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Post by skardsen on Aug 26, 2016 22:44:14 GMT
When I looked at the video of him rolling over, it seemed like it was because something was bothering him. I picked him up to take a look, because I thought it might've been constipation. It turns out he has an infection of some sort: I'm really worried. It's bothering him quite a bit. I don't know what to do.
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Post by deguconvert on Aug 27, 2016 0:12:06 GMT
Skarsden, sometimes hair gets wrapped around the shaft of the penis and prevents it from going back inside. You need try to clean the area with water that you have boiled, put a pinch of salt into, and then let cool. Then you need to see if there is a circle of hair in there, and try to very gently remove it. I think you need to take him to the vet, because a infection needs to be dealt with. ASAP
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Post by yasmin on Aug 27, 2016 0:33:40 GMT
I agree that he should see a vet ASAP to deal with an infection – and the vet can also help to remove hair or massage it back in if necessary.
Until then, putting KY Jelly on it will help lubricate it and might also help him get it back in himself.
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Post by moletteuk on Aug 27, 2016 8:50:05 GMT
Clean it out if you can, just as dc says, it's definitely going to take 2 people. Remove the sand. Vet as soon as you can, they will clean it out for you, and will probably prescribe oral antibiotics and/or an antibiotic (and preferably anti-inflammatory) cream. The cream will likely be some kind of eye or ear cream, one member had Canaural dog eardrops given.
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Post by skardsen on Aug 27, 2016 12:29:46 GMT
Ok so he's been to the vet, had it all cleaned up, and I've been given Isaderm to be applied at least once a day. Trying to figure out how I'm going to do that by myself. It isn't back in yet but hopefully the treatment will settle things down. He's going back on Tuesday to see how he's progressing. She doesn't think it's infected. She asked me to take out all the bedding, sand and hay, so that's what I've done. I've put a couple of towels in as temporary bedding, and I've given them a lot of soft toilet roll to use in their nest. Initially, she asked me to keep them separated, but I wasn't sure that was best, so I asked if they could stay together as long as everything that could agitate it was removed. As long as they don't fight (which they don't) it should be ok. I don't think she knew much about degus since she described them as being nocturnal, among a few other things she got wrong, but this seems to be the best course of action.
He's still eating fine but it's really bothering him. He was shaking a little bit this morning, and he's been a little subdued. Poor little guy's only 10 months old too.
Quick update:
While it's not back to normal, he seems to be back to his bright-eyed, perky self. It's definitely still bothering him, as he's doing his roly poly's every now and then, but he's back to running on the wheel and such.
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Post by goolover on Aug 27, 2016 16:57:38 GMT
Good to hear skardsen and good job you had a look or he would have spent the weekend in a lot of discomfort. Fingers crossed with applying the cream the swelling will go down and it'll go back in. Poor little thing!
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Post by deguconvert on Aug 27, 2016 19:14:19 GMT
I know the vet said to apply that once each day, but I would recommend you do it at least twice daily. The cream should help with reducing inflammation, and the more effectively you do that, the better things will do for healing. As well, you will be helping the muscle memory to take over and bring that thing back in to where it belongs.
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Post by skardsen on Aug 27, 2016 21:00:26 GMT
I'm aiming for 3 times a day. Just got done with it now. Poor guy's always been the more timid, neurotic of the two; it's scaring the hell out of him. I try to get it over and done with as fast as I can, but I need to be thorough. I hate seeing him looking terrified. It's scary enough for a degu to be grasped, but to have his belly exposed must make it all the more worse for him.
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Post by deguconvert on Aug 28, 2016 0:46:34 GMT
Do you speak soothingly to him as you are applying the cream? To have a low, calm voice and perhaps not a really bright light, could be helpful.
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Post by skardsen on Aug 28, 2016 15:24:36 GMT
Do you speak soothingly to him as you are applying the cream? To have a low, calm voice and perhaps not a really bright light, could be helpful. I do, but it doesn't reassure him that nothing bad is happening. It's to be expected from a degu, really. He bit me today, but it was gentle and more of a plea to let go of him. The vet asked me to take a photo each day to see how he's progressing. I think it's working. Hard to tell from the photo but to me it doesn't look as inflamed. He's also not tending to it as much as when I discovered something was wrong.
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Post by goolover on Aug 28, 2016 16:21:44 GMT
That does look better doesn't it, not as inflamed as you say. I always give mine a treat when i've had to apply cream or give medicine just to make it up to them but the little tinkers expect one now and as soon as I put them down they go on the back legs looking up at me as if to say 'come on then, where's the good stuff'!
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Post by skardsen on Aug 28, 2016 16:24:38 GMT
That does look better doesn't it, not as inflamed as you say. I always give mine a treat when i've had to apply cream or give medicine just to make it up to them but the little tinkers expect one now and as soon as I put them down they go on the back legs looking up at me as if to say 'come on then, where's the good stuff'! Oh yeah, he absolutely gets a treat or two afterwards. I'm trying to get him to associate what I'm doing with a reward. It's not quite working yet, but hopefully a couple more treatments will help him to feel like it's a good thing.
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Post by moletteuk on Aug 29, 2016 10:56:45 GMT
Definitely looks improved. I think I still see the odd grain of sand so I think it would be worth trying to poke out the penis and wash it all again, but if you are going back to the vet again tomorrow, then you could ask them to do it again. I guess I'm thinking along DC's original lines that there could be some hair or something right in there that has started this.
He will forgive you, I think you are doing a great job applying cream to a degu with only two hands.
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Post by skardsen on Aug 29, 2016 13:58:43 GMT
There's a scab forming next to it. I think this is because afterwards he tries to get the gel off, and his teeth are scraping it.
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Post by skardsen on Aug 29, 2016 18:48:02 GMT
I think I found the problem! After checking him a few minutes ago, I wasn't happy with how the treatment was going and decided the entire length of it needed to be checked. I was nervous about doing it, and my hands were shaking, but I very slowly and gently pulled it out as far as it would go. At the very base of it, caught under a fold of flesh, was a ring of trapped fur, just as you fine folks suggested. I removed it, and just like that, it started retracting back into the cone. Fingers crossed that it will stay that way.
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Post by goolover on Aug 29, 2016 18:57:47 GMT
Wow, that's an amazing job you did, scary thing to do but sounds like you've saved him days of applying cream that would never have worked and a definite trip to the vets to have it operated on. You deserve a treat lol!
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Post by skardsen on Aug 29, 2016 21:00:34 GMT
Looks like it's working.
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Post by moletteuk on Aug 29, 2016 21:14:23 GMT
Wow, brilliant!
(I wouldn't even bother with the scheduled vet visit tomorrow, just give them a ring and give them a progress report)
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Post by skardsen on Aug 29, 2016 21:46:04 GMT
Wow, brilliant! (I wouldn't even bother with the scheduled vet visit tomorrow, just give them a ring and give them a progress report) I could definitely do with saving the £21 it'll cost to bring him in, plus I think he could do with a break from it. While it doesn't look healed up fully (still swollen) I think it'll start to settle down now.
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Post by deguconvert on Aug 30, 2016 6:21:04 GMT
WELL, well, done!! I am impressed that you took the trouble to look all the way down to the . . . ummm . . . bottom? of the "issue" and found the hair ring! You've saved him a great deal of future trouble!!
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