Not medical advice but experiece with degloviNG??

I have an 11 months old whom had a good 2 inches of her tail degloved last night. I cannot get her to a vet for a few reasons. Financial and weather being biggest 2. I am doing everything possible for her including going out and picking up a "hospital" cage (20-25 gal tank with screen lid $25). She does not have shavings in her cage, I am using old clothes of my kids that I was going to donate and I am changing them every time I notice they are starting to get dirty. I have some flour in there for the bleeding as it is still bleeding mildly. I am giving her a dot or 2 of children's motrin every 6 to 8 hours. She doesn't seem to be in pain unless she steps on her tail. She has fresh water every few hours, a dish of milk, some corn chowder, and her regular food. She is being more spoiled than she usually is.
Has anyone else experienced this severe of a degloving? How did it turn out and what did you find made your ratties most comfy during the healing process?

JanesAddiction said:

I have an 11 months old whom had a good 2 inches of her tail degloved last night. I cannot get her to a vet for a few reasons. Financial and weather being biggest 2. I am doing everything possible for her including going out and picking up a "hospital" cage (20-25 gal tank with screen lid $25). She does not have shavings in her cage, I am using old clothes of my kids that I was going to donate and I am changing them every time I notice they are starting to get dirty. I have some flour in there for the bleeding as it is still bleeding mildly. I am giving her a dot or 2 of children's motrin every 6 to 8 hours. She doesn't seem to be in pain unless she steps on her tail. She has fresh water every few hours, a dish of milk, some corn chowder, and her regular food. She is being more spoiled than she usually is.
Has anyone else experienced this severe of a degloving? How did it turn out and what did you find made your ratties most comfy during the healing process?

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Fleece might be easier than old clothes, as you don't want ANY strings in with your rats. If you are in canada you have Dollarama which is cheap fleece rolls, in the US I bet its even cheaper. Even old PJ's.

Lets work on your ibuprofen dosage so we can really manage her pain this weekend.

You have Children's Motrin? I assume liquid? If not you will need to get some (awesome stuff to keep on hand, and the best one is Infant Advil, grape-flavoured, dye-free that rats will take from the syringe happily).

Get me a guess on her weight, or post a pic of her beside something recognizable so I can guess her size.

then I can give you a better dose that should control her pain better.

I went through a degloving like that on my own, as my vet was away. This case history is here...

http://ratguide.com/health/figures/degloving_injury_figure_4.php

One of my babies had the end of her tail degloved by a rat in an adjacent cage. The most important thing, as Lilspaz has mentioned, is pain control. There are recommended dosages to give your rat to make sure she has enough medication to be effective, but not too much. So a weight, or estimated weight will help, as well as the drug concentration on the medicine bottle.
IF the pain is controlled and IF she does not get an infection, then normally the bone and ligaments will dry up and fall off in a couple of weeks, and the skin will heal over.
Here is the thread with my baby's experience, with some pictures:

http://www.ratshackforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21738

I hope this helps!

Well I am feeling a little easier now that the bleeding seems to be stopped. I will try to get a pic in a few as she is just waking up. Yes it is liquid, I have little kids too lol. The clothes I am using are mostly cotton and fleece. All clean and not cut.

The first pic is of her prior to injury. Then her in her "hospital" cage, and then her tail itself. I see there is an awful clump of brown at the end of it. My kids are about to go to bed and I will be doing a bath and full cage cleaning for Shadow. She dumped her milk and corn chowder lol

I am going to guess at 380 grams...hard to tell in that pic.

her dose of motrin would be .38 cc (if you don't have a syringe, it would be about 7 full drops (a drop is about .05 cc)

Once the pain is gone she can go back to her cagemates

Any clue how she did it? Accidents happen to all of us, and we won't judge. If its something in her cage you might have to try to find it and fix it so no one else can get hurt.

