Leg Wound & Broken Leg?

[mason]

hi yall I'm brand new here and I wanted some advice on how to deal with this.
our good boy clay was attacked by his brother chad who tore open the inside of his leg (the bleeding has stopped and he can still use that leg) and his other leg he has tucked into his body, is swollen and squeaks when i try to move it around. this all happened today!
i gave him a teeny bit of tylenol with water and cleaned the leg wound. should i attempt to splint his swollen foot? i was also planning on using surgical tape to close the leg wound. i appreciate all the help you guys can offer me.

 

[SQ]

If you think his leg is broken then he needs to be seen asap by a good vet with the knowledge and experience to treat rats. If his leg is broken it will need to heal properly or be amputated

EDIT: but hopefully it is just a sprain that will heal

It looks like a cut on his leg - that can happen accidently
Here is some info on wound care http://ratguide.com/health/trauma/wounds.php

Metacam from the vet will reduce swelling (swelling is dangerous) and will help with pain.
Make sure you tell the vet what you have given how much and how long ago

Please post his weight as lilspaz68 can give you info on dosage for meds

 

[lilspaz68]

Ok Tylenol is not a great one as it's only good for pain (not the swelling that causes more pain) and you have to give huge doses of it so your dose probably didn't do much. If you can get me a weight on your lad and if you can pickup infant liquid Ibuprofen (Advil pediatric drops, dye free, grape flavour is one rats like) I can give you a dose that you can give every 4-6 hours. As for the wound I would let it heal on its own (called healing by 2nd intention). Keep his cage clean and rinse it off initially with saline to remove debris.

 

[jorats]

I agree with everything lilspaz wrote. And as a reassurance, i've had plenty of rats get big gashes like that and healed very well. But I would look into getting the bully neutered.

 

[mason]

thanks for your responses everyone. i iced his foot and watched him over night (you guys gave really good advice, but it was saturday night and everything was closed and everything here closes on sunday so ) BUT, his foot is not broken and is healing very well. the swelling went down almost completely by the night time. the gash on his leg is a lot smaller, doesnt look angry or inflamed and he's using both his feet although he's been resting a lot. he doesn't seem to be in any pain so i think he's good to go. after i get back from winter break, i'm going to look into getting the bully neutered as jorats said. thanks again everyone!