# Breaking his nails?



## happy.pancakes (Jan 4, 2009)

Friday morning I woke up five to get ready for school and like always, first thing I do is go check on Tucker (my hedgie of course). I sleepily grumbled over to his cage and when I saw him, his left front paw was COVERED in blood! I picked him out of his cage real quickly and looked around his cage for anything he could have hurt himself on, but everything seemed to be okay. While I was looking, I noticed his foodbowl, and the bars on his cage, and the bedding was also covered in blood! So, at that point I freaked out because who knows how long he had been bleeding!!! So I rushed him downstairs to get him some flower because I reaad that works like quick stop, and I was fresh out of that. Turns out, we didn't have any flower either.
So, I ran some luke warm water in a bowl (just enough for him to wash off his feet) and put it in there to let him walk around, and that's when I noticed my hands and shirt also had quite a lot of blood on them!!! So, I took him out of the water to see if I could see where he was bleeding from and his foot quickly became red again! So, I ran new water in the bowl and put him back in it while I looked for the Neosporin (a person on here told me that was okay to put on him as long as it wasn't the kind with pain releaver in it) so, I finally found that and put it on his clean feet and they didn't turn red again, so I put a fleece blanket in a large storage bin and let him recoperate in that while I was at school.
When I got home from school, I looked at his feet to see if I could see what was up, and turns out, THREE of his fingernails were MISSING. He appearantly broke them off! Is there any reason for that? Why would he do that to himself. There's nothing in his cage he could have cought them on...so I don't know what's up. :|

In regard to what kind of wheel he has, it's just a bucket wheel. I know better than the metal kind with the wholes and what not. He dosn't have any towels or such in his cage...and they shouldn't have been too long...I cut them a 2 days prior to the incedent


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## Coco (Oct 2, 2008)

What kind of wheel his in her bin? ,,,,, if it's a metal wheel don't search more than this ,,,,

If it's a plastic wheel, search for any little parts that can be broken on the wheel ,,,, or anything around in the bin where he can be in danger cause it can be a really little things and could do that another time ,,,,,,

Good luck to find that ,,,,,

scuse my english but i try a lot to be understood ,,,,


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Yeah, I'm guessing it could be the wheel, too, depending on what you have. Is it metal or does it have any openings along it that your hedgie could've gotten the nails caught in? If not, does he have a towel or something with stitching that he could've gotten them caught in that you keep as bedding for him?


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## smhufflepuff (Aug 28, 2008)

I have four hypotheses on why his nails broke:
1. They got caught in his wheel 
2. They got caught in his bedding
3. His nails had grown too long and needed to be trimmed, but broke off instead
4. There's some sort of nutritional deficiency leading to weak, brittle nails

Could you describe the type of wheel he has, what you're using for bedding, how long his nails are, and what type of food he eats?


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## Callie255 (Dec 24, 2008)

I noticed you said the bars on his cage had blood on them too. Could he have gotten his nails caught on the bars? Maybe he was trying to climb and his nails were a little long and got caught.


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## Mongo911 (Jan 28, 2009)

Does he have a water bottle or a bowl?

if he has a water bottle his nails might have gotten caught in 
the holder.

i hope you can find out what caused it


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