How to hold your rat for sheath cleanings?

[MMak]

I have a stupid question.. how in the world do you guys hold your old man-rats AND clean at the same time?
I feel like I need 3 hands... one to hold him down, and two to clean. Any tips?
He's really needing to have regular (and proper) cleanings.. I think it's holding him back from peeing because when I do see him urinate,
he's leaving massive puddles (and I'll see the plug go along with it).. I noticed him bruxing while leaving one of the puddles last night too, so
I'm thinking it may be painful.

 

[MomRat]

I don't have an amenable old rat to take pics with right now, and never took one when I was cleaning Dominic regularly, but I'll try to describe it.

I sit on the couch with my legs together and put the rat on their back with their head toward me. Thumbs hold them down in the armpit/chest area, ring fingers deal with flailing hind legs, and first fingers do the work on the sheath. Once the plug is bared, I switch to holding the rat down with my non-dominant hand, and use my dominant hand to carefully pinch the plug and pull it loose. If its really stuck, I'll use a warm wet cloth to rub it gently off.

When Dominic's HED got really bad in his last two weeks, I would hold him on his back in my cupped hands and he would be so excited for the opportunity to clean himself, he would pop his whole penis out and clean the plug off on his own. Gross, but cute.

 

[jorats]

Gross but cute indeed. lol
That sounds about right, I hold my guys on my chest and I'm standing.

 

[MMak]

Has anyone ever seen a black lining around the penis?

I tried holding him your way, MR, but I still don't feel like I got very far.. and I'm having a lot of difficulty getting it out far enough.
If I can't find a way to properly do it... I'm almost contemplating putting him down. :sad3:
I know it can't be comfortable, and can just lead to further issues (like urine scald & UTI's)

 

[jorats]

Oh my...that's no reason to put a rat down. The black lining is normal. Rats can still urinate with plugs. At the very least, get it done by the vet.

 

[MMak]

No.. I would only put him down as a last resort, of course...
just feels like nothing is going right at the moment, so I'm feeling a little pessimistic, I guess.

I've thought about making an appt with the vet so he can show me how he does it. (if he even does that with rats, I'm not sure...)
but I just thought I'd ask on here first because I know many of you are very experienced in this!

 

[jorats]

You can experiment which method that works for you. It's not something that needs to be dealt with right away. You can even get him accustomed to you handling him first using treats.
I had a rat where there was no way I could remove the plug, he was far too fat and his penis no longer retracted... it never seem to bother him much, even though I knew he had one there, I could smell it.
Another thing you could try is propping him up on you, on his back and entice him to do it himself.

 

[jorats]

I'll try and make a video of it this weekend. Just...nobody call me a porn queen or anything like that. lol

 

[Kimber]

Bow chicka bow wow

 

[hopefloats]

Bow chicka bow wow

:laugh4:

I'll try and make a video of it this weekend. Just...nobody call me a porn queen or anything like that. lol

Don't forget the spoiler Jo! or at least a warning that this video contains images that might not be suitable for young minds or perverts.

Honestly I want to see it too. When Templeton was so out of it for 5 days i wasn't sure if it was a concern to check or not, i tried but it didn't work out as planned.

 

[SQ]

Issacc had one for awhile after his neuter, I guess that area was a bit painful for him to groom.
I held him facing outward against myself and had both hands encircling him, fingers of one hand to pop his penis out, the other to clean off the penis plug.
I felt like a pervert ....

Fortunately all my guys are neutered so that was the only time penis plugs were an issue.

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

I have yet to get the hang of holding my old, HED boy so I resort to the 2 person method.

 

[Cigar]

Issacc had one for awhile after his neuter, I guess that area was a bit painful for him to groom.
I held him facing outward against myself and had both hands encircling him, fingers of one hand to pop his pensis out, the other to clean off the pensis plug.
I felt like a pervert ....

Same technique here. Osiris got them when HED kicked in. He was the largest and had a chronic URI so I think it was just too much to concern himself with sometimes. He hated it just as much as I did.

 

[jorats]

Alright... the video is not pretty, a bit grainy and I laughed a lot cause my son was saying stupid commentary. So I'm using 3 rats. I did it on Gera but the video wasn't clear, I tried on Pony, he was a little difficult but you can see my finger placement, finally I did Doc, his was quite easy.
You place your thumb and index finger next to the penis and then press downward. btw... disregard the commentary.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v53/j ... atPlug.mp4

 

[hopefloats]

nice!

So it really doesn't have to come out very far to actually clean the plug? or check for it?

For some reason this topic makes me giggle

 

[jorats]

No it doesn't have to come up far, not like how the rats get it going far. If these rats would of had a plug, you would have seen the waxy build up right away and you'd simply pinch the wax off.

 

[hopefloats]

awesome...

Now when the boys are neutered is it true they are less likely to get penis plugs?

 

[Kimber]

Glad to see Bow chick bow wow made it into the video lol

 

[MMak]

Thanks for the video!

 

[jorats]

awesome...

Now when the boys are neutered is it true they are less likely to get penis plugs?

That's been my experience... Since having all my males neutered, I haven't dealt with a penis plug in so long.