Bite! A little scared, advice would be good

[blytherue]

So it was too soon and my boyfriend and I are so mad at ourselves. I was stuck at work till midnite last night, so he brought all the boys out for their playtime. (Got 2 new boys about 3 weeks ago. I estimate them to be about 2 months-Badger- and 2.5/3 months-Blintz- at this point.) This is the 2nd time we've had them all out together, getting the intros started. All the big boys ignore Blintz (is it cause he's hairless?), but not Badger. Ben, my 5 mo, has been like shoving his body at him sideways with his head down, like he wants him to groom him maybe? But not biting or anything, but this freaks the lil guy out and he squeaks and jumps and runs away. So finally I guess Benny gave up on whatever he was doing to Badger. But then Panache, 9 mo, starts doing the same thing. My boyfriend is watching them the whole time and breaking them up when the little boy gets too agitated, letting Badger chill on him for a while. Then his mom called, Panache got after Badger again, and when my boyfriend picks him up he has a huge (like an inch, but Badger is so little, it is big on him) cut behind his ear on his neck going down his throat. My bf felt terrible! It wasn't bleeding, which was weird. He washed it out with some water/peroxide and put everyone away. He changed Badger/Blintz's fleece even though it just got changed the night before. And yeah. Then I got home and I'm freaking out seeing this gaping wound. It literally looked like someone had just sliced his skin, but you could see the flesh/muscle when he stretched his neck out. So I called the nearby 24hr animal hospital and they said no one there then handles exotics, so if it could wait I should call in the morning to make an appt with the exotics vet. He was acting completely normal, like he didn't even know he was injured and it wasn't bleeding so I decided to wait so he could see someone who knew what they were doing. So this morning, called and the exotic vet isn't in till Tuesday, they gave me the numbers for 2 other animal hospitals that see exotics and it was the same with them! :gaah: So then I really look at my little boy. (I had checked on him first thing, but I was making sure it wasn't worse...) The wound has completely closed up! There's like barely even a scab, it's like his skin just knitted back together. And this was just over the course of 6 hours. And then I had to go to work, where I am now. I am still a little worried in case it gets infected, should I keep vet hunting for something sooner than Tuesday, just take him in on Tuesday, or not bother with the vet unless things change? He is still acting normal! No owie stretches or anything! I am mystified. Sorry for the long post...

 

[blytherue]

Oh and needless to say we will now be holding off on intros for a few more weeks. I don't even know if panache meant to really bite him like that, the little boy is so zoomy I feel like if panache just put his teeth on him he might have jumped/ran and made it much worse. My boys aren't very bitey. But maybe I am being naive.

 

[MissGuardian]

I've never actually heard of this..
My oldest accepted my youngest the second time they met, thankfully..
I hope it works out well!

 

[Ewa]

That is strange. You know what though , Benny's brothers , Brian and Bron , they have a naked boy in there cage , and they completely ignore him too. So I am guessing you were right when you said that it is because they are hairless.

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

Strange...any chance you took pics of it?

 

[blytherue]

I didn't take pics, I wish I had! It was soooo scary last night, I was crying, and it looks completely healed today! It is the strangest thing! I just hope there's no infection lurking inside...

 

[DadRat]

We had several bites during our intro process. They would usually be noticed after the "Rolling Ball of Flailing and Squeaking +2" was separated and examined. Our bites were just puncture wounds to the shoulders or haunches. Almost all of them abscessed annoyingly, but nothing saline rinses didn't cure.

These little buggars heal like whoa when they have a open wound, it is quite amazing.

 

[mamarat]

I agree, they can heal very fast. I wouldn't bring him to a vet but watch him in case of abscess.

 

[jorats]

It sounds like a typical intro telling you to slow down. I never bring my rats in for gashes, they all heal so fast, there's no need besides, it's best not to close up the wound and let it heal naturally.
Are you doing intros on neutral ground?

 

[blytherue]

Unfortunately, there's not really any neutral ground left in the apt, I would do bathtub which worked awesome for me before, but we just have a little square shower with sliding doors. Since the weather is so nice, I guess I could try our patio table? I'm definitely going to wait until badger is a little bigger before we have co-playtimes again. I'm so relieved that he is ok and that he should be fine. I guess it healed up all the quicker since it was such a clean cut, no ragged edges or anything. We will definitely be keeping an eye on it for swelling or abcesses. Has anyone seen the sideways body shoving before? It was weird, like sidekicking without the kicks lol.

 

[jorats]

The sideway body shoves are so common, I see those at every single intro. Rats have scent glands on the side and that's got a lot to do with that dominant move. Very normal and not an indication that intros will go bad.

 

Gashes were common with my boys for a while, not because of intro's tho, because of hormonal aggression. My first gash I brought him in, and the vet reassured me that I didn't need to bring him in because rat wounds heal very fast ..just keep an eye otu for an abcess. The second time, I just cleaned it up and left it, but the third time, it was really bad, when Oscar would turn, his whole shoulder muscle would pop out through the gash ..that time I did bring him in ..there was no blood, but it was really deep ..so we got it stitched up ..12 stiches it took.

 

[MomRat]

This may be redundant with all the intro threads on the forum, but have you done all the pre-neutral territory intro stuff? Moving their cages where they can see and smell but not reach each other, switching bedding(or cages, if that's easier) every couple of days for a week or two, before neutral territory starts? Get them used to each other's smell, for sure. And yeah, I've seen my boys side-shove each other off a CN shelf, and that's AFTER we successfully introed them and they were living together.
...
Bathtub intros can be magic, I think someone on the forums even resorted to one with water in the tub. =) If you continue having problems, you might look into it. It took us close to 4 months to intro our boys post QT and neuters.

 

[blytherue]

Yeah I had been doing pre-intro stuff for about a week before they met. Too short, that's why I feel so guilty. Cause I knew better. The first time everything was fine though, so I thought we were ok to continue. Benny was doing that sideways body shoving thing, but there was no biting or even hard grooming. Badger was really nervous around the other rats, but I thought he would get over it by spending more time around them and seeing they were nothing to be afraid of. /fail I hope he will feel more comfortable around them when he is bigger and healed up. I will be taking it slow too, I think I will try in smaller groups. Grady (gentle) & Benny (a little aggressive) with them, and then ili (gentle) & pan (a little aggressive) with them.
If I put a fleece blanket that has been used by my old guys, but washed over a neutral table will the table still be neutral?

 

[Moon]

The bite really could have been a fluke, chances are good that, like you said, Pan "zoomed" in the wrong direction and got hit worse than he would have otherwise.

If the blanket isn't regularly used with your older guys, you should be able to do it. But try not to break up the intros if you can, the whole group needs to work out their places together.

 

[jorats]

I agree with Moon.

 

[blytherue]

Ok, lol you guys know better than I, this is only my third intro and the other 2 were luckily very easy! It was just really scary for me! I felt like such a bad momma. Well, hopefully things will go a bit smoother in a few weeks.

 

[Moon]

Oh don't feel badly!! We don't all get perfect intros all the time... it's actually pretty rare. Keep your chin up and plug on!