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[Darkangellamya]

Hi,

I'm new here but I have six chinchillas.  One of my girls is not acting right and I'm not positive what is wrong with her but she has the slightest limp and is not her active self.  She can walk but isn't running and something just looks off about her movements.  It seems like she is trying to put less pressure on one of her hind legs.  She ate some hay before and was very happy to get a treat, but I don't know what to do.  I HATE thinking she might be in some kind of pain.  It's driving me crazy that something is bothering her.  I don't know if I should take her out of the cage and put her in a cage with no levels and no shelves... I thought about it but it seems like she's extra clingy to her Mommy right now and I don't want her to get depressed if I separate them.  I have her in a Ferret Nation Cage that's pretty roomy with a lot of shelves situated where there's no drastic hop from one shelf to another.  I don't think she fell, she definitely couldn't have caught her leg on any wires or anything because there are none.  Her leg looks normal to me.  I took her in the bathroom and she explored a little but not as much as usual.  And she lets me pet her without trying to hop around like a maniac, which is not typical.  Her poop seems the same and I gave her a little water with cranberry juice to make sure she was drinking.  She has no watery eyes.  I think it's the leg but I can't be 100% sure.

I don't know if I should take her to the vet.  The only exotic animal hospital around here is extremely expensive.  My bunny was constipated and they charged me $500 to give her IV fluids and then they wanted $2,000 to keep her for a week.  I couldn't afford it so they gave me a $30 bag of like hay that you mix with water.  I gave her that every couple of hours with a syringe and she was fine.  She has since had that happen one other time but since I still had the bag I made another batch of the stuff and she was fine again in no time.  I can't even imagine what they would charge me to look at my chinchilla, let alone treat her... it's not that I'm unwilling to spend the money, I just don't have much of it.  I've been struggling with a physical disability that has drained me in all ways, including finanically.  If I have to take her, I will have to borrow someone's charge card, which I will definitely do but I just want to know if there are other options.

Anyway, I was hoping someone might be able to help... this is my little baby.  She's 3 now but I hand fed her since birth since her sister's were hogging all the milk and I'm very attached to her.  I am really freaking out.  Please, any help or advice would be SO GREATLY APPRECIATED...... I thank you all in advance for reading this.

Jennifer

[Crimson_Ham]

how long has the leg been hurt and are any of the other chins violent towards her?

[Crimson_Ham]

Dagda hurt his left front paw earlier this week. My son (4 yrs old) was trying to give him a cardboard piece and pinched his fingers when he was closing the door to the cage... not that he doesn't know he isn't supposed to do that stuff himself but ya know kids are kids and mine all seem to think they're much older and want to help with everything. 
Anyhow... I checked him for obvious injuries and felt it for tenderness and breaks. The only thing that bothered him was when I tried to open his paw to check it (I did this anyway to make sure there wasn't any problems aside from being sore...) and he's almost fully better and it's only been 4 days. On day three he would put it down just not as firmly as the others...

The reason I'm telling you this is there could be many reasons for the limp, even perfectly innocent ones. I'd check the leg in question thoroughly and see how it goes for a few days if there's no sign of real problems (to clarify I mean cuts, breaks, extreme tenderness, etc.). It could just be that your chin stubbed a toe and was being careful with the sore foot 

[Darkangellamya]

Thanks.......... Hopefully it will resolve itself.  I just hate seeing her in pain.  I could tell she's uncomfortable at the least.  How do you check for a broken bone?  It certainly doesn't look dislodged or anything......   if she weren't favoring her other leg I wouldn't know anything was wrong with this one at all.  Nothing obvious going on.

And to the other poster, no...... definitely no violence.  They get along fabulously as far as I can tell (minus stealing raisins out of each other's mouths).

And I have no idea how long this has been going on.  I just noticed her acting off today and I interact with them daily, so unless I really missed something, I don't think it's been that long.

Urgh..... I just want to help her     Is there anything that can be done about the pain?

[cusunfireguy]

Any chance of having a vet school around you?  They are usually cheaper and welcome the chance to work with exotics.  Hope she gets to feeling better.

Steven

[Crimson_Ham]

Thanks.......... Hopefully it will resolve itself.  I just hate seeing her in pain.  I could tell she's uncomfortable at the least.  How do you check for a broken bone?  It certainly doesn't look dislodged or anything......   if she weren't favoring her other leg I wouldn't know anything was wrong with this one at all.  Nothing obvious going on.
[\quote]
I felt along the leg gently... if it is broken and you touch it just like a person with a broken bone it hurts and they let you know. It's only a for sure way to tell if it's a break, if it's a shallow fracture it may not be something you can tell without a vet (and xray type testing). Because of this I'd monitor closely and see if it starts to get better and if it isn't getting better within a couple days a vet would be needed (Steven has a good question about that though...). Dagda was showing slow but steady improvements starting the day after he got pinched. Yesterday he had almost full pressure on his.