Issues with keeping stitches in.

[ember19]

Some of you may remembered i posted about a month ago about my rat Laiyla having a tumor, and what to do about it. Well i got it removed about two weeks ago. She origonally got three stitches put in, and about three days before she was due to have them taken out, she managed to rip them all out, which in turn we had to take her back to the vet with her 1cm hole back open. Two days later she was given back to us with 6 staples put in her. Within two days she had all but two out of herself. She is both still managing to chew them out with her cone on, and with its placement she is able to get at it with her back foot, regardless of her cone, which i have enlarged with duct tape. Her hip and leg are in the way of putting any kind of bandage on it, does anyone else have any ideas how to keep her from getting at it, so we can not have her open for like a month? Thanks.

 

[lilspaz68]

Okay so how long was she supposed to have the stitches in for the first time? My rats always pull out their own stitches days before they are supposed to. Brie pulled out her staples of her spay as soon as she woke up at the vet's office.

Unfortunately it will open a little bit but by then it should be mostly healed and wouldn't have needed to have staples put in etc. Take a pic for us?

 

[jorats]

I've had rats open up their outer stitches but we let it heal on it's own as per vet's advice and it always turned out well.

 

[ember19]

Sorry for the late reply, as iv been really busy with school stuff. The first time she took her stitches out was 3 days before she had to go get them taken out. She wasnt healed at all, cause she pulled at it n ripped it totally open, i could.. if i wanted to easly put two fingers in it. So we took her back, her staples had to be out today i think, 8 days from when they were put in, n she ripped them out two days after she got them... sept for two of them, which are still in. We have left her this time and let it scab, its a really big scab, and its just starting to fall off, i have no clue how much of it has healed as when i look at it under the part that is falling off it has yellowish green pus under some parts of the scab, we have been putting polysporin on it at night. Here is some pictures of what it looks like right now.

 

[jorats]

It probably needs a good cleaning and antibiotics if there is indeed pus in there.
Adding polysporin on an open cut can do that... cuts and wounds need to heal from the inside out and not outside in. With polysporin, it forces the skin to close trapping the infection inside. Polysporin is not good on rat gashes and cuts. Time to bring her back to the vet I'm afraid.

 

[ChrisK]

It's about one week later... how is your little one doing?

I stumbled across this post while looking for help for my little girl. Lollipop had tumor removal surgery Tuesday. She took metacam Wed/Thurs/Fri and all was well. Until last night, (Sat) when she started yanking on the staples and stitches. I read somewhere that when rats chew their stitches, it can sometimes be due to discomfort or pain, so I gave her metacam again this morning, and we'll see if that helps.

I thought to pass that info along, but also test it by posting.. and asking other more experienced rat owners if they've tried this or found this to be the case...?? Please comment.