Tumor on the neck EDIT : He removed the stitches!

[ATez]

AAAAHH!! I was so scared when i woke up this morning! Pickle opened up his wound, i could even smell that smell coming from flesh! Oh my poor baby!

Now he's back at the clinic, they told me he went through 2 layers of glue so now they're gonna try and put a bandage around his neck. They had to put him to sleep again tho... so he's gonna be back on metacam and on some antibiotics as well.

Poor little guy i really hope that's the last of his problems.
I really don't wanna get to the point where i just can't afford it.

 

[victoria]

I'm so sorry... Sophie opened up her neck wound too, but only right after surgery when she was given opiates for the pain. I hope he's going to be ok :hugs:

 

[mamarat]

Your poor sweetie. Hope this will fix him up.

 

[ATez]

I'm picking him up today! Just waiting for my lift! :dance:

They told me to keep an eye on him tho, he's medicaly healthy right now but they said he hasn't pooped or peed a lot since yesterday and he tends to stay hidden. They think he might be just nervous tho and that he'll do better once he's back home. I really hope so!!

BTW i have to say it's very nice to have a place like here to talk about ratty problems. :cuddle:
Besides my boyfriend and a few friends everyone would laugh or say he's just a rat he's going to die and call me crazy.

 

[ATez]

Pickle got back home yesterday, now he's on Metacam and Baytril for a whole week.
While he was still at the clinic, they tried two different types of bandages on him but he manages to rip them both off with ease so they stitched him up instead. The girl there told me they were "melting stitches" tho... i'm not 100% sure how that works but i was told they should fall of on their own and only if they don't i need to bring him back free of charge.

When he opened up his wound before i had both my boys back together (to avoid a big fight in the future) and they were doing fine but this time my boyfriend wants to keep them seperated until Pickle is healed completely. So i've been letting them out seperatly (i know it's not the best but otherwise they go at each others neck) and everytime i put Pickle back in the smaller cage he looks at me like i'm a monster! Oh i feel so horrible even tho i know it's for his own good!

He stares at me for 30-60 minutes with his little nose between the bars. Oh stop that you!! anic:

 

[mamarat]

Poor sweetie. He must have dissolving sutures. Can you give them out time together once or twice a day?

 

[ATez]

Poor sweetie. He must have dissolving sutures. Can you give them out time together once or twice a day?

I really want to but as soon as they are next to each other they start fighting.
And well we live in a bachelor. I don't let them in the bathroom (There's too much in there they could eat that would worry me) or the bedroom because of my allergies so they have the main room as their playground. I don't have a neutral ground where i could let them loose. My boyfriend has also forbidden me of letting them out together after he found Crank pinning Pickle down... i tried to explain to him they might hate each others even more later but he'd rather not find Pickle opened up again. So mornings they are out an hour each and i try to do the same at night when i get back from work.

What i did the second time i got them back together is let them out together but closed the bigger cage. I put food and water out and had them loose for hours. When they both seemed calm i put them back in the big cage with veggies so they were distracted by food and had no problem at all after that... but then two days later we found Pickle with the open wound!

Since it happened at night i have no idea who ate the glue and my boyfriend does NOT want to take that chance again. We also can't afford it.
My clinic will let me do payments since they know how much money i put on this little guy. 1000$+ That's not counting Crank's medical bills. :gaah:

They are so lucky i love them!!

 

[mamarat]

Oh sorry, I thought they were cagemates before the operation. Guess you'll have to do intros when Pickle is better. Let's hope he heals fast. ( which they usually do)

 

[jorats]

Ya, I would wait until little Pickle is all healed.

 

[ATez]

They WERE cagemate but when they spend just a little bit of time appart there's a fight. But like i said i'm really not sure who's starting the fights and i don't know who's the dominant one. I had them both at a young age. I have no idea why they're like this! :?

One thing is for sure that time i'm waiting for Pickle to be healed 100%.

 

[jorats]

Since they've already been cagemates, you'll probably need to do a small intro again. This happens a lot with males.

 

[ATez]

Alrighty!

I was so worried the first time this happened after his first surgery... I had visions of two cages or having to give one up for adoption! Argh! anic:

 

[ATez]

Pickle removed the stitches and part of the glue, it doesn't look like it's bleeding or opened up yet.
What can i do untill tomorow (we're taking him back to the vet). anything at all i can put around his neck or do?

 

[victoria]

If it's not open, just make sure it's clean and nothing gets into it. If you use fleece or towels for bedding change it every day to reduce the amount of debris that can get into it. Call the vet tomorrow and see what they say, but if the wound's not open you may not need to make a trip at all.

 

[Cigar]

Pickle removed the stitches and part of the glue, it doesn't look like it's bleeding or opened up yet.
What can i do untill tomorow (we're taking him back to the vet). anything at all i can put around his neck or do?

Besides keeping it clean like Victoria suggested, keep him as busy as possible so that when it's time for bed he's more likely to sleep than pick at himself.

 

[ATez]

okay, so we let him out now so he can run around and tired himself out and we cleaned his cage. We're calling the vet first thing in the morning.
I took some pictures of the scar and what he pulled off of himself.

The top part of the scar you see here still has stitches on so it looks fine.

Looking very red but not swollen. I can't tell if this looks good or if he dug one layer of glue off and only one is left.

View from under.

The stitches and scabs. Looks like he pulled some fur off along with it..

 

[Cigar]

IMO it doesn't look too bad, it was probably just itchy. As long as it doesn't open any further he should be okay til morning. Rats heal pretty darn fast.

 

[ATez]

k, thanks a lot guys! I'd be at lost if i haven't found this forum.

 

[victoria]

Yeah, it doesn't look horrible. I have tons of veterinary antiseptic if you need, that way you can save yourself some money.

 

[ATez]

Yeah, it doesn't look horrible. I have tons of veterinary antiseptic if you need, that way you can save yourself some money.

First we're gonna see how it looks in the morning, to see if we need to bring him at the clinic or not. If it still looks the same my boyfriend would like to go pick up the antiseptic for me since i need to go see my mom. Thanks a lot for offering this! It's so nice of you!