Hairless rat scratches.

[Smittenkittens]

Some of you might know I got a hairless rat the other day. (She's sooo sweet!)
She came in contact with some of my other rats (supervised) and they don't mind her at all. However, they did scratch her up pretty bad. Not trying to be mean, or aggressive, they just acted how they normally do. (They are all furred, btw.)
She has tons of long red scratches all over her. I feel so bad. I've been using Vetericyn on her. I'm also going to start using it in her eyes occasionally to make sure she doesn't have eye problems. (It's safe in eyes and such. It healed my kittens eye infection)

Am I going to need to keep her in a separate cage? I would hate to do that.
I just don't want her to be hurting because of the girls nails.

What do you recommend I do? Separate her permanently, keep her with the girls in the future, or give her away? :sad3:

 

[Scythe]

If I recall, it's normal for hairless rats to get a bit scratched up. They don't have that added protection AND since they don't have fur... Well, it's much easier for us to see the scratches. I bet our furred rats get scratched up when they play, we just can't see it.

I wouldn't worry about it unless someone actually aggressively attacks her and purposely causes a wound.

 

[Smittenkittens]

If I recall, it's normal for hairless rats to get a bit scratched up. They don't have that added protection AND since they don't have fur... Well, it's much easier for us to see the scratches. I bet our furred rats get scratched up when they play, we just can't see it.

I wouldn't worry about it unless someone actually aggressively attacks her and purposely causes a wound.

I just don't want her to be more uncomfortable with my girls then without them.. Hopefully using a rock in their cage will file down their nails.
I know how bad their nails hurt, so I can only imagine she feels the same. :/

 

[Smittenkittens]

Hopefully she just wont be in pain and uncomfortable.
Also, I've noticed that she does this weird thing with her mouth where she almost looks like she is licking the air.
Have you ever seen this before?

 

[jorats]

It's pretty normal for hairless rats to get scratched. But it shouldn't hurt them too much and I'm pretty sure it won't make them be fearful of the buddies.

 

[Smittenkittens]

Okay, good. I will just have to keep her clean and such.
Do you think it's hurting her, though? Or that it doesn't really bother her?
I hate the thought of her being in pain.

ALSO, lol. Do you think her weird little tongue thing could be a sign of dehydration or something of that sort? I also saw a little bit of blood around her eye. Not sure if she scratched it or if it's some kind of eye infection. I'm spraying the vetercyn in it, so hopefully it will clear anything it could be up.

 

[jorats]

Sounds like she's a gum flapper. lol
Some rats while bruxxing also move their tongue a lot. I call it doing the camel. Ever see how a camel chews? Same thing. lol
And no I don't think the surface scratches hurt her. it's been said many times that rats don't have very many nerves near the skin so cuts aren't as painful.

 

[Smittenkittens]

Yeah, I was wondering what she was doing. I guess it's kind of a good thing, then. lol.
She doesn't seem like she really wants to eat. Most likely because she went from an unhealthy seed mix to healthy food. lol. Hopefully she won't lose any weight. She doesn't really seem like she likes to chew. :thud:

I'm glad she doesn't really get hurt, then. It doesn't seem like it bothers her.. but, I wasn't sure.

 

[jorats]

You could check her teeth just to be sure that everything is ok.

 

[Smittenkittens]

I examined her teeth when I picked her up. Her bottom teeth are a little far apart. Her top teeth resemble the teeth in this picture. Picture
Nothing that I would think would affect her chewing.