Giovanni's wound - home from vet - with stitches

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KristyR

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Messages
889
Location
Oklahoma City, OK
Went in to feed and scritch the kiddos, and noticed a wound on Giovanni. It's on his abdomen/upper thigh/groin area. There is no blood at all, and the wound looks very very clean. I cleaned it with sterile saline anyway and put some antibiotic ointment and put him in the infirmary cage with clean everything. He doesn't act like it bothers him at all - he didn't like being on his back for me to treat it, but didn't act like he was in any pain whatsoever. He's eating and drinking fine. Seems a little offended that he's in a little cage by himself instead of with his buddies in the FN. I have no idea what caused it. I wish I could get a picture of it to post, but I'd need an extra set of hands with it being on his underside like that. I'm going to take him in to the vet first thing in the morning.
 
Poor boy... sounds like he's dealing with it pretty well.

Is it so bad that he really needs to be seperated?
 
I managed to get a picture.

I separated him to make sure the wound stays clean tonight. Looks like a pretty good puncture there.

2476409059_fa0d346520_b.jpg
 
Ouch! Ya, I think he's best left on his own until that closes up a bit. Last thing he needs is for his buds to get rowdy or decide to groom his boo-boo for him!
 
Absolutely no noticeable change in Giovanni or the wound this morning. I'm sitting here waiting for the vet to open at 8 so I can call and get him in.
 
Just got back from the vet. Giovanni is still there.

The vet gave three options.
1. Put him under anesthesia to stitch the wound. Best option to keep it closed, but comes with all the risks of anesthesia.
2. Use surgical glue on the wound. Not quite as strong as stitches, but will definitely accelerate healing, as long as it doesn't split back open.
3. Keep it clean and let it heal on it's own. He said the edges of the wound were starting to granulate, and so it was definitely in the beginning stages of healing, but it would take some time to heal completely.

We decided on the surgical glue route. He's going to clean it up and glue it and keep an eye on it for an hour or so to make sure it's going to hold. He said there's a possibility it won't hold at all, and he'll have to stitch it - but he will call me before he does that. Otherwise, he'll call me when I can come pick him up.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the glue holds.
 
Poor little guy, sending healing thoughts! I hope the glue holds as well so that stitches aren't needed, but at least the vet said it was starting to heal. It may take a while because of the size and depth of the injury, but he should heal up well. :hugs:
 
Wow, that is so not what I thought it would be when I read the first part. Make sure to look around the cage for something poking out like a loose wire or something. Poor guy I hope he gets better very soon.
 
Kristy, please get him on Baytril. Close it up may very well start a huge abscess. This has happened to us before, my vet told me in rats you need to let it heal on it's own, it has to heal inside out. But at the time I was so upset, when we got home I just slapped a hole bunch of ointment and kind of sealed it together. Max developed massive abscesses and had to be pts. But Baytril would help control that.
 
jorats said:
Kristy, please get him on Baytril. Close it up may very well start a huge abscess. This has happened to us before, my vet told me in rats you need to let it heal on it's own, it has to heal inside out. But at the time I was so upset, when we got home I just slapped a hole bunch of ointment and kind of sealed it together. Max developed massive abscesses and had to be pts. But Baytril would help control that.
Click to expand...

Oh yes, we're definitely doing a round of Baytril with this. Dr. Henderson said he would give him an injection while he was there, and do two week's worth of oral afterwards.

Melissa's ZOO said:
Wow, that is so not what I thought it would be when I read the first part. Make sure to look around the cage for something poking out like a loose wire or something. Poor guy I hope he gets better very soon.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I knew I wasn't describing it well. I was kinda freaked. I did find a broken binder clip from the top shelf of the FN. That's the only thing I've found that as a possible culprit. I honestly can't imagine any of his cagemates having bitten him like that. Larry or Cyril, possibly. But not that cage of boys.



Ok, I was kind of expecting to have heard from the vet by now. I'm gonna give it another few minutes, and I'm calling to check in on him.
 
I really do not think that is a wound from another rat, it is a massive puncture wound so the binder clip would make sense. Did you modify their cage with hardware mesh or anything like that? I found a sharp edge that Clover stabbed her foot with so I had to file it down. Or if your hammock are attached with shower hooks or paper clips check to see if one is bent where he could have stabbed his self with.

Wounds like that on rats heal incredibly well. Flower ripped her stitches out from her last tumor removal and the incision was about two inches long and gapped open. I just made sure it stayed clean and her cage was clean everyday and literally within days it was completely healed. They heal so quickly from injuries it is the illnesses we have to be super cautious about when it comes to our furkids. =)
 
Their cage isn't modified. I checked all the shower hooks on the hammocks, and two were unhooked, so there's another possibility.

I was just dialing the number to the vet when he called and said Giovanni was ready to come home! He said the surgical glue held for less than 10 minutes.
So he sutured it, but he didn't have to put him under. He used a local anesthetic to numb the site, and one of the assistants held him and the vet was able
to suture with no trouble. He said Giovanni is one of the most laid back, easygoing rats he has ever treated.

So we are on Baytril for two weeks, and stitches can come out in two weeks. And keep him in the infirmary cage until the stitches come out so none of
his buddies try to remove them for him.

Ninety-five dollars later, here's how he looks now:

2479130390_8729c94691_b.jpg
 
Poor guy. The shower hooks are a big possible cause especially if he is a climber. I am constantly checking my hooks just because I forget to hook them back sometimes and my Mimzy loves to hang from them for some odd reason.

Hope he gets better soon.

I wouldn't keep him from everyone if I were you. He will probably get very depressed. When my girls have stitches I just put them back with everyone and no one bothers the incision area and since it is on his underside it is less likely to get picked at by others. If anyone is going to rip the stitches out it will be Giovanni. That is my experience with stitches.
 

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