Last week was not a good week for one of my ferrets.  Cocoa accidentally
lost a toenail.  It was a max of 1/2 hour before I found him and a cage
full of blood.  Since I thought he would need stitches, I took Cocoa to
my vet who used what looked like a Q-tip with styptic on it to stop the
bleeding, bandaged the paw, and charged us $20.  No stitches, no
antibiotics.  Five minutes after we were home, the vet wrap was full of
blood and Cocoa was getting blood everywhere so we took the $20 bandage
off to try to stop the bleeding ourselves.  In spite of our best efforts,
it must have been at least another hour before the bleeding slowed down
enough to allow us to leave a bandage on him.
 
The good news is that Cocoa will be okay.  Hopefully we will never have
this happen again, but if it does we will be better prepared.  A friend
told me to go to my local pet store and buy some styptic powder.  Since
you can dip the paw in it, she said that it works better than a styptic
stick.  She also said that in an emergency, you can dip the paw in flour
and that should also stop the bleeding.
 
Nancy
[Posted in FML issue 5215]