Baby rat injured after introduction

[zJoker]

Hey. Recently tried to introduce my 2 14-weeks old boy to a lone 8-week old baby. Used the carrier method and could tell that the baby wasn’t really getting along well with one of the older boys but they sorta tolerated one another. But they slept, ate and groomed around each other so I moved them back to the big cage (lower floor only) and they were doing really well for 2 days.

The brother that was tolerating the baby fought with him and the baby got a big gash wound on his back Not sure what to do as I’ve never dealt with rat wounds before but he’s eating/drinking, even climbing the cage that transferred him out to. Attached some images of the wound, nothing super graphic but you can see the size. Just sprayed some saline spray on the wound. Does it look like he’d need to see the vet?

Also, how do I proceed to reintroduce them again? I don’t want the baby to get hurt again but I’m afraid that if I separate him for too long he’ll reject the brothers…

 

[madinaholic]

Oh poor baby! Rats are very resilient and pain doesn't affect them to the extent that it affects us. Injuries that look really bad to us often don't bother them much. If he's moving around and eating and drinking fine, I wouldn't worry too much. Something similar happened to one of my girls when I introduced some new babies to older rats and I was horrified, but I researched online and found that cleaning the wound and applying an antiseptic cream is often enough for them and it'll heal pretty quickly – my girl was completely healed in 3 or so days and she had a very similar gash to your boy. Keep an eye on the wound for infection and make sure his behaviour doesn't change much but otherwise he should be fine!

In terms of reintros it's apparently not good to separate them unless the injury is debilitating to the rat. Boys are very different to girls, though, so I'd suggest reading up on some online resources. There's links to stuff on this forum. I followed the small space/carrier method by Isamu rats but it's a little bit controversial! It's about reducing overall stress so it's really your call. It's difficult to watch them fight but if you can sit it out for a while they do tend to calm down but keep an eye on them and make a judgment call if needed