Laxative for rat that just had rectal surgery?

[rhapsody]

Yesterday, my boy Westley had intensive surgery to repair his rectal tissue. Although the surgery went well, the vet warned me that pooping for the next couple of days was going to be an issue since the stiches and swelling of the rectal tissue was going to make it harder to pass poop. If Westley isn't able to poop by tomorrow, the vet said to bring him back in to remove a couple of the stitches, but that would be a risky solution. When I lift Westley's tail, I can see there's poop ready to go, but its just not passing. Is there a laxative I could give him that might help move things along?

Backstory:
Several months ago at the rescue, his then cage mates literally tore him a new butthole, practically a centimeter from his actual one. Whenever he pooped, it would come out of this new opening. The rescue was able to get him in to surgery, but he tore the stiches out. Covid has wrecked havoc on the rescue being able to schedule surgeries, so they weren't able to get him in again before I came by and adopted him a month ago. Even though I called the local vet the day I brought him home, thanks to stupid Covid, I wasn't able to get him into the vet until last week. The vet does not know how my poor boy is still alive (he should have gone septic and died already), so the vet moved his schedule around so that he could have surgery yesterday.

 

[lilspaz68]

any baby laxative will help.

 

[rhapsody]

Oral or suppository? I just got both just in case

 

[lilspaz68]

also have you given him Metaccam or meloxicam to help with swelling/discomfort?

 

[lilspaz68]

Use the oral. Make sure he gets a lot of fluids in his diet too

 

[rhapsody]

Phew, I was able to connect with the vet yesterday, and was able to pick up an actual critter laxative before they closed. He's already on meloxicam (and clavomax). He finally started pooping (grossly I might add) late last night, but while poop was exiting the right hole, I could have sworn I saw some leak out of the sutures where the original wound was. He was backed up quite a bit, and now I'm super worried he busted the internal stitches fixing his intestines trying to get it out. I dropped him off at the vet this morning and am still waiting to hear back.

 

[Dena]

Omg poor baby. This literally breaks my heart! At least he has someone who is willing to love him, and care for him now.

 

[rhapsody]

*Sigh* He managed to chew his stitches out. The vet was kind enough to sew him back up at no extra charge. On the plus side, he’s pooping much better now.

This rat keeps throwing the poor vet for a loop. Westley was actually sent home the first time with an e-collar that the vet has used successfully before (due to his past history of chewing through stitches), and I totally thought was working, but they observed him propping up his butt against the wall of the carrier so he could get at the wound site. So the vet tech cobbled together an expanded one, and my dude looks so pathetically ridiculous. And once I got him home, I wrapped his middle up in a “corset” to make doubly sure he gives that area a chance to heal. Fingers crossed!