Fighting degus caused bleeding paw. What should I do?

[rebs]

My degus started fighting very roughly and now the bottom of Marvin's foot is bleeding.
I currently have them both separated in different cages, and Marvin's foot is bleeding quite intensely. He is still using it and running on the wheel, but he will sometimes lift it up. He also keeps randomly dropping to the ground so his body is completely flat, which is something I've never seen him do before. He is still eating with his hurt hand as well.
What does the laying down mean? Is there anything I can do?

[ilikedegus]

Hi Rebs

Poor Marvin. I'm not sure what to say, but he may "just" be in shock, in which case some quiet rest will sort him out.

See how he is tomorrow - I guess the paw is not bleeding now? Hope not.

[deguconvert]

Can you take a closer look a him, and check his armpit, neck, shoulder, and chest area for bites? He could have one or more in there that is causing sharp pain when he moves a certain way.

[saddlers]

We have had degus before who after a fight would drop on their bellies, it was after a lengthy fight that we were unaware of, and I think they were just exhausted. I have also seen it happen as a sort of attempt at submission.

[rebs]

Thank you guys for your replies. It is just his foot that was cut. That odd behaviour of laying down paniced me but I'm glad to hear that it's not serious. As I saw on other posts I wet a flannel with salt water and managed to get him to put his paw on it a few times and the bleeding stopped. I have them separated as I have a 2-tier cage and can block off the entrance. As it was only yesterday I tried to re-introduce them and they were engaging in normal dominant behaviour e.g. boxing and mounting but after about 10 mins they got more serious with fighting and were kicking very roughly and being thrown to the ground from high kicks etc so I separated them again to stop injury. What would you guys suggest? Just go through the normal re-introduction process with swapping cages and using the same sand bath etc? What kind of timescale should I be working to if I did this? Thanks guys!

[ntg]

I'll leave the reintro advice to the experts as I have no experience in them, I only know the theory.

As far as the dustbath goes, I just wanted to make sure that you don't offer it to the injured one for a few days until the wound has healed up to prevent infections.

And good luck with the reintros!

[moletteuk]

It's best to start a fresh thread for introduction advice, as we have people who specialise in that advice and sometimes only check that part of the forum. Give as much background information as you can. We have a couple of intro guide sticky threads in that part of the forum too.

[rebs]

Thank you. I've created a new thread in the fighting and introduction section as suggested