OMG he ATE himself!! help! help!! HELP!!-pics

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T

twitch

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
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1,485
Location
Dartmouth, NS
chop suey is getting to be a bit of a worry. i go away and come back and there's always something wrong. this time he ATE a HOLE in is abdomen. he has a hole in his skin. i can see right in past his skin. i can move the skin and see the edges move over the underskin or muscle or whatever that layer is called under the skin. the hole is about the size of my thumb! he's moving around fine, he;s active and doesn't seem in pain but he had a HOLE in his belly! its right where he had a cyst by his penis as a result of the neuter. i'm afraid to touch the area because there is a HOLE there. the vet of course is closed! i can't get him until tomorrow morning. what do i do?? he was going to get a bath to go along with the spraying of the cage for the mites but obviously he'll be exempt from that. it wasn't a requirement but i thought a bath would be a good idea and they are due for one anyway. well the rest will have their's anyhow. but what the heck do i do with chop suey?? what will the vet do when she sees him tomorrow?? HELP!!
 
No wonder you're scared. I guess the key thing is to keep him in ultra-clean conditions so that he doesn't risk infection. Would you be able to put him in a separate cage with fresh cloths/bedding unti the morning? Do you have some antibiotics on hand for prevention?


Good luck. Sometimes I swear that their purpose in life is to see how much stress we can handle.
 
I'm thinking that he had an abscess that you didn't know about and that it burst! Does he or his cage smell unusually gross?

If you and Chop Suey are up to it, irrigate the wound with some home made saline. Mix 1/2 teaspoon of salt into one cup of warm water and find something that you can use to squirt the solution into the hole. Then soak up the fluid with some cloth or paper towel. That will help kill any nasty bacteria that are inside the wound.
 
Are you sure it wasn't an abscess that popped? Or could someone else have groomed/barbered him too hard?
Keep him clean and watch him too so you can see exactly what's happening. If you have abs, I'd start him asap.
What a scary thing to see. :(
 
yes, i can get him into another cage. i have some amoxil of twix's that i can make up more of. but is that it?? there's nothing more i can do for him until the vet see him? and what is the vet going to do, i don't even think it can stitched. the wound is so large. :panic: :graah: and he's just sitting beside me washing his face while i'm here freaking.... bloody rat!
 
You would be surprised to see how fast those holes close up. I'm sure that by morning it will be 1/2 its size or less! Give him some of that amoxil, clean the wound and try to be as calm as Chop Suey seems to be! :nod:
 
ok, in the time it took to reply to godmother everyone else replied too.

i'm putting him in the hospital cage. the cage is rank and so is everyone else. much more stinky then they have a right to be actually. this week has been just hell. zen dies tuesday and chancey shows up. the kid has his tubes put in his ears wednesday and is sick from the antesia all day long. thursdya morning i wake up late and have to rush to my parents. i get home today, have supper, go to clean the cage and give everyone baths and chop suey has a huge hole! the vet said that they lump was a cyst from the operation. he was on abs for a week to amke sure too and there was no change in it. could it still be an abcess or did he mangle himself? it is possible someone else did it to him but they were all getting along fine before i left.

thank you everyone for replying. i'm still freaked out but not as badly.

i will put him on the abs i have here and rinse him out with that saline solution. should i put polysporin on it? my mother suggested making an elizbethian collar for him so he can't pick at the wound until the vet sees him tomorrow, is that i good idea?
 
MumsyRat said:
....... irrigate the wound with some home made saline. Mix 1/2 teaspoon of salt into one cup of warm water and find something that you can use to squirt the solution into the hole. Then soak up the fluid with some cloth or paper towel. That will help kill any nasty bacteria that are inside the wound.
Click to expand...

I'd just do what MumsyRat said - and don't worry. If he's been chewing at himself he's only doctoring himself. I guess Chop Suey's abscess was close to the surface and he cleaned it out himself... Some are good at knowing when theres bed stuff there and they get it out.
My boy Alfred got a deep abscess after being neutered and had to be operated on again. As he healed it opened up and he had a big hole, but I was flushing with the saline and it healed up just fine, tho it took time. Alfred was really sick, wouldn't eat.... Sounds like Chop Suey is feeling ok, thank goodness. He'll be fine I'm sure. Ratties sure can have some huge owies and cope just fine and heal amazingly.

I he on antibiotics? He needs to be on antibiotics...
 
pictures-pre saline

100_1424.jpg


100_1425.jpg


ok, so maybe not quite as big as my thumb but close enough to it!
 
cleaning it out the lump that used to be there seems to be gone. but part of the underskin looks like a whiteish yellow. what's that mean?
 
Looks like there's some pus there, an infection. Just keep it clean is really all you can do. I wouldn't put any ointment on it either.
 
Here's what Alfred looked like. (The blue string is the suture after the wound opened) the black at the bottom of the owie was where the hole went deep in him. Looks pretty much like your boy.
070109Alfredincision-1.jpg
 
alright, my reg vet is still on vacation, my foster vet isn't open today. so i've got a appointment with the clinic my reg vet works for with her boss!it was either the guy i've never dealt with or the other vet that loves to charge but either knows nothing and pretend she does or she just wants to charge a lot... i don't trust her opinion in the slightest. so i went with the older vet the owns the clinic. i don't know him, but i'm hoping he knows something about rats. i can't get in until 3:30 though. he does his horse appointments in the morning. if there is a cancellation and i can get in there sooner they're goning to call.

as for chop suey, he's as fine as he ever was. he's not bugging at the area, he's eating and drinking well. he's torn apart the hospital cage in his boredom... the only where is it supposed to be is the hammock, likely because he hasn't figured to chew it down yet... he chewed off the hanging corner litter pan (hung up and stuffed with fabric to act as a level)... he's bunched up the fabric lining the bottom his food dish has disappeared (likely in the huge ball of fabric which his nose is sticking out of... he's bored. normally he's not that destructive with his cage and seems content to let me place things where i see fit... silly boy. but at least he's feeling fine during all this...
 

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