Hi guys, need a little help from the pros. Some of you may have seen me mention a ball called Gretchen in my posts. Well she was a painfully thin CF that I got given coz the shop didn't think she'd make it (actually the rest of the batch that she came with are all dead as far as I know). She was severely dehydrated, malnourished, anaemic, had at least 3 broken ribs and her whole digestive system had completely shut down through lack of food. After a week at the vets and an assist feed she finally started eating on her own and she's been going from strength to strength ever since. She's doubled her body weight in 2 months and all the concerns we had about crush injuries and internal damage from the broken ribs and so long without food have so far proved unwarranted. However after posting on my usual UK forum I have to say we're a little stumped.
It now seems she's had far more than 3 broken ribs and that the ones we could feel have been masking others with problems. There's at least 2-4 that still feel a little unstable and awkward, but I gather reptile bones take quite a few months to heal. Things are certainly improving and she's gaining in strength but this area concerns me. She doesn't seem to have as much mobility around the sites of the breaks as she does in the rest of her body. I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions why this might be. My first thought was nerve damage or just that they are taking a while to heal, but the only other suggestions I have gotten from the other side of the pond is possibly that it's causing her some pain and she therefore doesn't want to use those muscles to move. It never actually occured to me that the poor darling was suffering with it and our vet never even suggested painkillers for her, altho at the time, we were just trying to save her life, as she was 17ins long and only weighed 50g.
So, does anyone have any thoughts on why she still has reduced mobility after 2 months? And if it is possibly down to pain, is there anything I can give her to combat that?
