• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Broken Toenail / Injury

Status
Not open for further replies.
Elna0613

Elna0613

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
27
Reaction score
50
Points
185
Location
UK
one of my boys, Charlie tripped today whilst running down his ramp and broke his toenail... The whole thing was hanging off with SO MUCH blood I actually thought it was part of his toe aswell :( :(
The vet has cut the toenail off completely and used something that resembled a crayon to stop the bleeding however it's also quite bruised! She has given us a cleaning solution to use twice a day and we obviously have to look out for signs of infection! She also gave Charlie a painkilling injection and my goodness he squealed and squirmed so badly I felt so guilty and still do, my poor boy! Anyway, this was a few hours ago and Charlie is his normal cheeky self thank goodness! They sure know how to worry us!
Has anyone else's piggies had similar injuries and did the nail grow back ok?!
Also, re the painkilling injection I do feel that given his reaction (I never thought he could squeal so loudly and even made him bleed :'( this seemed to cause Charlie soooooo much more distress than the actual injury itself and wondered what people's thoughts on this are whether I should Be more reluctant to accept this injection if there's ever a next time which hopefully there won't be! Having said that perhaps he'd still be in a lot more pain now if he hadn't had the injection?
 
One of my pigs, Linney, did the same thing- she got her nail caught running up the ramp and basically ripped it off where the nail meets the foot. I could not believe the amount of blood that came out of that nail! When we got the bleeding stopped and I realized where it was coming from, I just applied pressure until the bleeding stopped and then kept an eye on it to make sure it didn't get infected (it never did.) We didn't see the vet for it, though of course I would have if it had looked infected or if she had been limping or otherwise showing signs of injury. Her nail did grow back, but it took a long time. The nail was maybe a bit thicker/twistier than her other nails, but she was an older pig and had twisty nails anyhow, so it's really hard to tell! At any rate, it scared me but she recovered fine and made a full recovery!
 
I think your vet was right to give pain relief, it can be given orally though so if he still seems in pain when the injection has worn off you could see if your vet will allow you to collect some Metacam from them.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top