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1

Health / Red Swollen Toe Not Caused By Injury

« on: March 07, 2014, 08:55:47 PM »

A few days ago I noticed one of my chinchilla's toes was red and swollen, it almost looked like there was an abscess or a growth. There was no foot injury that I am aware of. He still puts weight on the foot when running/walking, but other times he favors it, pulling it in close to his body. I watched the toe for a few days and it continued to swell. I took him to the vet and the vet thought it was a blood blister caused by a splinter. He popped the blister (lots of blood came out) and cauterized the wound with silver nitrate to prevent infection. This was 2 days ago, and I am noticing the toe beginning to get red and swollen again. I plan on taking my chin back to the vet as soon as I can get an appointment, but I am worried that this is going to turn into a repetitive cycle. Does anyone know what this could be? I have done some research, and I don't think it's bumblefoot. It doesn't seem to resemble any of the foot issues I have learned about. I can't afford to keep running my chin back to the vet. Any thoughts?

2

Health / Matted/clumpy fur around my chinchilla's eyes

« on: February 24, 2014, 08:57:43 PM »

I am a relatively new chinchilla owner (have had my chins about 3 months now), and one of them has matted/clumpy fur around his eyes. I took all 3 of my chinchillas to the vet when I first got them, and the vet said the same chin now having the matted fur was sick with a lung and eye infection. The vet prescribed an oral antibiotic to be given twice daily for a week as well as gentamicin eye drops to be given twice daily for a week. I did this and then took the chin back to the vet to be reevaluated (this was at the end of December). At that point, the vet said the lung infection was gone but the eye infection was still present. She prescribed a repeat dose of eye drops, which I gave. In my opinion, the eye drops didn't do anything for my chin, and he didn't present with any other symptoms of illness, so I didn't take him back to the vet for another follow up visit. He continues to eat, drink, bathe, and play (though he is less energetic than the other two), but the fur around his eyes is noticeably matted/clumped. I'm not sure what to do. I feel like the vet would just prescribe the same eye drops that were given the last two times and didn't seem to work. I'm also not sure how serious of an issue this is, especially since my chin seems to otherwise be healthy. Are chins like humans in the sense that they can get eye boogers from time to time and it's no big deal, or is there something more serious at play here?
Any advice would be helpful. Please help me figure out what's going on with my chin. Thanks.