Einstein's mystery flesh wound?

[mamarat]

Females shouldn't fight too much right? Just 2 sisters? Its usually the males that make a pecking order or is that more of a rat myth?

In my opinion it's a myth. I've had girls worse than boys.

 

[RKbusy]

This happened twice during intros. And like you, I FREAKED OUT. Spent over $400 taking them to my vet and getting them stitched closed. >.<

If only I knew...

That looks SOOO painful though. And HUGE. Rats are really really crazy amazing.

 

[Joanne]

OK, where's today's pic?

 

[fenshae]

Whew, sorry I missed getting a pic up yesterday! Here's today's, though.

[spoil:1bf6wra1]

(you can also see his big bald rump. silly barber)[/spoil:1bf6wra1]

And a few of him being cute:

Eating his foot.

Giving me sweet doe-eyes

Being a monkey. The carrier he's climbing on is on top of a franken-cage on top of the big cage...he was probably 7 feet up in the air at this point. Silly monkey.

 

[lilspaz68]

Its dry and crusty isn't it?

 

[EDK]

Thats what it looked like to me too, but is it just me or does it look redder? And sorry you might of mentioned this already, but how come he doesnt have fur on his rump? Is it due to stress, or has it always been that way, sorry just curious he looks like a real player (litterally he likes to play lol)

 

[lilspaz68]

he looks like an older boy to me, which means his wounds might heal a bit slower.

 

[Joanne]

When I saw his pic today, this popped into my mind:
"Come on, I'll fight you - it's just a flesh wound!"

 

[jorats]

Mmm, that should have closed up by now unless he's always on the move. It's right at that spot where everything moves if you climb, groom, walk.

 

[fenshae]

It doesn't show as well in the picture, but it's hard and crusty to the touch, with little "ripples" over the surface just like any other big scab. You can feel the "edges" of the wound, but it feels more flush than when he first got it, not as much like a big chunk missing. I'll get tonight's pictures up sometime soonish

It is literally impossible to keep Einstein from moving. I put him into a single-level cage with a great big tube hammock to encourage him to rest a little bit, but he still insists in hanging from the cage ceiling. He doesn't have a roommate right now, I've tried him one-on-one with all of the other 4 boys and it's always ended in opening the shoulder up further. I'll have to re-intro him properly when it heals up a bit more.

Thats what it looked like to me too, but is it just me or does it look redder? And sorry you might of mentioned this already, but how come he doesnt have fur on his rump? Is it due to stress, or has it always been that way, sorry just curious he looks like a real player (litterally he likes to play lol)

He's been barbering out of boredom since August. He's a major escape artist, and whenever I stopped him from being able to get out and go on midnight strolls through the house he started pulling out his hair. He barbers his cagemates, too, but not nearly as bad. He's got all kinds of toys to keep him busy and gets twice as much "out" time as the others, but alas, if he doesn't have complete and total freedom he gets grumpy

Shelagh - He is 28~ months old

 

[EDK]

Wow so even rats can pull their hair out in stress, i cant help but think (I WANT ATTENTION I WANT IT NOW) lol, but i hope his shoulder is doing ok. He sounds like a right handful hehe

 

[Joanne]

I would think that it will take a long time for the wound to heal. The edges of the wound were not approximated, so it can't heal by primary intention. That means it has to heal by secondary intention, and the whole area will have to grow skin, and not just repair a little slice. I guess the main thing is that he's not in any pain, and he sure doesn't sound like it!

 

[fenshae]

Here we go...Day 5 pictures!
[spoil:384vojpk]

[/spoil:384vojpk]

The whole thing is scabbed over and shiny to the touch. I haven't done anything to it except for keeping him in clean newspaper, since the consensus seems to be that it will heal better dry than wet.

 

[EDK]

It looks a little smaller now, or not as red? Doesn't seem so bad previously but hard to say, maybe cause you kept it so very well cleaned i hope it gets better

 

[fenshae]

His scab is peeling now. The skin underneath looks nice, shiny, good-colored (very pink!) but the scab is taking forever to peel off. He isn't too keen on letting me mess with it. I dunno if I should be trying to help it come off or not? I know I was always working with the scab on Beryl's tail wound, but that was infected so that's why it had to keep coming off.

 

[lilspaz68]

Just let it heal in its own time

 

[fenshae]

I figured as much. It's just sticking out/dragging so it keeps getting caught in things, like his hammock.

 

[Joanne]

I figured as much. It's just sticking out/dragging so it keeps getting caught in things, like his hammock.

You could probably take some nail clippers and just gently clip off the part sticking up.

 

[fenshae]

Well, the scab came off. I was scritching him behind the ears where he likes it and I guess it jiggled the skin enough that it flaked the rest of the way off. It was furry and gross. But the skin underneath looks very nice! It's very red and wet, like "under scab skin" always is, but the wound is about half the size it originally was -- healing from the edges toward the center.

 

[Joanne]

Glad to hear he's healing well. Is he back in with the other boys yet? or still on his own?