Hello! I want to start by saying I understand if you don't want to answer this/ are unable to! I have a general exotic animal medical-ish question. For context, I'm a veterinary assistant (in school to become a tech) and work in a small animal general practice hospital that occasionally sees rats and rabbits for surgery (usually spay and neuters). We've also done a few mass removals from rats and they generally do well and recover uneventfully. However, we've had one or two patients who just won't leave their incisions alone and repeatedly chew them open. My question is, what is the best way to prevent a rat from being able to reach and chew out it's sutures without impending its movement? We're already tried making shirts and tiny e-collars with paper cups and are still stumped. Thanks!
Yeah rats are pretty notorious for messing with stitches. X ray film is great for making e collars for tiny creatures. It's flexible enough to shape it but firm enough that it wont just bend or get ruined with water. Be VERY careful with e collars though. Some rabbits won't eat, and I've seen some rats suffocate even when the e collar isn't tight. Some of them seem to get so stressed they legit get cyanotic. You can also grind the incisors down to the gums since they'll grow back. It doesn't stop them from eating and really doesn't hurt them as long as you don't irritate the gums. I've started doing this more after having a rat in an e collar drop dead, but I also used e collars on rats a ton of times with no issue. Sometimes we will crush up a tablet of metronidazole in water and put the paste around the incision because it's super bitter and nasty. Pain control is the other big thing. If they are in pain they will mess with it.
Thanks for the quick response! These are definitely some tricks that I'll keep in mind and bring up to my coworkers if we have any tricky rat patients in the future! It's not a common problem for us but when it's come up we've just been stumped and I thought it couldn't hurt to ask someone with more experience!
























