URGENT-what to do with a broken foot?!??

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T

twitch

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2008
Messages
1,485
Location
Dartmouth, NS
i'm not sure how it happened but i think stewart has broken his back right foot! it was a bit swollen this morning and i thought he had spained it somehow. i was able to bust my knee by jumping so i can imagine it would only take some little stupid turn to sprain something when you're older. and as stew is 29 months this month its fair to say he's older. heck, when bribery was 9 months and being a clumsy teenager he sprained his foot rassling with eyes and ink on the hammock.

but now, stewart's foot is hugely swollen, far more then any sprain i've seen and reminds me terriblely of when my mother broke her foot. he's not putting ANY weight on it at all. its like a balloon and looks badly brusied. i'm calling the vet as soon as they open in the morning to get him looked at. but i don't think they make casts small enough for a rat and i'm worried they'll want to amputate. which would be a more in depth operation and then what happened to babydoll rears its ugly head in my memory and i'm not ready to say goodbye to another babe, especially like that. and not over something as simple as a mere break. well it would be simple if stew was a human, and much larger.

:panic: what do i do?? is there casts for rats? i know what happened to doll was not routine. normally she would have been fine. i have had many other surgeries done by this vet without problems. but i can't help to worry all the more because of it. :panic: :panic:

HELP!!
 
Give him some Metacam and make sure he doesn't have to do any climbing!
See to it that everything he needs is accesible to him without having to go up ramps or climb across anything - that includes his hammock. I've seen some pretty nasty looking swollen feet get better very quickly and it's usually never a break - just a sprain or strain. Try not to worry too much!
 
Do you have any metacam on hand? Or Children's Infant Motrin or Ibuprofen?

These will help the swelling until you get to the vet.

Vets do not put casts or even splint broken legs on ratties, they heal so fast, and all on their own
Stewart needs to be in a one-level cage, soft, padded, restrict his mobility (remove all ramps), try to control the pain and swelling.
 
Yes, Metacam would be the answer. SQ and some others have recently gone through similar situations. With anti-inflammatories and TLC such injuries seem to heal on their own. Ratties are amazing.

SQ had also tried putting frozen peas or cool water on the swollen foot, but the ratty was having none of it.
 
We've had plenty of sprained feet here and they all did a full recovery. I agree with metacam and a nice quiet one level cage for a few days, should be all he needs.
Poor sweetie.
 
I prefer Infant Motrin/Ibuprofen, but metacam would probably work just as well. You want the dosage to be high enough that the inflammation comes down and he's not in too much pain, but low enough that he still feels *some* pain. If he doesn't know it's hurting, he can cause even more damage.

As was mentioned already, you want to put him in a one level cage, or remove any ramps/shelves he could climb up. The less he moves around, the better. You'll want to put his food/water to where he can easily get to it from the base. Hopefully it's just a sprain and he'll be fine in a day or two after resting it. If you notice any other symptoms or he continues to have issues, he may have broken it, but the treatment is the same. Pain meds and rest.
 
i had just packed up the nursery cage that rosie was using just yesterday. i'll have it out and set up again though. that should resrrct his movement so he'll have to rest. i don't think he'll mind too much though, he likes his naps. then i'll make sure he has the couch to stretch out on too until this is healed up.

i don't have any metacam on hand or even children motrin.ibyprofren but i can get that in the morning. he weighs 1.5lbs, how much ibuprofen should i give him?

here's the foot as of a few minutes ago
100_0893.jpg


100_0896.jpg
 
Oh, that's alot of swelling.. Poor baby, lots of kisses and scritches for him!

Okay, as a rough estimate, I've taken the concentration of my Infant Motrin. It's 50mg per 1.25mls or 40mg/ml. You'll need to check the concentration of whatever you're able to find, though. Just remember to get Infant, not Children's, and that the only active ingredient is Ibuprofen. He should get about .51cc of that for 1.5lbs [680g].
 
i checked my records to double check, but yes, he weighs 1.5lbs. well at least that was what he weighed on the 20th at the vets...their scale isn't exactly rat friendly though...

this is what my scale says: 1.4/5lbs which according to my scale is 575/600g the scale is an analog scale so the needle was wobbling between the two dashes. but it has the kg up top and the lbs underneath so conversion should be sound.
 
Burrell just went through that.
Meduicam didn't help.
On advice from people on here, 24 hours after I gave him the medicam, I gave him ored. The pred took the swelling down.

Hope he is better soon.
That looks very painful.
 
I am starting to think Burrell didn't have an injury but something else caused the swelling. I could see the pred working if it was a reaction to something. I think Stewie's foot is a definite injury...it looks like a pink balloon covered with skin. It could be a bad sprain or possibly a small fracture but its not a bad one or there would be more immediate bruising IMO.
 

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