# Broken leg - Anything else I need to be doing?



## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

So my precious boy Buck (The same boy with Mites in my other post.) has been unfortunate enough to had some sort of accident in his cage. We keep him in a 5ft wooden enclosure, so we think he could of possibly fallen from the roof? 

His leg is broken, he can still get around but he doesnt put any weight on it. The leg itself is slightly swollen, but doesnt look too much different to the other leg really. Vet said there is nothing they can do, no pain meds or anything and it should fix itself. 

I have moved him to a big one level cage, 4ftX4ft base. I have seen him out and about, eating and drinking but I still hand feed him and offer him water from his bottle several times daily. He laps up the attention, and the food. I am also giving him extra scratchies, he has mites! (ugh.) He is still with his two friends Oliver and Finnigan, as they have already been exposed to the mites for over 3 weeks. I am making sure he is kept warm, clean and I still try to play with him and cuddle. Its weird its like I know his pain tolerance and I lower him back into his nest box front feet first and I hold his weight by his tail (like you might a paralzed rat) till he gets himself sorted and is ready to lie down. Afterwards he licks me like crazy  

Just wondering if anyone knew any other ways I could be helping right now thru his recovery. Any pain meds? or therapy? 

Also how long till he should be using his foot? Should I get xrays to be sure, the vet said it wasnt necessary.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Most bad sprains look like breaks...a fracture actually is horribly discolored from all the internal damage and a sprain just swells up badly. You can't always tell, but unless an x-ray is done, I treat most as sprains. I have had one break, and it took weeks and weeks before the swelling came down. She refused to use it until the last week, whereas my sprained feet rats started dotting it down within a week or less. If there's not a lot of swelling, I don't think your boy has a break. I would put him on pain meds (metacam if possible, if not use OTC infant/childrens liquid ibuprofen) to get the swelling down and make it heal faster.

These are typical bad sprains;










Tonka

















2 days later the swelling really came down with the metacam/anti-inflammatory effect









I didn't have to restrict her movement as she was a smart girl and stayed very quiet as she healed. I lowered water and food access, gave her soft foods so she didn't try to sit on her hind feet and eat, etc.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Good news


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## AMJ087 (Aug 27, 2008)

Im glad he sounds like he needs a little extra love right now lol


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