I am not sure if it was a fight with one of her cage mates (I've had them all the same amount of time and no issues before) or if she somehow got it stuck. I am thinking stuck as the "skin" was on the outside of the cage. They've been in the same cage for almost a year and again had no issues. I have just given her a bath which she was not impressed with...kept trying to jump out. She's now having free play on my bed while cage gets cleaned out and restocked for her. Bleeding is completely stopped. Brown lump at tip of tail, I am assuming this is the drying up process. The rest of the degloved area looks pretty good...aside from some flour still stuck too it. Will leave her to clean that herself as I don't want to touch it and hurt her.

Read my case history (link at bottom of post) there's pics of Lilith's tail in the process of healing, so it should help your fears.

Things to look for (signs of infection) are if the tail above the degloving starts to get red, hot or cold...and it starts to spread upward towards the base of the tail. If you are getting concerned, get a sharpie marker and put a line where her healthy tail starts and make sure it doesn't move past it.

Awe lilspaz68! Those pics helped me so much! And my oldest, she was quite concerned as to what was going to happen. So I now know after looking at Lilith's pics that the end where Shadow's has turned brown/black and hard is normal and is just healing! I have been letting her have visitors today. Her mom was in to visit and then her sister. She seems to be doing good...considering...I can't imagine what it must feel like for her!

JanesAddiction said:

Awe lilspaz68! Those pics helped me so much! And my oldest, she was quite concerned as to what was going to happen. So I now know after looking at Lilith's pics that the end where Shadow's has turned brown/black and hard is normal and is just healing! I have been letting her have visitors today. Her mom was in to visit and then her sister. She seems to be doing good...considering...I can't imagine what it must feel like for her!

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She should be able to return to her family tomorrow unless its dry and she's stopped squeaking when bumped? If so, she can go back now.

It is still quite "wet", just the end that is dried up. I think until it is fully healed we'll keep her "hospitalized" and she can have visits from her female family members My kids are making sure that our "patient" gets a little of everything that they have. She enjoyed some chicken noodle soup and a peach jam sandwich. Spoiled spoiled girl she is. She is sleeping good. I don't have a syringe or dropper so I have been putting a little Motrin on my finger and rubbing it on her teeth, she is clearly getting enough cause she is sleeping good and does not seem to be in any pain. When I get her to the vet tomorrow...they should just pay me the visit fee and tell me I am a good Vet Mama lol No signs of infection or anything like that and she seems to have cleaned off any remaining flour that was still on her tail after her bath this morning. I will keep you updated

Shadow is out for free play and I have noticed she has a "lump" on her left side just under/behind her front paw. It is about the size of a quarter, is on the inside of the skin, and doesn't seem to bother her at all while I was checking it out. She is currently a happy little rattie climbing around on my shoulders lol

JanesAddiction said:

Shadow is out for free play and I have noticed she has a "lump" on her left side just under/behind her front paw. It is about the size of a quarter, is on the inside of the skin, and doesn't seem to bother her at all while I was checking it out. She is currently a happy little rattie climbing around on my shoulders lol

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Have you mentioned how old she is? The lump is it in her armpit or actually on her leg?

Idk what happened but I am sure that I responded and posted an updated pic last night...Midgets I tell ya! lol
Shadow is doing awesomely. I called my vet and they said unless things change they are good with my judgement. I have a very good relationship with my vet. I did e-mail them the pics of her tail and they said it looks good.
As for putting her back with her family...I have decided it is in her best interest to stay in her "hospital" room and only have visitors until it is fully healed. Her cage is in my room where the other 2 cages are not. I can keep a close eye on her this way.
Updated pics include...first one is last night when she still had the dried up black tip on. Second is of this morning after she had removed the dried up tip.
My youngest daughter, 3yrs, gave Shadow an old stuffed puppy. I just watched her try to pick it up and put it in her water bowl! lol She is feeling ok!
I found a lump on her left side just below/behind her front paw. It seems to be on the inside of the skin and not on her body itself. It is about the size of a quarter and doesn't seem to bother her as I was touching it to "size it up" and get an idea of what if anything it was attached to...as I said only her skin. Any experience with this??

