lindie
Foraging Degu
Posts: 107
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Post by lindie on Dec 3, 2021 19:44:33 GMT
5 minutes ago my dog bit my degu's tail, and it degloved. I don't know what to do? she is 6 weeks old. She is behaving normally, but the remainder of the tail is still there, and it is bleeding a little bit.
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Post by savvy on Dec 3, 2021 19:48:55 GMT
Ok, try not to panic.
Degloving is a natural response to the tail being grabbed and is something degus can deal with quite easily.
You will need to make sure that the bleeding doesn't continue, and that the injury remains clean. Other than that, they will chew off any protruding bone. If they are unable to do that themselves, one of their cage mates will help them.
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lindie
Foraging Degu
Posts: 107
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Post by lindie on Dec 3, 2021 19:57:11 GMT
the tail has already stopped bleeding now. It does look like she is in pain now. It is about half of her tail.
I already removed the log from where she sat and was able to poke her tail through the bars.
Do I need to do something now, or tomorrow?
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Post by savvy on Dec 3, 2021 20:03:59 GMT
It will be painful, but should ease off. You will need to remove the sand bath as its a major source of possible infection for an open wound and you won't be able to put it back in for about a week.
If it has stopped bleeding, that's a good sign. There's little you can do tonight, but keep checking to see how it looks, try to avoid touching the open wound, a careful feel around the tail will tell you if its infected. If it feels hot, then you will need to get her to a vet as she'll need antibiotics. As long as it looks clean and dry, there's little you need to do.
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Post by savvy on Dec 3, 2021 20:07:07 GMT
If she starts to look like she's in distress (fluffing up, hiding, etc) then you will need to get her to the vet without delay. Please check her to make sure it was only her tail that was bitten. If she has other wounds then straight to the vet. There is a section on here about deglovings deguworld.proboards.com/thread/22352/degu-first-caring-sick-injured
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Post by bouncy on Dec 3, 2021 20:27:16 GMT
All perfectly normal, as Savvy says. She'll sort it out herself in time. If there continued bleeding, you can dip the end in cornflour. Otherwise, just keep a look out for signs of infection
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Post by teemu on Dec 3, 2021 20:36:46 GMT
Sadly, the tail cannot be saved any more, but usually these things sort themselves out (that is to say, the exposed end of the tail will dry up and the degu will gnaw it off). The tail is meant to do exactly this in exactly this kind of a situation - that is to say, if a predator grabs it, the degu can escape. It will take some days until it dies off and the nerves deaden, but other than infection, there shouldn't be any real problems with it.
I'm not sure what the general consensus is, but it might be possible to gently apply some sort of a disinfectant to the tail. A mild saline solution can also be used, and should have no harmful chemicals at all. The degu likely won't want any of this, but even a quick, gentle cleanup could be very helpful if you do it once or a couple of times a day. Avoid any kind of rubbing motion though, since that might cause it to start bleeding again. Other than that, try to keep their cage surfaces clean of pee stains or other dirt.
After the tail gets sorted, she should be back to normal right quick! It's not uncommon for degus to have accidents like this, and they learn to do totally fine without a full tail.
From your description, I take that it happened when her tail was poking out from the cage? If that's the case, then it's unlikely that there were any other injuries, fortunately. It's good that you're rearranging the cage so that they can't dangle their tails where the dog can reach.
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lindie
Foraging Degu
Posts: 107
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Post by lindie on Dec 3, 2021 20:38:02 GMT
okay, I removed the sand bath. And I will monitor her closely. Are there any other signs besides the tail being hot that she needs to see the vet?
I feel really bad about it. I thought I covered all spaces with plexiglass where they could stick/poke their tails through the bars, but I had not thought about covering this area with plexiglass and did not know they could stick their tails through the bars from the place where she sat.
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Post by savvy on Dec 3, 2021 20:40:59 GMT
Accidents happens and you can't cover all eventualities, don't beat yourself up.
