Hairloss and bleeding or sore on tail

[misti0629]

Hi everyone I have had momo now for about 2-3 months. She is a very playful and energetic squirrel. Earlier when I let her out of her cage to run around she seemed fine and still does. However I noticed about 20 mins or so after letting her out the end of her tail is missing hair. It is also extremly red and looks like it may have a sore on it or that it was bleeding. It did not look like this yesterday. So this is sudden. Do u think she could have caught it on something?

[misti0629]

I also caught her messing with it a lil while ago I could not tell if she was chewing it or lickin it. Would it be ok to put neosporin on it?

[CritterMom]

It sounds like she got the tip caught in or around something and pulled, pulling the hair and the skin off the end. It is called a degloving injury. Ofter, the bone remains behind, sticking out of the sore. If so, the exposed bone will blacken and die and fall off eventually, leaving her with a shorter tail. Yes, you can put some neosporin on it. Watch that she doesn't fuss with it a lot - you don't want her to make it worse.

[misti0629]

Thank you so much!:thankyou

[misti0629]

Mo mo is nowing chewing on her tail where the sore was. It looked like it was getting better but now it looks horrible. :( is there any way to keep her from doing this?

[CritterMom]

I'm sorry - this post got sort of lost. Yes, this is why I advised you to make sure she wan't messing with the wound.

When it starts to heal, it starts to itch - and if you have ever skinned your knee or anything else, you now this is true. It is usually when a wound is starting to heal that you begin to have these problems. This is what I would do - you can try any and all as you wish.

I would go to the drug store and get either a tube of neosporin or on of an antibiotic eye ointment, then over to the cold and allergy department and purchase a small bottle of children's Benadryl (the strength of this which is written on the bottle is "12.5mg/5ml." Then I would to to a drug store to purchase a small bottle of "Yuk" or some other of the non-toxic chew deterrants they make. Then I would clean the wound, apply the neosporin to the raw, nasty area, and carefully "paint" (use a little brush or a q-tip) the "Yuk" ABOVE tethe sore area - you don't want to get that ON the wound. Then weigh your baby and post his weight and I can give you the dosage for the benadryl.

The benadryl will stop the itching from the healing. The nasty tasting stuff will discourage chewing if there is any itching left over. The itchy part usually only lasts a couple days and then stops, so you shouldn't have to keep him on the benadryl more than a day or two (I hope). Otherwise you will have to put an e-collar on the poor guy - hopefully you won't need to.

A pic of the wound would help if you can - if it is badly infected, oral antibiotics might be needed...