Pingu
Member
TLDR; Young rat injured, placed in separate single level cage for healing. Should her cagemate go with her so they don't became estranged?
So I recently adopted 2 young female rats(Tuna and Badger). I was planning to have them introduced and eventually live with my older females (Mouse and Cricket; approximately 3 years of age) but introductions went horribly. My oldest female attacked the young ones so we've decided to just cage them separately. We have a Critter nation double decker that we just split into 2 separated caged.
Recently I went up after work and Tuna was missing a portion of her finger and there was a bite on her tail. She had not been fighting with her cagemate as there were no wounds on the other and no tufts of fur anywhere. I'm assuming she was curious and trying to get into the cage below and Mouse bit and tried to pull her. I cleaned her wound and treated it with antimicrobial hydrogel.
We then reinforced the gap with more cardboard, a license plate and tied up a t-shirt around that, a temporary solution until the new full sized tray arrives. She somehow managed to create a gap and today when I was going to check her wounds she was bleeding again. I cleaned up but the bleeding lasted a long time. Unfortunately we just moved and don't have any flour or cornstarch and my antimicrobial hydrogel was in the bathroom which my roommate was pooping in.
She ended up continually bleeding for several minutes but I wrapped her in a paper towel and kept her cradled so that she didn't move on it. It was about 10-15 minutes before I could get anything on her wound to stop the bleeding. I applied the hydrogel after cleaning the wound again and gave her a tiny bit of infant NSAID ibuprofen. Since I felt that she may have lost a lot of blood, I gave her Ensure to make sure she got her nutrients back.
I kept her with me while working for about 6 hours to make she she was alright. She's been behavimg normally, has a normal appetite and her body language is normal. All bleeding has stopped and there is no swelling.
I've decided to place her in a small hamster cage (she's currently about that size) just to make sure she doesn't move too much and doesn't open any wounds and restart bleeding.
Should I place her in there alone or would it be better for me to place her with her cagemate in the smaller cage so she has comfort?
They are small enough to live comfortably for a few days at least until she heals. Im just not sure if I should put both or just one.
So I recently adopted 2 young female rats(Tuna and Badger). I was planning to have them introduced and eventually live with my older females (Mouse and Cricket; approximately 3 years of age) but introductions went horribly. My oldest female attacked the young ones so we've decided to just cage them separately. We have a Critter nation double decker that we just split into 2 separated caged.
Recently I went up after work and Tuna was missing a portion of her finger and there was a bite on her tail. She had not been fighting with her cagemate as there were no wounds on the other and no tufts of fur anywhere. I'm assuming she was curious and trying to get into the cage below and Mouse bit and tried to pull her. I cleaned her wound and treated it with antimicrobial hydrogel.
We then reinforced the gap with more cardboard, a license plate and tied up a t-shirt around that, a temporary solution until the new full sized tray arrives. She somehow managed to create a gap and today when I was going to check her wounds she was bleeding again. I cleaned up but the bleeding lasted a long time. Unfortunately we just moved and don't have any flour or cornstarch and my antimicrobial hydrogel was in the bathroom which my roommate was pooping in.
She ended up continually bleeding for several minutes but I wrapped her in a paper towel and kept her cradled so that she didn't move on it. It was about 10-15 minutes before I could get anything on her wound to stop the bleeding. I applied the hydrogel after cleaning the wound again and gave her a tiny bit of infant NSAID ibuprofen. Since I felt that she may have lost a lot of blood, I gave her Ensure to make sure she got her nutrients back.
I kept her with me while working for about 6 hours to make she she was alright. She's been behavimg normally, has a normal appetite and her body language is normal. All bleeding has stopped and there is no swelling.
I've decided to place her in a small hamster cage (she's currently about that size) just to make sure she doesn't move too much and doesn't open any wounds and restart bleeding.
Should I place her in there alone or would it be better for me to place her with her cagemate in the smaller cage so she has comfort?
They are small enough to live comfortably for a few days at least until she heals. Im just not sure if I should put both or just one.
Last edited:
hope your baby gets better soon!
