My poor Elijah

[amie]

I was cleaning my degus out last night (all three cages) as I normally do twice a week. Elijah shares his cage with four other degus, Tyrion, Gabriel, Elliot and Finley. Their cage is next door to Stefan and Damon's, however there's a big peice of wood that I put between the two cages so that they can't see/get too each other (I have no plans of introducing them all, so I prefer that they can't see each other, otherwise war kicks off in the cages). So, yes. I was cleaning them all out last night and without realising, the big peice of wood had slipped sideways ever so slighty, enough so that before I knew it, I saw Stefan chewing on something. Me not noticing what was going on, or not remembering giving Stefan anything to eat, went over to him and said "what you got there buddy?" - it was Elijah's tail. He had had just enough time to pull Elijah's tail through the bars and had degloved it. It was truly horific. My stomach sank and I felt so sick. He was there just happily eating it. I have cleaned Elijah's tail, so that has been dealt with and he's doing fine. I've never seen a degloved tail before and it looks very painful.

I feel very bad that I didn't catch this before it happened, but rather than becoming consumed by my own guilt, I'm concertrating on making sure Elijah is ok. He had a huge monkey nut staight after and he's eating and drinking as normal. He's just been having a lot of love since.

[Bexi87]

Oh dear, I hope he is ok! Sending lots of love your way Amie

[blossombrooks]

Oh amie! Poor elijah! I can't believe Stefan did that! I'm sure he'll recover and be just fine but it must have been awful to see. Bless him. :-(

[deguconvert]

Oh no!!! Amie!! You are probably feeling at least as much, if not more shock at the event, as Elijah himself is. How much tail did he lose? I'm sure he will be fine, but you do need to keep an eye on it. Sometimes they don't heal over properly and the tail can continue dying, back into the healthy tissues. It can be helpful to have a vet check it if you are uncertain about how it is going.

[amie]

I'm keeping an eye on it. Any problems and he's straight to the vet. He lost all of the fluffy bit at the end. He's just left with the bone that the tissue surrounded. I've never seen this before, so it was quite a shock.

[malteser60]

Sounds like Stefan the degu is living up to his namesake!

[NightwishRaven999]

So sorry to hear this Amie ! Atleast this is not life-threatening for Elijah, but must be a traumatic for you and for him.
Hope he is okay and hope you are okay as well.
I can imagine the shock you have experienced.

[aya0aya]

I know how terrible this looks. I was shocked when Bambi bite away Sefi's tail. Once of a sudden I saw fluffy part on the floor and her tail bone showing. For first days I was terrified every time I saw the bone.
But her tail healed well and it doesn't bother her at all. So don't panic things should be alright. I would like to believe this is more traumatic for us to see then for the goos. I hope I'm right.