pinched paw

GorillaJTA · Apr 2, 2010

I was giving Flea his hay for the day this afternoon, and as I was standing back up, I hit my head on the corner of the cage door and it bumped back against the cage. But then I looked and Flea was favoring his right front paw. It is a FN142 and so it has a small gap under the door. He was keeping all weight off of it, but now he is starting to put weight on it as he crawls around and is using it to eat. He is only holding it close to him when he is not using it. I checked to make sure his arm was not broken (experience from rodent work), but his paw is still a little red. There are no abrasions and he does not seem to be in any extreme distress (no noises or shivering) Should I take him to the vet immediately or watch him overnight and take him in the morning if he is still favoring it?
My head is fine by the way, even though it bled for a minute. I will not be seeing a vet about it.

RDZCRanch · Apr 2, 2010

He doesn't need to see a vet. It probably smarts...like your head :neener: but he should be fine. All the vet would do is prescribe some metacam which isn't entirely necessary for every little tiny boo boo a chin gets. It would be wonderful to keep your chinchilla pain free but if they don't know the feeling they can't show you something is wrong in the future.

Essentia · Apr 2, 2010

I would watch him overnight to see if it gets better/he is using it more. Do you have any metacam on hand? If so I would give him a dose to alleviate some of the pain.

chinniecrew · Apr 2, 2010

GORILLAMANJA said:
My head is fine by the way, even though it bled for a minute. I will not be seeing a vet about it.

:laughitup:

One of mine pinched his paw when I was putting the food dish back into its holder and he put his paw on the ring just as I pushed the dish into place. I felt so bad. He favored it for a little while but was fine in no time. Now I make sure they are no where near the food dishes when I remove the bowl from the ring and put it back.