Toe tore off and looks bad, anything I can do?

[greychins]

Really you can't go wrong with how much you administer. I went and looked at my bottle, and mine says "14 billion good bacteria" (I realize in my above post I said million, I meant billion). I think the bottle of pills (you do get quite a few) was $25 or around there, but it's worth paying the higher price for the billions of bacteria, as a lot of them are killed on the way down to where they need to work. It says the serving size is two pills, so I personally use two at a time. As far as I know (someone correct me if I'm wrong), it can't hurt them to have too much of a good thing, you want as much good bacteria as possible, so two shouldn't hurt them. You don't have to give two if you don't want, but I'd go with at least one.

I haven't dealt with a sick chin for years now (*knocks on wood*) but I believe that you should give the probiotic until four hours after the antibiotic. That way the two don't cancel each other out. So say you give the baytril at 1 pm. Then you'd want to give the acidophilus at 5 pm. And so on. If you're only giving the baytril once or twice a day, you can give the probiotic more often than that, but if it's closer than 4 hours to the antibiotic, they sort of cancel each other out, so you want to make sure to wait four hours.

I just add enough water to the powder that's in the pills to make it into a liquid that flows well (well enough to suck it up into a syringe), burrito them, and give it to them that way. In the event you ever had to feed your chin critical care at any point, you could simply mix the powder in with their critical care and not have to feed it separately.

Good luck with your chin.

Just have to comment about the vet visit - even if he is putting pressure on it, and didn't squirm when she squeezed it (which just makes me go "owww"), I would still want pain meds, at least for my own chin. You say you don't have enough baytril for the 7 days - when you go back to the vet... whichever one, maybe ask to get some metacam for him. In the event he's in pain, he'll feel better... even if he's not... can't hurt and you'll have peace of mind...

Where do you live in Indiana? Maybe one of us Indiana people on the forum can help you...

 

[ticklechin]

The probiotic does not cancel out the antibiotic-the antibiotic works just fine. Using a probiotic close to the oral dose of a antibiotic just allows the antibiotic to kill off the good bacteria you just gave in the probiotic.

 

[SmileX3]

Thanks so much! I live iaround the Bloomington area and prefer the Hillview vet in Franklin. Avatar's such a trooper and I'm so proud of my little boy! Although the "temp-vet" said he was a chunker! If she saw the new one someone gave me she'd think differently! I think he's perfect! He was given too many bad treats and food for who knows how long. He was an 8 yr olds pet and the parents didn't care what she fed him. I've only had him a couple of months and he's adjusted fine to his new healthy diet. 1lb 1.5oz. Is that overweight?

 

[greychins]

My bad. The antibiotic kills the probiotic. Well, I knew that one affected the other negatively. Anyway...

1 lb 1.5 oz is about 510 grams, which is definitely not overweight. 510 grams is a bit on the smaller size for chinchillas, we have some here that are around 900 grams. We definetly have a few chunkers - below is our heaviest at around 950ish.

 

[SmileX3]

Just one more reason for me to feel bad about taking the guy to that vet. I really hope he pulls out of this but he's not doing better and it has seemed to have an affect on his appetite. Toe looks bad still. Different somehow, but still bad. If that vet thought he was big and he isn't by far then I'm just kicking myself in the butt for taking him there instead of the one I trust. Grrr! I wish there was something to do for pain.

 

[fanofdmb84]

Personally I am appalled that a vet would recommend peroxide several times a day on a wound like that. Peroxide is SO bad for deep tissue wounds, it even says on the bottle NOT to use it on deep lacerations and puncture wounds.

I would soak the foot in some warm salt water daily and leave it at that, at least until you can get to a vet who knows what the heck they are talking about.

 

[SmileX3]

K so my little guys toe isn't improving. He gets around on it fine but thats not the point. I'm worried of infection or worse. The not-so-good vet only gave me enough batryl for 4 days! I have almost 1 more dose and that would mean he's had Mon nite dose til fri nite. Surely thats not enough, is it?

 

[partygirlha]

I really think you need to get him to the better vet. if no one is willing to either lend you a car with working AC or drive you there and back (offer to pay gas $ and a bit for their time), then you need to cool off the carrier. you can put water in freezer zip close bags and lay them flat in the freezer until they are solid ice. Also freeze some water bottles. then when eveything is good and frozen, line the bottom of the carrier with the frozen ice bags, cover it all with fleece, wrape the ice bottles in fleece and you're good to go. Call ahead and ask the vet if you can re-freeze all the ice when you arrive - vets have frezzers and they care about the health of your boy, they should help out. you might need to hang out there a little while while eveything freezes up, but you'll have an idea of just how much it all un-froze on the trip there. A night trip might also been cooler.

This really does keep a chin nice and cool for a hot trip.

he needs good care and some pain relief.

 

[greychins]

Since we can't actually see your chin or his toe, it's hard to say how much baytril is "enough." In my experience with it, our vet has always put our chins on more than 4 days of baytril... typically 7, and then the chin goes back to the vet to see if it's improved or if it needs more baytril...

