Fungus or wound?

[penelope88]

My two chinchillas have been healthy, get along great & I haven't had any problems with them. then yesterday I went to take one out of the cage and noticed there's a big bald spot on the base of her tail and its red and scabbed and just looks awful. I made an appointment with the vet but the soonest I could get in is monday morning. It's been getting worse though, and I don't know what it could be. I've been doing research but can't find any pictures that look even close to this. I have a few pictures I can try to upload. Just wondering if anyone might know what it is and what I might be able to do help her until she gets to the vet. 
Thank you.

[chinclub]

Please upload the photos.

What do you mean by getting worse? It the fur loss greater or the redness and scabbing greater?

 Fungus looks more like excessively dry skin.  The skin is flaky and red. There could be some small scabbing but not too much.  As it spreads the bald spots will get bigger and the red skin will spread.  It could jump to other parts of the body as well.

A chinchilla wound will look much like what you would expect on your own skin.  The whole area that was punctured will grow a scab.  The skin around the scab could look pink or red.  Fur loss could also occur depending on what caused the injury or how much the chinchilla has been messing with the injury.

Fungus is usually treated with regular dust baths by adding a heaping teaspoon of Desenex Athletes Foot powder. But if you aren't sure don't do that yet.  If your chinchilla does have an injury you don't want to get the powder in the wound. Don't give any dust baths until after you have seen the vet.

If after reading this post you think it is a wound the biggest worry is infection.  For starters go ahead and change the shavings in the cage so her area is really clean. You could rub a small amount of neosporin into the area today, but don't reapply in the morning.  If it turns out to be fungus he will need to take some skin scrapings and you don't want the area compromised by cream if he does.

[penelope88]

thank you so much for the information. Here's the best picture I could get. I'm just really not sure, i'm not convinced that it looks like a fungus but I don't know where she could have injured herself that bad.

[chinclub]

The picture is fuzzy but that is a wound.  Let us know how the vet visit goes today.

[jmdebb]

jamie..

i thought fungus usually just happened around the nose area? am i wrong?

thanks.
jean

[penelope88]

vet visit went well. it is a wound. she said it's probably from something in the cage but we can't find anywhere she could have hurt herself that bad. she's on 3 medications, which I hope are easily administered ... if its anything like giving medicine to a cat, it will be interesting =]

[chinclub]

Were you given an oral antibiotic?  If so be sure to give a pro biotic between doses.  Hopefully the vet gave you something but if not just use yogurt with active cultures such as Activia.

[penelope88]

yes she gave me oral antibiotics, predisolone? for the itching and yea she gave me something with the cultures in it.  now the only problem is giving penelope the medicine lol.

[Courtney]

The way I give chins meds is I wrap them in a towel with just their head peacking out and feed it to them that way. The towel seems to help calm them down. Good luck, I hope she recovers fast. That looks pretty bad.

[penelope88]

Well it's healing up well, looks a lot better. They've both been so depressed because we seperated them, so I tried to put Bella back in with her yesterday, and Bella jumped on her and attacked her. It was awful. So I guess that's where the wound came from...   so now I guess they have to stay seperated.

[Courtney]

Oh no, how long have they been living together? Now you know where it came from, that's too bad.

[penelope88]

since may. they've never fought. always played together, cuddled up and slept together. I don't know why she was like that. =[

[Courtney]

Well I guess you have to keep them seperated. It happens. 

[jmdebb]

you can try to put the cages next to each other.. i mean you got a 50/50 chance.  if they aren't fighting threw the cage, at least they will still have some comfort of the each other.. but if they are fighting that way too... then.... try giving them both cuddle buddies.