possible old break or deformality??

[chinchillalover0927]

if you all dont remember we bought a chinchilla a few months back with horrible living coniditons, we named him patch...
over time his personality has improved alot and so has his physical health..well my boyfriend just left the house.....

about an hour ago he called me saying patch's leg was broke....i told him to see if he hurt it and wasnt using it or to see if it was actually broke, well of course he couldnt do it he was about to puke everywhere so he brought him here for me to look at him..

i inspected his leg carefully, moved it around , felt around etc...it doesnt appear broken at all, if it WAS broken once apon a time, it must have healed by itself. the lady we bought him from had 3 smalllll children and they called it there puppy...so you can imagine them may have broken his leg and never even noticed or if they did he was never treated for it.

my only other opinion is he was disformed when born...........the way it feels is so indescribable but im going to try....

when you feel down the first bone towards the elbow to go towards to second bone its almost as if by the elbow it dips into a huge U and comes back out sideways...here are some pics, but to me i cant see a break healing like this...he is in no pain and moves around on it..so its not recent its old but i wanted to show this.

his front feet are also not rite, when he eats raisins or treats he only holds them with his 2 front toes, not all the toes like all the others do....we never noticed this because we only give him peace, he was probablly tortured where he lived and we just leave him be and happy so that he can live out the rest of his life not being tormented..i feel better to know its not something that happened while we had him but we still feel so horrible for him..i think he was bred horribly or just a freak accident deformed chinchilla

 

[Thearina]

I have a young male chinchilla (Dimitri) who I got from a breeder who owned a petstore. Dimitri's leg looked just like your chinchillas except on Dimitri's the foot was twisted all the way upside down. As in the bottom of his foot was on top and the top of his foot was on bottom. The foot was actually completely broken from the bone. Where the bone of the leg and ankle met it had an open wound and was bleeding. On your chinchilla it doesn't look like the bone/muscle tissue is showing allowing for infection. The breeder/petstore lady thought Dimitri had bumblefoot and had been putting meds on his leg for at least 2 months where it was broken and had a sore/wound area. She gave Dimitri to me because she was tried of dealing with his leg and knew it would be hard to sell him. Dimitri was housed on a rusty wire bottom cage which the vet said was what cause his leg to bleed. Since Dimitri had been like that so long and had an infection the vet waited and put him on pain meds, antibiotic, and I hand fed him to put on weight. The antibiotic run the infection out and Dimitri did put on weight. (I would not recommend waiting on having his leg taken care of as I did with Dimitri. Dimitri was a special case and his leg had been like that for quite a while) Dimitri had his leg amputated in mid-november and is doing wonderfully.

The vet said that she had another chinchilla come in with the same exact broke and that chinchilla had got his leg caught in his feeder.

I would highly recommend that you take you chinchilla to a vet and xrays done and especially see about getting him some pains meds because a broken leg is VERY painful. I will be honest, the most likely option will be amputation.

I know that your chinchilla may seem like he's not in pain and run around and play but Dimitri also acted as if nothing was wrong. I would put your chinchilla into a smaller cage or even a pet carrier so that he can't jump or climb because it will be painful for him and could make his leg worse. Dimitri's leg was actually broken in 2 different places, one being just like yours and the other about 2 inches up in the middle leg part and it almost was broke through the skin.

I wish the best of luck with your chin.

 

[Thearina]

I forgot to add that I don't know if you have an exotic vet close to you. But you don't you can call around to other vets and see if they have any chinchilla experience if a exotic is very far from you. The vet that did Dimitri's leg amputation is not an exotic vet but she does have experience with them and was very knowledgeable in their care. She did a wonderful job on his leg especially since she hadn't ever did a leg amputation on a chinchilla before. She was actually really suprised and happy with how well Dimiti did.

 

[tunes]

If the leg healed, there is no sore, and he is thriving, then there should be no need for an amputation. A foot that heals upside down and with open sores is different than a leg that heals a little off kilter. I know of people who just splint a broken leg and let it heal as it will. (No, I don't agree with it, I think it's cruel.) The chins seem to do fine after.

I personally would go to the vet and get a set of x-rays to make sure the break has healed cleanly and that the bones have calcified, but if the bone is healed well, there's no point in amputating it unless it presents a problem at some point.