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Post by teemu on Dec 3, 2021 20:41:41 GMT
Just in general, if she starts to act like she's ill or doesn't seem to have energy, or acts like she's in general discomfort. Anything that might point to her having an infection. She's likely a bit quiet and sullen right now anyway, since it hurts, but if she seems to be struggling with normal stuff at all, like she's just ill, then take her to the vet as soon as possible. Things like this happen, unfortunately. Their tails are very vulnerable to damage, and there's a lot of degus with a short stub because of it. It's better to learn from this and make sure it can't happen again, like you're doing
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Post by bouncy on Dec 4, 2021 1:17:23 GMT
Signs of wound infection include heat, smell, swelling, and discharge/pus
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Post by savvy on Dec 4, 2021 16:12:40 GMT
How's she doing today?
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Post by moletteuk on Dec 4, 2021 20:33:59 GMT
You can get pet safe antiseptic spray, either dry or liquid, I think something like that would be beneficial.
Be warned that if you take her to the vet, the vets quite often want to surgically remove the end of the tail. We tend to find that if you can keep the tail clean and not infected, they quite often heal up OK without surgery. Obviously if she continues to be in pain and if there is any sign of infection, she must see a vet straight away. I also think that mum or auntie may well help remove or tidy up the end of the tail fairly efficiently.
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Post by teemu on Dec 4, 2021 21:07:13 GMT
From my experience with rat tails, the easiest way to apply antiseptic to a tail (though wasteful) is to have a properly diluted solution in glass or similar, and then simply hold the animal and lower the tail into the solution. It's much easier to do with a fiddly small animal than trying to keep them in place long enough to spray or otherwise apply it topically.
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lindie
Foraging Degu
Posts: 107
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Post by lindie on Dec 5, 2021 9:21:44 GMT
I think she is doing fine. She is behaving normally, eating, playing, running around with her sister, running in the wheel. I don't think she is in pain.
I have not picked her up to feel if her tail is warm because she is so small, and worry she won't sit still long enough for me to feel if the healthy part of her tail is warm. And I don't want to touch the unhealthy part of her tail. But her tail does not look infected.
Since (I think) my dog grabbed the tail, and immediately let go, which would mean he only touched the skin, and also the cage was just cleaned so all the bedding is still clean. I think it is best to let it heal naturally and not apply any antiseptic.
Yesterday I double/triple/quadruple checked the cage to see if there are more places from where the degus can stick their tails through the bars, and removed the items from where they can stick their tails through the bars, or attached plexiglass to the bars.
Their are still some spots where it could technically be possible to stick tails through the bars, but is very unlikely. Sadly I didn't have enough plexiglass to cover those areas, so I will be figuring that out as soon as possible.
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Post by winic1 on Dec 5, 2021 16:02:58 GMT
I kept our dogs and cats away from the degu cage by putting up a sort of fence around it, spaced about a foot away from the cage. I used a baby gate/playpen at one point, and then made a standing wire fence later on out of those grid pieces that they sell in kits, with plastic joiners, to build wire crates/shelves with. Like this (the link is to USA Amazon.com, but it will show you what I mean): www.amazon.com/s?k=wire+crate+shelves&ref=nb_sb_nossInstead of building the cubes, I built a 3-sided fence about 2 units tall, and kept that spaced out in front of the cage, so the animals could not get close enough to grab a tail or harass the degus. It worked for the cats, too, because with the distance between fence and cage, they judged that they could not make a safe jump and landing.
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lindie
Foraging Degu
Posts: 107
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Post by lindie on Dec 5, 2021 17:40:38 GMT
That's a great tip. But sadly not really an option for me since my degu cage is in my small bedroom and there isn't enough space to out a 'fence' around it (My closet is in the hall, and I sleep on a matrass on the ground because the cage is so big).
And keeping my dog out of the room is also not a possibility since he is my service dog. Since this incident I am spending more time training him not to 'hunt' the degus.
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Post by bouncy on Dec 5, 2021 22:35:15 GMT
As soon as he gets his first nip from a goo, he'll learn very quickly!
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Post by savvy on Dec 5, 2021 22:37:20 GMT
As soon as he gets his first nip from a goo, he'll learn very quickly! Especially as they like to nip the nose.
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lindie
Foraging Degu
Posts: 107
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Post by lindie on Dec 6, 2021 9:31:00 GMT
As soon as he gets his first nip from a goo, he'll learn very quickly! Especially as they like to nip the nose. My dog and my degus often are nose by nose (my goo's don't mind my dog, and I suspect they even do this to annoy my dog, because they know he can't get to them) but this has never happened.
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