Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => Health => Topic started by: Mannybilly1030 on February 10, 2016, 12:36:56 AM
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Hi everyone i havent been on for quite sometime as the chins have been doing good but today i notice chachis foot had a bit of blood. Then i also noticed him either grooming the area or possibly picking at it. I did clean the blood off with some water and cleaned the wound with a little peroxide and some bag balm to keep it from cracking or getting any other bacteria. My mom did say if it bleeds again or looks infected we will take him to the vet on friday since we do have a memorial tomorrow and thursday for my grandma that passed away last year. But as of now my dad is going to check up on him through out the night. I dont know if it could be possible bubble foot? The foot pad looked a little red it wasnt warm or hot to the touch. His other foot pad looks good so that one im not to worried about. He does have a habit of sitting on his pee even after rearraging there huts he still will go sit by the pee or go find another spot and pee and sit there. I am planning to switch there plastic pans to stainless bass pans so i can avoid all plastic so their pee wont soak up on the plastic or anything.
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What you describe is commonly caused from the urine. The skin gets dried and cracked.
Certainly have a vet look at it and diagnose it as best as possible. (See response below) Bumblefoot is usually characterized by swelling and infection. You want to make sure it won't get that far.
Chances are you'll be prescribed a topical salve. (Perhaps you should try bag balm first. If swelling occurs see a vet immediately.) Moisturizers seem to help. It's a problem that takes a long to fix once it starts and it could take months of treatment and careful strategy.
I'm not sure if changing from plastic to metal will make much of a difference for that. (Although I strongly recommend you switch to metal anyway for other reasons). You should be using bedding such as pine chips in the pan to soak up the urine. If you're using fleece liners I recommend switching to pine. This is a problem that seems happen more often with fleece but not always. Chinchillas typically urinate in one corner or area in the cage. If they aren't doing that try move the soiled bedding into one corner every day so the smell will attract them (between normal bedding changes which for two chinchillas should be around once a week.) If you do it more often you may want to wait a week to help establish a potty areas. They shouldn't have a hut or other toys in that soiled area.
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Bag balm should be enough to take care of it. It has an antiseptic in it to help prevent infections. Just monitor the area and if it gets larger or the chin keeps bothering at it, then a vet visit is needed
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One of my chins had severe bumblefoot where she had calusses formed. An fatty enzyme balm was used that ate away the calusses and the condition healed just fine.
It was recommended to take away her sand for a while, clean up the cage and leave paper instead of the usual wood granules.
The condition healed fine in that environment. the shelves were wooden and the bottom of the cage was plastic. I read that sand and/or metal mesh cage bottoms can cause and worsen the condition so make sure chin is on comfortable surfaces.