Critter City
By Sandra Conti- Todd of Allexperts.com
Surgical complications
It was bad enough your rat had to have surgery and you spent the night before the surgery terrified of the anesthesia and the thought of your little rat dying on the operating table or right after surgery during recovery.
Well now that all is well, you were just about ready to breathe a huge sigh of relief when you notice your little angel has just pulled her stitches out, and there she sits, in a puddle of fresh red blood.
Your knees go weak, the room starts to spin and its 3 o'clock in the morning with the nearest ER vet 45 minutes away and their exotic vet is only in on Monday, Tuesday and Friday.
Its Thursday morning.
Now you have to throw up at this point. WHAT DO YOU DO? Why, you go to the internet of course, and do a search on surgical complications and here you are, at Critter City.
**WARNING: SOME PHOTOS BELOW ARE A BIT GRAPHIC**
Skye had already picked off the surgical glue in this photo.
Skye continued to pick at it determined to remove the stitches.
Almost completely opened now with just a stitch or two left holding the skin flaps together.
After seeing the vet first thing in the morning, Skyes incision was given staples to keep it together and discourage chewing.
So what made her do this? Why do rats chew their incision? For one thing, Skye was bored and lonely, kept from her cagemate for several days. Also, some rats are not happy about the feeling they get from stitches, from the pulling to the possilbe itching or even burning, even pain, rats will go to the source of discomfort and try to do what they can to make themselves feel better. Its all a part of their survival instinct. How can this be prevented? The vets technique is critical when it comes to stitching up a wound like this. The stitches should not be pulled too tight. This creates pain and burning. Also, some rats do better with staples since there is less chance of an allergic reaction the types of stitches,which can cause burning. Pain medication like torbugesic, which is a narcotic, should be used the first few days post op and antibiotics should always be given no matter what type of surgery it was. Always insist on both medications in order to avoid problems post op like what happened to Skye. Also, do not keep them from their cagemate for more than 24 hours. In all my years of owning rats and working with rats, I have only heard of perhaps one occasion where the cagemate kept trying to mess with the rats incision. Most of the time they are just happy to see each other. The other rat may smell the surgical site but usually thats the extent of it.
Seroma
Another complication is a minor one, but none the less, it may require attention from your Vet. This would be a Seroma.
So...what is a Seroma ?
A seroma is a pocket of clear serous fluid that may develops in the body after surgery. Seromas develop when small blood vessels rupture and blood plasma seeps out into the body.
Why do they develop after a lump is removed?
The reason why this excess fluid develops is because the body sometimes tries to replace tissue that has been removed. When a lump/mass is removed, excess fluid builds up trying to take the place of the missing tissue.
How soon can this happen?
Seromas often erupt anywhere from a week to 10 days post op. You will notice a bubble type mass in the area of the surgery and it sometimes makes the rat owner think a brand new tumor has grown already, which is pretty upsetting to the rat owner and in turn gets them to call the vet!
How can the seroma be treated?
The best thing to do is nothing. The body usually takes care of it by reabsorbing the fluid on its own. However, if it contineus to grow to a large size or seems to cause pain, turns red, feels warm to the touch and the rat wont let you touch it, meaning it may be tender, this could be infection starting. The vet should drain it at this time and treat it accordingly.
It can happen to the best of vets since Vets cannot control the environment the rat is in when she leaves the animal hospital. The best way to prevent infection after surgery is to keep the rat away from soiled litter/shavings until the skin starts to fuse together, usually in about 3 days. The rats fast metabolic rate also makes the rat a pretty fast healer.
Keep the rat on clean white paper towels, change out as soon as they become soiled. I dont care if you have to go through two rolls of paper towels a day to be sure that the rat doesnt lay in incision on feces and urine stained bedding, you do not want to see the incision become infected. This could lead to poor healing and the infection could get so out of control it could enter the blood stream and could cause sepsis, which can be fatal to a small rat. The vet should also prescribe antibiotics such as amoxil, to take for at least a week to 10 days after the surgery.
Signs of infection include:
1. Red, angry looking surgical site.
2. Discharge and foul odor
3, Swelling
4. Delayed healing
The rat may feel lethargic and not want to eat, which means it is starting to get into the body rather than just infecting the incision locally.
Infected incision. Note the white pus and swollen and crusted skin.
This is not healing properly and has split open.
Infection around staples.
Note the swollen red area around each staple.
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Surgery and the aging Rat
Many people ask if its a good idea to operate on an older rat. Age is a number in most cases, but with rats, even a 2 year old rat may be a risk for surgery, depending on many things. First, as you would with a younger, healthy rat, you must consider if their immune system is as strong as it was when he or she was younger. Is the heart still healthy? What about the other vital organs? Liver is a very critical thing during anesthesia. If its not happy, it wont do its job and this could end your rats life. One of the biggest obstacles that rats seem to face as they age after surgery is not only problems fighting off infection but healing properly. If you have a rat that likes to pick at her stitches, your rat may have a harder than normal time healing properly. Not that he or she wont heal, but it will take longer than normal...which brings me to our next case study. Guess whos back? This time a little older and a little more fiesty, its Miss Skye, Again!! Unfortunately she was a victim of yet another mammary tumor that I have learned to despise so much to the point I wont own female rats any more. She is also our resident "picker!!" This time, the Vet opted to close her using staples rather than nylone sutures as she will only continue to pick and pull and cause possible infection. The staples are harder to get out mainly because they hurt to pull on making even the most stubborn rat think twice about doing it.
This time it took longer to heal due to Skyes age.
As you can see, it healed just fine in the long run without infection, but she was also on antibiotics throughout the healing process.
Here she is again, Miss Skye, looking all innocent! Do not allow yourself to be fooled. She had her owner, Miss Bree of Illinois, biting her nails for days until she was certain she was out of the woods and clear from the chance of infection. Little Miss Skye is over 2 and a half years old and going strong!
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You can see the determination in her eyes. Staples in my belly? Not a chance! What are big yellow rattie teeth for, anyhow?
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What a mess. Good job, Skye!
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Note part of the incision is healing over and the angry red fleshy part toward the bottom of the incision is where the vet had to add new staples.
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Healing is progressing slowly but surely.
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Healed beautifully!!
