Weird tail tip?

[titchycatnipsandwich]

River's tail seems to end very abruptly.


I know they can shed their tails, but can they shed only part of it? The only other thing I can think of is that Nyota and River are still not on speaking terms, but when they fight (thankfully rarely, they just puff up and chitter) they scratch each other's face rather than bite at tails.

oh, I give up at embedding the image.
www.flickr.com/photos/62158648@N07/14683311692/

[Maravilla]

Jul 18, 2014 13:33:26 GMT titchycatnipsandwich said:

I know they can shed their tails, but can they shed only part of it?

Yes. There is no special zone which can be shed (there are many people who think that degus have something like a predetermined breaking point, but this is not true). There are degus which lost only a couple of millimeters (the very end), others that lost 2-3 cm and degus where there are only 2 cm left.

[klbishop]

yup - all 5 of mine have different tails - fighting injuries

[rmazeds]

One of mine has a very white end to her tail as well. Reminds me of a Sparkler after the fire has gone out lol

[titchycatnipsandwich]

Reviving to ask, does the tail tip ever lose it's scales?

River's tail lost it's fur, and was grey and scaly. Then it was white and scaly. And now the white and scaly and fur loss is creeping upwards, quite slowly, and the end of the tail is... Well, not scaly. It's red and shiny, although not swollen or hot, and he doesn't seem to be in any discomfort if I touch it. If River were human, I'd be querying infection. But for all I know, creeping white scales turning into shiny red tail skin is normal. My gut is saying to ask though, so I am.

[moletteuk]

No, it's not normal, you were right to query this.

I think there are two possibilities, it could be some kind of infection, or it could be that it is getting chewed or overgroomed. Have you seen either of them over grooming it? If not, then I think River might need to see the vet, you don't want the problem to continue extending up the tail.

[deguconvert]

I think you need to go to your vet as soon as you can get in to see him. To me it sounds like the tail is dying up, and the only way to prevent it from continuing to die up into the spinal column is to have it amputated. They will have to go into the healthy tissue to ensure that they have all the sickly tissue removed. You need to move on this quickly, I think.

[klbishop]

yup i agree that doesn't sound right. get checked my love, will keep fingers crossed and let us know how it goes

[titchycatnipsandwich]

The earliest I can get him into the vets with the small animals vet is wednesday; I've booked him in for then. The vets advised that if he deteriorates before then, take him in and the regular vet would try to help.

[saddlers]

Good luck with it

[rmazeds]

What happened with this? x

[titchycatnipsandwich]

So, then vet figued it's either over grooming from stress, or it was itchy when it healed from the dropping of the tip and he's chewing at it. I got some Septrin and Metacam for a week to kill any infection that may possibly be in there, and she advised me to put Sudocrem (zinc-based cream, promotes skin healing but won't do him any harm) on it to discourage him from chewing at it.

She was willing to consider amputation as a very last resort if it isn't helped and it keeps spreading, but obviously didn't think it was a first line thing. We loosely discussed neutering, but her opinion is that it probably wouldn't reduce the aggression between the three of them and stop them fighting, plus the risks of anaesthetic and so on.

Two days after starting the antibiotics his tail is less red, but still bald and shiny. He's not chewing his tail that I can tell, but the sudocrem is making sand stick to him and so I'm probably gonna stop that.

[moletteuk]

OK, that sounds pretty thorough from the vet, lets hope it does the trick. I would take the sand out for a few days, rather than stop the cream if the cream might be helping.

[deguconvert]

I second that.

[titchycatnipsandwich]

Ah, sorry, I meant take the sand out!