Degu was struck by an electric shock

[ruzairuzica]

My degu was struck by electricity.Her hair around a mouth fell out and her mustache are burned. What should I do? will she be okey? Has anyone had similar experiences?

[teemu]

Okay, there's a couple of things to consider here. How is she doing right now? Is she moving normally, does she look like she is in pain? If you offer her a treat, can she eat it?

There are two main issues from electric shocks. The first is that it might stop your heart. If she's moving around and looks normal, this has not happened. The other is the acute issue of burns and other direct damage to the area. Depending on their severity, it might be that she has injured her mouth and cannot eat or drink without help. Try to assess this by observing how well she can eat a treat, or if she wants to eat it at all. It is likely that some damage has occurred, but knowing how severe it is is important.

In case she is having trouble eating or drinking, or starts to have trouble over the coming days, she will need help from a vet, likely in the form of pain medication, possibly disinfectants and maybe something else. For immediate concern, try to assess how well she can function.

[ruzairuzica]

First thank you very much for your reply. She is behaving normally, she is eating, she doesn't look like she is in pain, but her mustache is twisted and all the time she is trying to correct them, can that leave any consequences? And her hair falls off the body?

[teemu]

If she is eating and otherwise using her mouth, the damage to it must not have been severe. How did she get the shock? Did she bit a wire, or did she stick her nose into some kind of a circuit, or something like that?

Her whiskers and the fur around her nose and mouth have likely singed. The current ones will fall off in any case, but if the follicles (the things inside the skin that grow her hair) have not been damaged, they will come back. If there were more serious burns, they might have been permanently damaged and she will be missing parts of her fur and whiskers. This will not be dangerous by itself, though losing whiskers permanently will make an animal less steady, especially a rodent. But this is not serious (in the sense that it won't hinder her quality of life or cause pain), so if that is all that happened, she was very lucky. How much of her fur is falling out? Just around the mouth and the nose or in a larger area?

One thing that you need to pay careful attention to is the fact that if she has got burns in her mouth, they might cause swelling over the next days. However, if you have seen her eating, then she probably does not have significant burns. But do keep a careful eye on her.

In short, she will be missing some hair, and this might be permanent, but the damage does not sound severe. Watch her carefully and if she shows any signs of more serious problems, contact a vet immediately, as it can cause life-threatening problems (especially if her throat swells, or she gets infection in her mouth). I cannot promise that she is alright, of course, only a doctor's inspection could guarantee that, but it does not sound particularly dangerous right now, from what you have described.

(I'm sure I don't need to say this now, but degus are very curious and active animals and will stick their noses in things they really should not, so they need to be carefully monitored for accidents like this.)

[ruzairuzica]

She bit the cables.
She ate several times, I can't tell if a swelling had formed. Her hair fell out from under her lower lip.
I will follow her now, the main problem in my country is because our vets don’t know that much about degu. For now, she is behaving normally, she has gone to bed now. Thank you very much again for your quick response.

[teemu]

No problem, hopefully she's alright! By tomorrow (or after she's slept in any case) I think any problems she might have will have shown themselves, if any arise. So keep watching her just in case, but hopefully nothing more severe comes of it.

In the future, if at all possible, try to not let degus near connected cables at all. They are very quick and want to bite anything they can find. Cables seem to be especially enticing to rodents...

[deguconvert]

OH MY!! That sounds terrifying! I need to say that behaving normally is a defense mechanism. To show weakness or injury is to become a target of prey animals. Don't use normal behavior as confirmation that she is unharmed and all is good. It sounds like the shock was most definitely received in her mouth, and my concern is her teeth. What kind of damage may have traveled into and through her teeth and up into her mouth? Could the dental roots have been damaged, or could there be burns inside her mouth? She may be touching her nose because of damage you can't see on the outside, except for the hair loss and the burned mustache. If the hair burned . . . what about the tissues beneath it?

I really want to be reassuring to you . . . but electrical burns and shocks can be very serious. Your vets might not know a lot about degus, but they should still be able to have a look and be helpful. She may need a very light anesthesia so that they can look in her mouth to see if there is deeper damage.

I truly hope she will be robustly well!

[teemu]

I tried to read up a bit on this. Luckily, there's a lot of resources available for rodents and other pets biting power cables in general. The first issue is the acute problem, that the electricity might have caused burns in the mouth, to whatever degree. The second issue is that the current could have travelled down to her heart and lungs. This could cause arrythmia in the heart or damage the lungs and cause fluid buildup in them. The lung issues may take some hours to develop, while the others tend to be rather acute.

Deguconvert is absolutely right in that these things can be very serious. Only a vet could actually ascertain whether or not she's fine. So at the very least, watch her very carefully for any potential issues, and do take her to the vet is you see any. Trouble breathing, unsteadiness, even abnormal behavior could indicate that there's something wrong. The issue itself is common enough in other animals as well that a vet can likely get at least some idea of what's going on in a degu as well.

[ruzairuzica]

Thank you very much everyone.
We talked to the vet because the vet who specializes in rodents is not from our city, according to the symptoms and description of the injury he gave analgesic therapy and said that we follow her for the next few days but that if she can eat and drink water burns are not higher grade. We hope everything will be great