It is possible your chin has some nerve damage to the leg (& I would want to know what happened during her stay at the vets to cause that). If she has chewed down to bone then it is likely due to pain (as Nikki says) and I would suggest that amputation may be your only real option.
I agree with Nikki - back to the vets I am afraid.

Poor girl is really going through it - has she recovered from the spay & may I ask why she needed it?

 

[ticklechin]

Blood clot? Chin needs to go back!

 

[Chilibean]

Thanks for the feedback. We took our chinchilla back to the vet this morning. This time, we drove the extra 40 miles to get her to a vet specializing in exotic animals. This vet has a lot of experience with Chinchilla's. They amputated the toes that were chewed to the bone in hopes of saving her foot. We opted to let the vet keep her through the weekend so that they can keep the foot bandaged (and re-bandaged as she will chew the bandage off), and administer the proper medicine. Her surgery went well, and she immediately began eating and drinking post surgery (a good sign). They said that the paralyzed foot was likely due to the medicine used for anesthesia during the spay operation. They said it happens sometimes, and that there's no way to predict or avoid it.

Someone asked why we spayed this chinchilla. The short answer is that I wish we hadn't. We bought this chinchilla from a pet store about a year ago as a companion for our boy chinchilla. They had two baby chin's, who are both very healthy. We managed to find a great home for the baby girl, and plan to keep the baby boy. To prevent future babies and potential risk of further pregnancies, we opted to have her spayed without fully realizing the risks. In hindsight, we initially should have tried harder to find a boy companion for our first chinchilla. Saving that, we could have (should have) tried to re-adopt her out instead of proceeding with the spay operation. It is incredibly sad to think what she's going through right now, and the various opportunities we've had to avoid this.

 

[Claire D]

I'm glad your chin has come through her second lot of surgery well. Fingers crossed for a speedy & uneventful recovery.

They said that the paralyzed foot was likely due to the medicine used for anesthesia during the spay operation. They said it happens sometimes, and that there's no way to predict or avoid it.

Interesting - I wonder if your previous vet used a paralytic agent rather than just using Isoflurane or Sevoflurane (gases) which are preferred for chinchilla operations now.

Someone asked why we spayed this chinchilla. The short answer is that I wish we hadn't. We bought this chinchilla from a pet store about a year ago as a companion for our boy chinchilla. They had two baby chin's, who are both very healthy. We managed to find a great home for the baby girl, and plan to keep the baby boy. To prevent future babies and potential risk of further pregnancies, we opted to have her spayed without fully realizing the risks. In hindsight, we initially should have tried harder to find a boy companion for our first chinchilla. Saving that, we could have (should have) tried to re-adopt her out instead of proceeding with the spay operation. It is incredibly sad to think what she's going through right now, and the various opportunities we've had to avoid this.

It's such a shame you did not know about the forum before you had your chin spayed - no-one here will recommend spaying a female unless it is medically necessary because of the kinds of risks you are experiencing. It is much 'safer' (every anaesthetic/surgery poses risks) to have a male castrated in order to prevent pregnancy.
Having said that, you didn't know & what is done is done - I really do hope your chin recovers. Please do keep us posted.

 

[bchins]

Good to hear she is doing so much better. Her immediate eating and drinking is a great sign! She's such a trooper. Glad you have found CnH's Keep us posted!

 

[Brittany]

Hope she makes a full recovery. Wishing you the best!

 

[greychins]

We bought this chinchilla from a pet store about a year ago as a companion for our boy chinchilla. They had two baby chin's, who are both very healthy. We managed to find a great home for the baby girl, and plan to keep the baby boy. To prevent future babies and potential risk of further pregnancies, we opted to have her spayed without fully realizing the risks.

Ok, let me see if I'm reading this right. You have an adult male and female, which had babies, a boy and a girl. You adopted out the girl, so you still have adult male, spayed female, and baby male. Do you plan to keep the baby male in with mom and dad? Because even though she's spayed, and can't get pregnant, that's not going to eliminate the problems with the hormones kick in for the baby boy....

Hope all goes well with her leg...

 

[Chilibean]

Do you plan to keep the baby male in with mom and dad? Because even though she's spayed, and can't get pregnant, that's not going to eliminate the problems with the hormones kick in for the baby boy....

Well... We were planning to keep them all together. I guess it's obvious that I don't have much experience with Chins. At the risk of straying off of the topic of this original post, what's going to happen if we leave them together?

 

[Dewdrop]

Well... We were planning to keep them all together. I guess it's obvious that I don't have much experience with Chins. At the risk of straying off of the topic of this original post, what's going to happen if we leave them together?

It's likely the males will fight over her, potentially causing injury to any of them.

Best bet would be to cage her separately.