 

[chinchillalover0927]

If the leg healed, there is no sore, and he is thriving, then there should be no need for an amputation. A foot that heals upside down and with open sores is different than a leg that heals a little off kilter. I know of people who just splint a broken leg and let it heel as it will. (No, I don't agree with it, I think it's cruel.) The chins seem to do fine after.

I personally would go to the vet and get a set of x-rays to make sure the break has healed cleanly and that the bones have calcified, but if the bone is healed well, there's no point in amputating it unless it presents a problem at some point.

yes, its healed fine, and its been like that a lonnnnnnnnng time because he has a spot where he is missing fur that you can tell where he lays or uses that part of his leg alot so its been that way for a very long time .. i felt all over his leg and its in tact everywhere, my mom was a vet tech for 9 years and she also checked him out and said it felt purfectly healed..i can probablly take him to my local vet who doesnt handle exotics to get the xray done.. just to see what it looks like.

and yes he moves fine, jumps around like a crazy kid like nothings wrong with him.

 

[AZChins]

It looks like something that just healed up funny to me. No infection and he can get along without a problem soooo there shouldn't be a problem with just letting him be. I feel bad for what he must have gone through before it healed. It's amazing how it healed as well as it did without the help of a corrective splint.

 

[chinchillalover0927]

thats how i feel about the situation, he is FINE i see no reason to bring him to the vet because he is happy and you can tell that it is healed, it causes him no pain but i also feel so horrible wondering what happened to him for his leg to heal like that

 

[Thearina]

On taking him to the vet, that is really up to you so what you feel is the best than go with that.

What I would advise you to do is to keep an eye on on how his uses that leg and foot while getting around and jumping. What I mean is if he actually uses that leg and foot and walks and/or jump with that foot it could bother his leg some or push the foot up more. Like when he puts weight on that foot what he would more liking be putting weight on is the bottom bone part of the leg instead of the foot because the foot is actually more to the side. Or if you chinchilla is like my Dimitri then he won't actually be doing that way. I noticed with Dimitri that if he actually used that leg he would put weight on his thigh are of his leg and kinda hold up his foot. But most of the time he just balanced on three legs which I think helped him in the long run because when he got his leg amputated he was already use to not really using that leg. From the way my vet talked that the reason that Dimitri's leg had an open wound on the bottom of the leg/foot area is because he was housed in a wire bottom cage and having to put weight and walk around on that wire rubbed his fur away and broke open the skin causing the wound and infection. After I got Dimitri I housed him on towel and fleece which I plan continuing to do. I'm not sure exactly what type of cage you use but if you use a cage with a wire bottom/flooring I either switch him to a different cage or put fleece and/or towels on the bottom because if he jump and runs around on that leg on wire the wire could make him loose his fur around the bone/foot part and eventually cause a sore or open wound.

 

[chinchillalover0927]

On taking him to the vet, that is really up to you so what you feel is the best than go with that.

What I would advise you to do is to keep an eye on on how his uses that leg and foot while getting around and jumping. What I mean is if he actually uses that leg and foot and walks and/or jump with that foot it could bother his leg some or push the foot up more. Like when he puts weight on that foot what he would more liking be putting weight on is the bottom bone part of the leg instead of the foot because the foot is actually more to the side. Or if you chinchilla is like my Dimitri then he won't actually be doing that way. I noticed with Dimitri that if he actually used that leg he would put weight on his thigh are of his leg and kinda hold up his foot. But most of the time he just balanced on three legs which I think helped him in the long run because when he got his leg amputated he was already use to not really using that leg. From the way my vet talked that the reason that Dimitri's leg had an open wound on the bottom of the leg/foot area is because he was housed in a wire bottom cage and having to put weight and walk around on that wire rubbed his fur away and broke open the skin causing the wound and infection. After I got Dimitri I housed him on towel and fleece which I plan continuing to do. I'm not sure exactly what type of cage you use but if you use a cage with a wire bottom/flooring I either switch him to a different cage or put fleece and/or towels on the bottom because if he jump and runs around on that leg on wire the wire could make him loose his fur around the bone/foot part and eventually cause a sore or open wound.

he is in a ferret nation with fleece blanket wrapped around the plastic pan..before that he was in a reg cage with shavings until we moved him into the ferret nation because we are trying a new method with our fur chewer..so they swapped cages..