My pet rat tudy is the most amazing pet in the worl. im so worried about her.. yesterday afternoon she decided to take a nose dive off my sholder to the floor. i cought her mid air by her tail so my 3 cats wouldnt get her. in doing so about an inch and a half of her tail skin came off. i have searched all over the internet for info, but the best i could find for in home treatments was clean bedding, wash in salt water, neosporin, and 10 to 30 mg of asprian for pain. i have no money to take her to the vet... im keeping a casreful watch over her for any signs of infection.. but none so far... im so worried about her. i dont know what i would do if i lost her. can someone help me please????!?
2007-01-20 15:02:57 · 6 answers · asked by MIsea 1 in Pets ➔ Other - Pets
I'm sorry to contradict the other answers before mine, but all is not well. Having the skin pulled off her tail, the muscle and nerves are now exposed. This is a very painful condition, which is now open to infection.
Neosporin might help, but she must not lick and consume it. She really should be put on antibiotics to prevent infection. Keep the bedding very clean. Be careful with asprin as asprin can destroy platelets and prolong bleeding. Dosage is 45 mg (lowest dose for pain relieve) per pound of rat's weight. One dose will give pain relief for up to 48 hours.
This information is from Debbie Ducommun's Rat Health Care Book. The bible of rat-keepers.
http://www.ratfanclub.org/books.html
Her tail might heal properly, and if it does there should be clean brown scabs and a bulbous tip. But in a lot of cases the exposed section of the tail is amputated from the start to prevent the complications that can be life threatening. Can't put a bandage on a rat's tail. They will chew it off and do more damage to the tail.
Keep an eye out for infection. Sometimes the infection is deep in the muscle and you might not even see it until the rat shows signs of sepsis (blood poisoning). Keep an eye out for blackening flesh which means the tissue is dieing. This requires amputation of the rat's tail to save it's life.
More on tail degloving:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?search=tail+degloving+in+rats&ei=UTF-8&fr=ks-ans&ico-yahoo-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAnYM54NvMNPtXBeKUqFf2zcazKIX%2FSIG%3D111gjvvgj%2F*-http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&ico-wikipedia-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAs6qPmKbEGuHV570VYkOMTkazKIX%2FSIG%3D11ia1qo58%2F**http%253a%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSpecial%253aSearch&p=tail+degloving+in+rats
Best of luck, and hoping her tail heals well.
Edit:
Please e-mail me. I'm very concerned about your girl as you must be. We can talk more about what to do for her.
spazrats
http://spazrats.tripod.com
Rat Slave at age 38
Specializing in the care of pet rats since 1997
2007-01-20 19:53:17 · answer #1 · answered by spazrats 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Now, keep in mind you should only have enough pets that you can pay for. Now that I've said the grown up thing, here we go!
Try to give her time to heal on her own, she'll probably be a little drained. Her tail MAY need stiches, but not likely. Most likely it will scab up and be (short) but fine. :)
Aren't rats the best!!
2007-01-20 15:08:59 · answer #2 · answered by EYoungmom88 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
she will be fine. the tail is what gets wounded most in the wild even removed. honestly you could do nothing and she wouldn't suffer infection. but to speed up healing i would apply neosporin twice a day. nothing else should be done besides a clean home. pain meds is unnecessary.
2007-01-20 15:11:57 · answer #3 · answered by jen_284 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
she should be ok, just watch her and look for any changes, make sure ther is not infection and search on the internet if human medicine is good for her, i just did something like that to my cat and everyone yelled at me for giving her some human medicine so watch out for that. Good luck
2007-01-20 15:09:41 · answer #4 · answered by Alex P 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Bacitracin (Neosporin and the like) and a clean gauze bandage. She'll be fine. :)
K
2007-01-20 15:11:36 · answer #5 · answered by Ouroboros0427 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
i'v had so many rats and your rat will be fine. i'v had rats survive heat stroke...the only thing you have to worry abotu is tumors.
2007-01-20 15:06:50 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