How does the toe look? I'm not trying to discount your statement about being worried about infection, but let me ask, what makes you say that? Does it look the same/worse/what makes you worry that it's infection? I would personally think four days might be too short of a course of antibiotics, but maybe someone who's dealt with chins on antibiotics more can chime in here. If it's not enough, though, really all you can do is go to the vet again (hopefully a better one if you don't think this one is cutting it) and get your chin exammed again and get more antibiotics if needed.

Maybe you could borrow a friend/parent/relative's car to drive your chin to the vet?

 

[greychins]

Any update? Did you find a way to get to the vet? How's the chinnie doing?

 

[SmileX3]

No I haven't yet. I still want to tho bc its still red and swollen. The lil guy finally ate some last nite. He won't even eat his CC. I think someone might help me out on the vehicle with AC situation Tues or Weds.

 

[Bostongirl'sChin75]

You really need to force him to eat, whether he likes it or not. If he goes off feed and does not have anything in his belly, CC or otherwise, I am sure you know that it can lead to GI stasis, bloat, and death. I understand about the AC situation, but if it was my chin, I would call a cab or something, to come and get me; Especially since the toe is now red and swollen, which usually means infection or the start of one. These can spread very quickly without proper treatment and could lead to your chin having his leg amputated or if the infection spreads too far, it could mean sepsis in the blood supply and certain painful death.

 

[SmileX3]

We don't have cabs here. I've got a friend who says Tues or Weds they can take me. By forcing do youi mean the CC with a syringe? He's been on Batryl but it doesn't seem to have done the trick. It may've been worse than what the bad vet anticipated. We didn't do xrays. She was thinking maybe it was just the nail but you can clearly see by looking at the other paw it is shorter than just where the nail was. Someone in another thread said for her toe incident the vet had her rub blue lotion (not kote?) on it. What is this and where can I get it?

 

[greychins]

I imagine that Boston does mean forcing the CC with a syringe. When chins go off their feed, often times they don't want to eat the CC either... but like Boston said, you need to get the CC in them somehow, because they need something in their digestive tract. It's not the easiest thing in the world to get a chin to eat CC when they don't want to... unfortunately... that's why it's called force feeding.

Blue lotion is basically the same thing as blu kote, just by a different company I believe. I don't know where to get blue lotion, but blu kote can be found at Tractor Supply. It's a yellow bottle.

If you do go and get blu-kote... it's a spray bottle... but I wouldn't advise actually using the spray, because the chin, you, and everything around will become purple. It gets everywhere and it stains. We typically take a cotton ball or q-tip or whatever you have handy that's sterile and dab that in the blu-kote and then dab it on the chin.

 

[Willowfur]

I would use epsom salts, it doesnt sound from the description or the pics that the toe is that bad, but that is hard to say just from that, also understand when it is healing it will be a little red, but shouldn't be real swollen, just a little sometimes. I once had a chin who managed to get her hind leg stuck between two ceramic dishes that she had managed to stack, one was smaller than the other (never put different sized ceramic dishes in the cage!! Found out the hard way, no idea how she did this). Anyway, her leg was hurt, but seemed ok, but by the next day had started to shrivel so I knew it was dead, I was going to get her into the vet, but by the next day she had chewed it off. It didnt take long to scab over and started healing, the vet wasnt sure what to do, I'd call to ask, some bone was exposed, but it still healed, no antibiotics, she did just fine. I'm not saying it will go that well with every chin, but she continued eating and everything and was completely fine.

As others said though, dont use peroxide, its really only if there is stuff in the wound, like gravel, dirt, etc. it bubbles to get it out, otherwise dont use it. Is he not eating anything? That would indicate that it must be bothering him I would say, can we get an updated pic? I hope he gets better soon!

 

[Bostongirl'sChin75]

Yes, that is what I mean when I say force feed him. You have to burrito him, and force him to eat via syringe. Or if you want to try this way, you can mix the CC in a bowl and put the bowl in the cage with him and see if he will eat it that way. What flavor of CC are you feeding? I, personally, use the banana flavor CC instead of the fine grind with no flavor. You can try mixing in a small amount of pumpkin puree ( not pie mix ) or organic baby apple sauce into the CC to make it more palatable. You can also take a raisin, break it in half, and rub the tip of the syringe with it. But do not give the chin the raisin, of course. ( I am sure you know this ) I know my one chin who I have to force feed every once in a while, loves it when I do this and it makes it easier to force feed her.

 

[SmileX3]

I got Avi to the good vet today and she didn't give him anything at all. It actually looked better than it has the past 2 1/2 weeks! The swelling has went down a lot and it isn't as red! The little guy made me look like a liar saying how bad it was but that's a good thing! :0) She was wonderful though and even saw us after they were supposed to be closed! He ripped the padding off the bottom and the nail for sure but we didn't xray bc it seems fine. I really wished she would've gave me some pain meds tho just to have on hand but no biggie! I'm just gonna keep a close eye on it and if it looks red or inflamed again, she's gonna fill a script for me of antibiotics! Thanks everyone for your help! He was such a good boy at the vet too! I'm a proud Momma! ...love that little guy! All of my lil 'uns! Just a side note: I hate for them to be sick or hurt but it really does bond you closer!