Yellow crust near incision

[dubble321]

Almost 2 weeks ago my rat Esther had her tumor removed as maybe some of you might remember from previous posts. The tumor site was glued afterwards. Poor little Esther kept licking the glue off and we took her back 4 times to get re-glued, she even ripped out the stitches. We decided to leave it since the skin around the incision was getting hard and becoming scar tissue. She continued to lick almost all the glue off and now the wound is open it's all pink and hard with yellow crust near the top of the incision. Is this normal after a surgery like this? I cleaned it with anti bacterial soap and put some Neosporin in the area. She shows no sign of illness. Poor baby has to be separated from from her sisters overnight and I don't know what to do. The picture is very graphic.

 

[dubble321]

Addition: before it got this way there was a scab in its place encrusted with glue. It seems it came off and this was all that was underneath. We are worried that the infection can become worse and need any advice on how to manage this before her trip to the vet Monday morning. The vet had to reglue this site several times so there may be some glue left over. They even tried stitches...staples...and an e collar but no success...Esther was able to get it all out in a matter of minutes....we have been washing the area with antibacterial soap a couple times a day and recently been applying neosporin. She has also been prescribed Baytril and Metacam since the surgery

 

[lilspaz68]

Get your nose in there and start sniffing...if you smell infection, that might need to be debrided, if you only smell meaty smells, then its healing slowly by 2nd intention and the yellow is normalish.

If there's no smell, I would not use anything on it and just let her heal. Is it dry or wet?

 

[Joanne]

Ditto what Lilspaz said.
If she won't leave it alone, then I would not attempt any more glue/stitches/staples. That will only delay the healing further as she traumatizes the area again. It will take a while, but it will all eventually heal as long as you can prevent infection.
Can she reach it to clean it herself? I would not wash it or put any ointment on it.
The antibacterial soap may be irritating things. Normally if you have surgery, you are not allowed to get the incision wet for several days, and no bath for a week. This is an open wound. I wouldn't be rinsing it with anything other than plain saline.
If it smells funky, then she needs systemic antibiotics, NOT topical.

 

[dubble321]

Thank you lilspaz68 and Joanne for your advice. We smelled the wound and it didn't smell like anything....just like the rest of her and our other rats. The pink skin is hard and dry but the yellowish area is wet and soft. Esther has been on Baytril since last week so it should be preventing infection since it's an antibiotic. We will leave the area alone and just keep her cage dry and very clean like we have been before. We rinse her cage and bowls with hot water no soap to prevent any irritants. We also have an organic cleaner but haven't used it on Esther's "recovery" cage....only the main cage. It's from Kahoots and the ingredients are "enzymatic blend of organic surfactants; including coconut, palm and jojoba oils, natural spring water. Alcohol free." She also has been separated from the other rats for a few days now as I saw one of them, Elsa, licking her wound. And I agree its pointless to close the area up as it'll slow down healing and there's no bleeding at all. But I still wanna take her to the vet tomorrow....since all her post -op care is free (included from the surgery)...but will will the vet even do?

 

[lilspaz68]

Actually licking the wound is fine, I would put her back in with her friends or let them visit during Out time. I consider that mostly closed and if they lick it can only do good things like when dogs lick their own wounds, tugging or biting at it is different though.

 

[Joanne]

:yeah:
..........