Elderly degu, injured tail

[bjames]

Hello, I haven't been on here for some time but I'm currently having problems with my degu rupert. He is the remaining degu of 4, he has been living alone for about 4 years but has never appeared depressed. He has a lot of daily contact with me and I normally get him out to run around the living room. He is very old, he has out lived his life span and he is about 9 years old.

So the problem is, a few days ago I initially noticed a nasty graze on his tail that was fresh, still bleeding. I cleaned it for him it dried up and he looked fine. No further injury. A few days later I notice more tail is missing, this time exposing a tip of the bone, it healed up and now today his tail again has a graze exposing raw skin, the bone is still visible.

I'm cleaning him everyday in a saline solution.

Is there any possibility rupert is doing this to himself? I cannot see anything in the cage that would cause this harm. In terms of his behaviour before this happened he was a bit "nippy" not really painful but out of character, he would sit on my lap and walk towards my arm or hand and nip it. He has stopped doing this now though. It didn't draw blood but did hurt.

His behaviour in the cage - he is resting a lot. Appetite is fine, fluid intake is fine.

I know because of his age it is inevitable that he will die soon, I know that he has lost some strength as he has lost his ability to jump up high on his levels and I have given him ladders to use to get to all the levels which he can still do. He just has lost his jump power.


In the past when rupert had a fight with another degu it degloved his finger and rupert bit his whole finger off as a result.

Can anyone explain the tail issue?

He doesn't appear in pain as he doesn't move or squeak when I touch or bathe it.
I have not seen him bite his tail either

[deguconvert]

I feel certain that Rupert is indeed doing this to himself. Although he seems to have done well on his own over the past four years, you could well be seeing signs of loneliness and a bit of mental distress. It is not uncommon for caged animals that are alone and feeling depressed in some manner to self-harm. Four years is a long time to be without a companion of like species.

[ntg]

It definitely sounds like self-harming. The only other thing you can do is check the cage over for any sharp edges but it's unlikely to be the case that he keeps catching it in the same place.

[bjames]

Does this mark on his tail look like an infection or something?

[Emziedee]

Oh Rupert! What a lovely long life he has led! 9 years.. It's beautiful. Bless his little elderly cottons. Hope his tail heals without any issue

[ntg]

It doesn't quite look as yellow as I would expect for infection from the photo but it is hard to say really. You can pick the scab off to give it a clean and see if there is any pus if you're truly concerned but without swelling or obvious pain/heat in the tail then I wouldn't incase it allows infection to get in.

[deguconvert]

I wonder if it is something that a vet could get a gentle scraping of and look at under the microscope? I don't know if I would try to remove the scab . . . you could inadvertently allow something in by doing that.

[bjames]

Do you know of any degu friendly vets in south Wales? I find it weird considering degus are sold in pretty much every pets at home you present it to a vet and they scratch their head and ask what animal is it!

[deguconvert]

Have you looked at this list? deguworld.proboards.com/thread/15521/vet-guide

[moletteuk]

Is the bit you have shown the bit that was showing exposed bone only a few days ago??

The tail looks a bit dry and scaly generally, so maybe there is some sort of skin condition going on. I guess it could make sense he is chewing it if it is itchy and uncomfortable.

You could try applying some natural cream or oil, ideally something moisturising that also has mild antiseptic and antifungal properties, maybe some sweet almond oil with the merest hint of lavender essential oil could be worth a try. I would probably stop the saline rinse as that might be making the dry skin worse.

Given his age I think it's probably worth a vet visit, they should be able to figure out if there is any infection going on.

[bjames]

The yellow bit is not the exposed part, if you look at the end I wrapped his tail in cotton soaked in saline whilst he ate some oats.

I shall try and moisture him. I took him to the vet and they have given him some antibiotics, said it didn't look infected but just incase :/ and that he probably caught it on something. Hmmm. I don't have much faith in vets sometimes!

[ntg]

If he had a cage mate I would swear it looked like over zealous grooming/nipping. Is he spry enough to reach that far down his tail?

[bjames]

Sadly he is a lone degu, I don't want to get another one as I don't want the degu legacy to continue, I feel sad leaving him when I work etc.

The weird thing is that I see him was his body but never his tail, I don't even see him touch it, then every time I'm back it looks different or shorter.

I'm going to take him to a different vets tomorrow I think as I would like him to have some pain relief.

