blood in cage

[gizmo]

hi we had a shock tonight there is blood in the cage and up the wall paper , our degus do seem to fight alot but we did not think it would be to this extent we have upload a picture for you to look at , we are very concerned about this tail end

[uglibug]

It looks like the end of his tail has "de-gloved". This is natural and as long as you keep a watch for infection he should sort it out himself. Just remove the sand bath for a few days and, if he'll let you, give it a quick clean in some cooled boiled water. Either him or his friend will chew off the bone and it should heal up ok. If your worried at all about infection or anything, a quick trip to the vet is an option.

[deguconvert]

Degloving is a self defense mechanism that is helpful to get away from a predator or if the degu finds itself caught by the tail. It is not a conscious decision, but the tail is designed such that it doesn't take much pressure for the skin to break free of the tail bone and be shed.

The loss of the tail skin may not be a result of a fight, but perhaps it got caught on something. That doesn't mean that you have a dangerous cage, so don't panic. As Uglibug said, the boys should take care of the end and it should heal up fine, which is most often the case. If you see the colour of the tail changing though, and that odd colour is creeping up toward the tail base, you need to have a vet look at it. It might require surgical amputation and medications.

[gizmo]

many thanks for your replys , we are concerned about this issue all though we have named them tom and jerry we are unsure which is which so lets say the degu with the tail problem is jerry , we have tried to clean his tail of with cool boiled water , the tail end seems to be drying up if there was a infection what color would it be? as they are 2 toned we would be unsure unless it was white , with these degu they was bought from pets at home when we bought them they advised that they are both male and where only a few weeks old we have had them for around 2 or 3 months so they are still young with the behavior tom is mounting jerry and tom seems to start fights of we have noticed that tom does bite or grab hold of jerrys tail end so we was woundering if jeyys tail problem was done to tom as there is nothing in the cage that would cause a tail to catch, with the sand bath how many days do you think to keep it out we can try and split up the degu while tom has a bath as we only put in the sand bath for aound 10 minutes per day , we have cleaned of the blood with pet disinfectant, jerry tail problem does not seem to be bothering him all though we have seem him turn around and either lick or look at his tail end

[moletteuk]

It looks like quite a clean degloving, hopefully it will heal OK by itself. The signs of infection are swelling, oozing, inflammation and redness and heat. It drying up is a good sign. Keep him away from the sand bath until it is healed enough that sand and dirt won't enter the wound, probably a couple of weeks, it is fine to allow Tom to bathe by himself.

If you are seeing them scrapping it is worth checking them over for other wounds if you can. I think it is probably also worth doing some reading up on fighting so you are prepared, try not to worry too much though, this winter is going to be the worst period for them for fighting. (I would keep that spare cage just in case too).
deguworld.proboards.com/thread/17619/deguconverts-detailed-introductions-fighting-guide
deguworld.proboards.com/thread/17618/introductions-fighting-quick-guide

[deguconvert]

I second what Moletteuk has said.

[deguwhisperer]

I've had a similar issue with one of my males. If your degu is paying excess attention to his tail then he may be experiencing pain. Just keep observing his behavior, if he goes off his food or stops grooming then a trip to the vet is warranted. The most important thing is to keep the wound clean.

[gizmo]

Thank you your replys , both degu are eating and either grooming each other or them selves , we noticed again tonight that Tom is grabbing jerrys tail again but Jerry seems ok no other wounds on body or tail his tail seems ok we cannot see any problem but we will try and take another picture of his tail , both degu do fight but not for long and in the end they snuggle up with each other and have a snooze