TAIL LOSS :(

[sweetbabyraymama]

Unfortunately, sweet baby ray de gloved his little wispy tail. He went to a specialist last night and he was sent home with antibiotics and pain medicine. They covered his tail and it still seems like it can’t dry that way and just want him to be comfortable while it heals.. any recommendations for our lil boy?

[teemu]

I'm not sure if covering the tail is a good idea. It won't heal back to how it was, since the skin and muscle will not grow back. The only thing that can be done for a degloved tail is to either amputate it or let it dry and get chewed off naturally. As you say, covering it will hinder that process. I know that a specialist normally has a good idea about these things, but this seems to go against conventional wisdom on degloving tail injuries, which is to just manage pain and keep the area clean as it dries naturally...

To be clear, when you say that his tail got degloved, do you mean that the skin got removed and now it's exposed bone and flesh? Covering up the tail only seems like it would make sense in case of a small wound or something like that (and even that's kind of controversial, opinions vary on what's the best course for wounds).

As for the degloving itself, it is unpleasant and unfortunate, but it's fortunately not dangerous. Degus are very good about learning to manage without a full tail, and normally these injuries will sort themselves out with minimal complications. So while it's certainly distressing now, it will not impact your boy's life notably in the long run

[savvy]

I agree with teemu, its a common injury and degus are more than adapt at dealing with tail degloving. In the wild degu tails deglove as a defence mechanism, it gives the degus time to escape a predator.

The best thing to do, especially if there's just a bony extrusion is to remove the dressing, chances are the degu will do this anyway, and just keep checking the wound for any signs of infection (swelling, redness, hot to the touch etc) and let it heal by itself. Cage mates usually lend a hand in sorting out a degloved tail.

Oh and remove the sand bath until its healed.