I cleaned his tail today with water as there was hay stuck on it, at the very end it looked like 3 threads of cotton, I tried to pull them off but couldn't, was really stuck, then I thought why would he have cotton on his tail there's nothing cotton in the cage and then I thought is that tendons or ligaments that are showing! If so that must be so painful.

I inspected that thing on his tail, poked it with tweezers, looks to risky to pull off it looks like some sort of scab or very flaky thick bit of skin but it's quite secure so I have left it. Shoved a bit of vaseline on him as that's all I have at the moment.

Good job he loves his oats as it's the only reason I got all this done!

[bjames]

So this morning I rang a different vet, she explained that the don't have degu experience but gave me details of an exotic vet who was holding a surgery today, he was already fully booked but slotted me in. He has given some pain relief, moisturising antiseptic spray for his tail that stops irritation (he also recommended it for use on humans haha) rupert went in for day surgery and had his tail snipped off at the nasty bit and disinfected, I picked him up 4 hrs later and it looks much better. Let's hope it starts to get better now and I am so glad I was put in touch with a vet who had experience with degus!

[deguconvert]

Most excellent! WOO HOO!!

[moletteuk]

That's fantastic

You are all sorted for now, but I was just going to say that I think the metacam is a good call (and also soothing spray) in case he is chewing at it because it hurts or is itchy. Let's hope he leaves it alone to heal, if not a couple of people have been given cone collars for their degus recently.

(the cotton thread things are part of the tail, I'm not exactly sure what they are but other people seeing tail injuries have noticed them before).

Would you mind telling us who the vet specialist is in the vet guide thread? deguworld.proboards.com/thread/15521/vet-guide

[marmotta]

My girl degu Ricah, who is around 7 years old and lives with another girl Tucah of the same age, is having similar tail problems. We adopted Ricah with a short tail but it is getting forever shorter and always looks bloody and raw. I took her to the vet who thought Ricah may have lost all sensation in her tail and was biting it herself and she recommended a chew stopper spray but they never work. Why Ricah keeps doing this to her tail I don't know. Although she and Tucah have violent fisticuffs sometimes, I don't think Tucah is doing the damage. I have added nothing new to the cage that should be causing damage - their wheel is solid plastic. The lack of tail is affecting Ricah's movement and now I notice that she is dragging one or both of her back legs and has trouble moving around and getting in and out of her sandbath. She is eating and drinking fairly normally. Is it just old age? I don't really know how best to help her. Any ideas would be gratefully accepted.

[ntg]

Hi marmotta. It's a little worrying to me that you think she has no sensation in her tail and now her ability to move is progressing from the back to front end.

As a disclaimer, I'm not a vet I simply know a decent amount of biology (degree in biomedical sciences, currently doing a PhD in gene editing and livestock resistance to disease) and these are not a medical diagnosis but simply a suggestion.

If the slow progression of loss of feeling is the case then it suggests to me that there is some sort of degeneration going on with her spinal cord. I'm not sure what the vet would be able to do for this, however there have been reports of tail infections spreading up the tail and into the spinal column if left untreated. If that is the case in this situation then strong antibiotics may be able to stop the spread, however the movement would not be restored.

On a different train of thought have you noticed anything else in her movements occurring almost overnight? A head tilt, losing balance, favouring one side of her body or perhaps drooling and/or messy/struggling to eat and drink? As some people have had their degus diagnosed as having had a probable stroke by vets which could also lead to loss of movement.

The third option is that she is indeed getting old and possibly arthritic in her back legs.

[moletteuk]

Could also be a spinal issue like spondylitis or an injury, something trapping a nerve. I think you need to find a specialist vet to have a good look over her and probably do an xray. With a good vet's help you could experiment with painkillers, and as per ntg's suggestion you could discuss antibiotics with the vet if there is any sign of infection. If the tail is getting to be a complete mess you could consider having it tidied up surgically and then possibly have Ricah wear a cone of shame for 2 or 3 days while it heals.

[marmotta]

Thanks so much ntg and moletteuk for your suggestions.

Ricah is showing no other symptoms sudden or otherwise like you suggest - no head tilt or drooling and she seems her normal self in every way except her moving around. Her balance isn't good, but that started with the problems with her tail - degus obviously rely a lot on their tails for their agility. I think it is now time for another trip to the vet, although degus are such a rarity at our vet's I don't hold out much hope of sorting the problem out.