Urgent post surgery chewing scabs

Emy · Aug 25, 2019

Nini had surgery to remove a large tumor on the 19th. She has stitches from her arm to her mid stomach side. Her stomach and side are fine and healing nicely. But she has been chewing the scabs off her arm the last few days. I have tried to wrap it, impossible for me to wrap her tiny arm and she immediately attacks what I put on her anyway so that wouldn't help because if I did manage it she'd have it off in 3 mins. They gave me a tiny makeshit cone (they didn't have any rodent cones) they had like a gauze rant through to tie it (like that was going to work), that I modified to fit her better and taped together, it did good for a while but she some how got it off when I put her back in the cage and now she's chewing her arm again. It's bleeding but not a massive open wound or anything. If she would just leave it alone for like 3 days I'm sure it would be golden. I just need some advice on either how to keep the cone on her better (it is as tight as it can be around her neck safely and I padded the inside with medical sponge around the top to help keep her from being able to easily pull her head back out), or something else I can do. I don't want it to get infected. I can't afford to bring her back to the vet as I saved the $300 for her surgery and I haven't gotten ANY work this month so I'm living on $70 for the next 3 weeks.

TheFatRatGirl · Aug 25, 2019

Hiya, if you've got some time off work, does that mean you'll be home quite often? Maybe the best thing to do is carry her around with you as much as possible (on your shoulder/ in a sleeve or pocket etc...). That way you can intercept the majority of her attempts to chew herself thereby giving her more chance to heal.

I couldn't imagine a cone ever staying on a rat that didn't want it there, they can squirm out of anything! Clean her cage more often than normal too, so that when she does open the wound, nothing nasty gets into it and wash the opened scabs with warm water (or hibiscrub if you can get your hands on some!)

What are her favourite things to do during free-range time? Try to keep her busy and distracted. Maybe get her to forage for her food rather than feeding her straight from a bowl; anything that will keep her occupied.

She will still chew her scabs, don't get me wrong, but hopefully a lot less often. It may take longer to heal than her stomach and side but as long as you keep it clean in the meanwhile it shouldn't get infected.

Good luck and best wishes to Nini!

Lisa · Aug 26, 2019

maybe call around to other vets in your area and see if anyone has a cone for sale. Cones are really the only way we've ever been able to keep our rats from chewing on stitches and surgery sites! We also took the recovering rat out of the main cage and would keep them in a separate, smaller cage for 5 days after surgery...and after 24 hours of wearing the cone we take it off during the day (when people are up and about and can monitor for any chewing/biting on the wound) and then put it back on for nighttime. Usually after 5 days, the wound is completely sealed over, less itchy and pain free..so there's less messing with the site. GOOD LUCK!!!!

Dena · Aug 26, 2019

Sometimes if there's pain, or itching, they will bite and scratch at the area. Is she still on pain meds? If not, maybe talk to the vet about getting a few days worth? I know when they have surgery, I've seen SQ say they get a shot of pain meds before waking up, or leaving the vet office, and go home with a couple of days worth of metacam oral. Did your vet give you enough to get her out of pain? It may be that her arm is bothering her and causing more pain that her side.

lilspaz68 · Aug 27, 2019

she had the surgery on August 19th and was only chewing off the scabs on aug 25th? She is probably just cleaning herself up. The incision should be mostly or all the way closed by now and she's just picking off the annoying itchy drying scabs. I wouldn't try to stop her at this point. Just like with stitches rats will attempt to remove them eventually on their own. Its only when the incision is gaping open you have to worry, but in this case it sounds like only the surface layer of skin may be open a little bit. If you are still worried post a pic so we can see what you are dealing with?

Btw between 4-5 days is when the incision often looks the worst as its been pulled and stretched as the rat is moving around more. The incision may even look like its opening up a bit, but this is actually the turning point in the healing and from now on it will heal even faster.