Keep an eye on that lump...If it grows you might have a serious problem...hopefully its just a banged paw that swelled up from trying to get free of whatever caught up her tail.

Sorry, I'm still a little fuzzy on the location of the lump. Is it on her arm next to her paw? Or on her body behind her leg? Do you have a picture of it?

I am SO sorry! I didn't realize there was a "second page"! It is just behind her armpit. She will be 1 yr in 14 more days. I have her out every morning and evening and haven't noticed it until she got injured...however, usually she is out roaming within my sight whereas since her injury I have been keeping her more in my arms and on my shoulders than really letting her go. I am def gonna keep an eye on it. I am not sure the proper term or how to explain but...you know how you can hold their fur away from the body? Like "excess skin"...well that is where the lump is... She tail is doing well and she needs a clean "hospital" room tomorrow...she threw a fit over supper lol...

JanesAddiction said:

I am SO sorry! I didn't realize there was a "second page"! It is just behind her armpit. She will be 1 yr in 14 more days. I have her out every morning and evening and haven't noticed it until she got injured...however, usually she is out roaming within my sight whereas since her injury I have been keeping her more in my arms and on my shoulders than really letting her go. I am def gonna keep an eye on it. I am not sure the proper term or how to explain but...you know how you can hold their fur away from the body? Like "excess skin"...well that is where the lump is... She tail is doing well and she needs a clean "hospital" room tomorrow...she threw a fit over supper lol...

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Is the tail dry yet? Its best not to keep her living away from her family if it is. You just don't want things sticking to it. Happy rats heal faster and they are happiest with their friends.

As for the lump sounds like a classic mammary tumour, but she's very young for them which means she might have even more coming soon.

Shadow will be returning to the family cage this afternoon, once I have cages cleaned and restocked. She is doing awesomely...no signs of pain in a few days. Will give her a bath before returning her.
The lump, mammory tumor is exactly what I was thinking, but I haven't slept much in the last 4 days between kids and rattie, so I couldn't think of the term. I currently am a single stay at home mom so my income is not that great but I have an interview this week, I really hope I can get it as then I will start a "vet" fund (pay on my account at my vet without having a bill) so that anytime I need to go to the vet, it is already paid.
I really want to stay thank you to lilspaz and everyone else whom has replied...I had visited another forum as well and although I did get a few responses, none of them made me feel as relaxed about the situation as you guys did! You all rock! Thank you again!

Attached here somewhere is a pic that I took of the culprit...Yes, I look horrible but I am not the culprit! lol
When I first bought my cage it had wooden shelves that warped and stained quickly so I threw them out and made "shelves" from these with pipe cleaners. I have them in the boys' house as well. I have not had a problem with them and have been using them for almost a yr however, I found this today when I did the full cage clean and restocking/rearranging and removed it immediately! Based on the location of the break and the location of where the "skin" was found I would say that is what de gloved poor Shadow
She is doing great! Has another 2 sections of tail dried up and about 4 more to go She is back home with her family and LOVING it! I put the girls' home in my room with me again. I found my daughter's were always taking them out and forgetting to shut the cage. Lost a girl in my oldest daughter's bedroom for 45 mins a few weeks ago lol. She was under the tv stand but refused to come out for ANYTHING! lol
Update on the lump...Shadow is the only rattie with any...I checked the rest of my zoo...minus the aquarium pets and the only other species that I found with any lumps was my dog...she is 7 and a half and has very bad hips. Not asking for advice or info on the dog...just thought I'd throw in how the rest of the zoo is doing. Now that I have an aquarium with screen lid and Shadow is no longer using it as a "hospital" room...I am considering expanding my zoo...not sure if I want a hermit crab, green tree frog, fire belly toad, pacman frog, pixie frog, red earred slider turtle, long tail lizard, Bahaman anole, or a green anole...Decisions decisions! lol