Advice for a persistent stitch chewer

[minnow]

My Mimsy (doodle-bug) was spayed almost 3 weeks ago, and is healed up pretty well under the superficial layers. However, we can't seem to get her to leave her stitches/glue/staples alone long enough to get her skin to heal closed, and we're trying to avoid the prolonged healing with a huge scar option. She's been re-sutured 3 times now.

So, after I get her back tomorrow morning with her new staples, what can I do to keep her from pulling at them? We're planning to do a figure-8 wrap so she can't get at them, but she's a squirmy one and I have no doubt that she'll figure out how to get out of it before long at all. So, anything else that I or my vet can do? Am I just stuck re-wrapping her whenever she gets loose?

I adore my little doodle-bug, but... :gaah:

 

[jorats]

Is she on metacam? or other pain medication? Often times rats will chew at it because it's bothering them or hurting them.
I'm very surprised that it has not healed yet... usually, less than a week.

 

[minnow]

She's on metacam. I know they usually heal fast, but she's been worrying at her skin from the start. First, she wouldn't let the glue stay stuck for more than 24 hours at a time, then she went after the buried sutures, we re-stitched her, she popped the stitches in a couple days, then we tried staples... she was fine over the weekend, but now has proven willing and able to tear herself a new hole to get them out. All we can think of to do now is wrap her.

 

[Dewi]

I don't have any real suggestions about how to prevent her from chewing. What about that bitter apple spray that can be use on cats & dogs to stop stitch chewing? I've not used it, but have read about it.

If your vet has to stitch her up again (I hope not though) could you ask him/her about using intra-dermal sutures? With these type of sutures, no stitches are present externally, so there isn't anything tempting to chew. That's what my vets use and we've never had a rat chew stitches since.

 

[lilratsy43]

What about making her an e-collar? She will make her miserable while its on, but if you could just get it to heal up a bit may she would then leave it alone...

 

[minnow]

We considered the e-collar option, but went for the wrap instead because it's more likely to stay on. Considering that she's getting the wrap off in under 3 hours, I'm not sure what to do beyond watching her, keeping her on metacam, and keeping my fingers crossed. :wallbang:

 

[trillium]

We had a stitch chewer and had to use the e-collar. It worked on her because it fit quite closely. She just couldn't get enough leverage to get it off, but she did absolutely HATE it -- we had to be careful that she was able to get at food/water with it on and that it wasn't rubbing/cutting her neck at all.