Deep bite help!

Intros took bad turn. Deep bite. Subq fat and muscle visable.
1)flush and leave it be
2)I can suture
3)I can skin glue

Heeeeeelp!!!

I've never had to deal with this. Let's hope that one of the more experienced members signs in soon.

I've been told that rats can heal fast from some pretty awful injuries, but visible muscle does sound scary.

Yes, some very deep wounds can heal on their own quite fast. Keep it clean. Bleeding stopped?

Leave it alone!
Here is a pic of an injury one of my girls got during intros. It was right down to muscle. This closed up in one day and healed great in one week. I did absolutely nothing to it.

I never did bleed much. Now that I got some pain meds in her I am chilling waiting for them to work before I mess with her. I took some pics.

Joanne said:

Leave it alone!
Here is a pic of an injury one of my girls got during intros. It was right down to muscle. This closed up in one day and healed great in one week. I did absolutely nothing to it.

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Raj' sis quite larger than that. I can even see her shoulder joint.

That is a bad gash for sure. Usually they are in that spot though so that is a plus. My concern is it isnt a straight gash but the flap can fold up. I never close my gashes generally the next day the gash is closed. I would be concerned with this one and it shape. I dont know if butterfly stitches would stay on him. or not. I will direct shelagh to this maybe she has seen a gash with edges like this before.

get the other boy neutered and dont do any more intros till he isnt angry. I dont think that boy is meaning to play nice

It looks like there may be a bit of muscle affected as well as skin - it looks like it's stuck out a bit. The way that flap is, I would get it sutured.
I would NOT rinse it as the fluid will go under the skin.
I would cover the wound with a moist (not wet) gauze to keep the wound from drying out and take her to the vets. Sorry

I am a nurse so I have steristrips and surgical glue.

Does the muscle need to be repaired?

I had some serious gashs but they stop at the layer above that. I sent a message to jo and shelagh to look at this as well

I really hate my other rat right now. I want to cry.

No it looks like the muscle is intact. Just skin and fat and the first layer of fascia appear damaged.

I'm also very worried that when it dries it will curl up and there will not be enough tissue to cover it.

If you think the fat and fascia will be OK without suturing, you could probably steristrip the flap down, but I don't think they would stay on her very long. I wouldn't use the glue for this type of injury.

Ok I will steristrips it.

Sheldon said:

I'm also very worried that when it dries it will curl up and there will not be enough tissue to cover it.

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That's why keeping it moist and suturing it ASAP is important. Otherwise any gap will have to heal by secondary intention which will take time.

Yowch! That's a bad one. Poor kiddo

Ok I did steristrips. She is in isolation of course (as is her royal hineyness.). I will suture if I have to but if the strips will even last 8 hrs it may be enough for initial setting.

I redid them. Her skin was not dry enough the first time or she moved too much. Now I have a body wrap on her so she can't twist around.