My mouse has a swollen foot

by zozzlezeb Sun 11 Oct 2020, 4:05 pm

So I recently noticed one of my girls has a swollen left front paw. She walks on it just fine and she isn't limping or walking strangely. She is also acting normally she is still very active as usual and she's eating and drinking the same. I have been putting a little ice on the foot daily to see if the swelling will go down but it doesn't seem like it has. The foot itself is redder than the other and it looks like there was something that was tied around where her wrist as there is like an indent that goes around the wrist and the hair above her wrist seems to like stop at that indent. I am thinking maybe she got it caught around something, but its been like this for maybe two weeks now. I am worried she could be biting it because it doesn't seem like there is hair on the foot but there is no blood or scabs on it. I am going to take her to the vet soon but I'm just really puzzled as to what's going on?

I was able to take some photos(she won't sit still so I had to give her a treat so she would stop moving) here they are below.

Any advice would be great thank you! Smile

by MerciToujoursMaPetiteBoop Mon 12 Oct 2020, 11:26 am

The best advice is to do what you are going to do, and that is to take Miss Mouse to her doctor. In case you are dealing with a case of limb constriction damage, though, I will give a little biology background -- if you're interested and don't know this stuff already.

The blood vessels that flow away from the heart toward the limbs, bringing oxygen and nutients to the cells, tend to be deeper than the blood vessels that flow back out of the limbs, carrying waste. If you cut off circulation by tying something tight around part of the leg, blood will continue to flow into the leg at the normal rate, but will not be able to flow out at the normal rate. Blood volume will increase, and this will cause fluid to leak out of the blood vessels into the surrounding tissues, where it is more difficult to flush out, causing swelling. It will also slow or even stop the removal of waste materials, which will then build up on the same side of the constriction as the swelling.

So it you have swelling and reddening of the skin, it is important to take steps to quell any infection process that is going on. Plus, once the constriction was removed, toxins that had been trapped and concentrating in the damaged tissues became free to move about the rest of the body. Hence the doctor visit.

Putting cold on the swollen foot would shrink the blood vessels, which would make it even harder for the excess fluid and toxins to flush out. HOWEVER, applying warm could just cause any toxic buildup to disperse faster to the rest of the body. Hence the doctor visit.

As for the damage to the near-surface vascularization, blood vessels are very good at restoring circulation. It takes time.

My mouse has a swollen foot

My mouse has a swollen foot

Re: My mouse has a swollen foot