# Emergency room rat Urgent help needed



## Flavienne (Oct 26, 2015)

Please help me save my rat if possible I love him dearly. We've had Marshmallow and Alfie since October. Marshmallow has bitten me about 7 times since then, 3 of them drew blood and the one last night was so bad i went to hospital and needed stitches. He's been on antibiotics twice since i've had him for a bad chest but even when he's better he's still much skinnier than Alfie no matter how much i try feed him on the side. He's albino and his vision and smell are not good and his tail is fused together and unbend-able (stubby on the end) which makes me wonder if the reason he is so irritable all the time is something is wrong inside him. Perhaps he is in constant pain/discomfort and he can't tell me. He is always cranky with Alfie as well and has bitten him several times just for attempting to play. He throws around any new object i introduce into their cage and generally never relaxes, he seems constantly stressed. The biting is generally unprovoked(one time i put my finger through the bars to stroke him without thinking), last night it was just ratty play time, they were running around and he just attacked my hand while i was doing nothing, savagely gashed open the back of my hand and punctured my forearm. Then he reverts to licking and being nicer. It's like he has frenzies or fits of rage. 
I'm really worried that he is suffering and my partner wants to have him put down because he doesn't want me to keep getting bitten or Marshmallow to be in pain if that's what it is. But if this is something that can be fixed please let me know, it's breaking my heart. Will Alfie miss him if we have to put him down if we get him another little friend? Also we have done immersion with them since the beginning and Marshmallow is loving towards us until he snaps and there is no warning when it will happen.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Before thinking about putting him to sleep I would suggest trying having him neutered. Whilst its higher risk as he's not the healthiest at the moment it sounds like a do or die type situation and could well really help.

I'd also have a read of this too http://www.isamurats.co.uk/rats-biting-humans.html theres some tips on different types of bites. This sounds like he's pushing you around, and more firm handling and letting him know its not an option may help too.


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## Flavienne (Oct 26, 2015)

I really appreciate you trying to help me thank you. I read that page and this part describes what has been happening: 

"behaviour such as fluffing up, hunched, tail wagging and sidling. Often the rats body will be very tense, this is particularly common in hormonal driven aggression. Less often the rat will do this when exhibiting none of the usual warning signs seemingly out of the blue though usually this can mean we have missed something. An aggressive bite is aimed at doing damage, it is normally breaks the skin and can be quite deep. It can also be repeated or the rat may attempt to hold on "

He puffs up and quickly lunges and latches on. Last night it was a double strike and very scary. I know I have to keep handling him but it's very daunting now to hold him because I've seen how fast his mood can change even out of their cage. When he's in the cage he'll stand rigidly on all fours and follow my movements as I walk around the room and it doesn't seem to be in a friendly way, though I never put my hands near the bars to find out. I am going to call the vet tomorrow and make an appointment to have him neutered, I really hope it helps. Thank you.


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## Flavienne (Oct 26, 2015)

He's booked in for Monday. I was wondering if there is any preparation before the operation at 8:00 am, e.g don't feed or water from 12am like with dogs and cats? Because the receptionist didn't give me any instructions.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Keep feeding him as normal, however if you've got any baytril or antibiotics I would start him on that the night before. You also want to get in some cohesive bandage and or a thin tubagrip (wrist sized) just in case.

Neutering is normally a straightforward op if the vet knows what they are doing. Assuming all goes to plan when he gets home move him into a smaller single level cage if you can, or remove things to let him climb on / block off part of your existing cage. As long as he's with it, has eaten and doesn't seem distressed (though may be a bit sleepy) he can go back in with his cage mate. If his cage mate seems rough then you may need to separate them for a few days whilst he recovers and starts healing. 

Offer him a bit of tasty food when he first gets home but don't put too much out, sometimes the anaesthetic can do funny things such as make them eat and drink almost uncontrollably (which is amusing but can upset there stomach if they eat too much). 

Watch for him taking an interest in his stiches. If he chews them then you'll need to body wrap him. This involves wrapping the banadage around his chest and a bit of his belly. The idea is to make him into a long rigid tube shaped rat, so he cant bend to mess with his balls. You don't need to cover them (in fact covering them would be nearly impossible without obstructing his anus). Make sure the bandage is tight enough he cant wriggle out, but loose enough you can fit a finger or two under (so he can breath). In some cases the cone of shame can be used, though most rats can get out of this if you don't tie it so tight there head swells up. After around 3 days you can take this off as it will have healed enough internally that even if he fusses it it should hold together. After around 5 days I move them back into a normal cage, 2 weeks and there fine for intro's though not really relevant in this case as hopefully he will be back with his brother after 5 days if not earlier. 

His hormones will start dropping over the following month or two, however over this time you need to be working with him. The neuter will give him a lot less drive to be aggressive, but it wont fix the entire problem on its own. It will just take away a factor which makes him unable to think straight. So for me this means lots of Assertive handling (with gloves on if this helps you confidence). Here's some waffle I wrote on it for an article recently



> Assertive handling
> 
> This is quite hard to describe, especially as someone who does it naturally (and struggles more with being the gentle persuasive type), however this is how I would go about interactions with an adult buck (ranging from one of my own, to a new buck I am judging in a show or health checking for example).
> 
> ...


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## Flavienne (Oct 26, 2015)

Thank you for all of your advice; you're a wonderful person, thanks for taking the time.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

no problem, let us know how he gets on today, thinking of you


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## Flavienne (Oct 26, 2015)

He did so well, he's such a brave little man. Kept him in the top half of their cage last night (door closes in middle to make 2 cages). Took all the climbing things out and put his litter tray and nice soft places to sleep and a tiny bit of food and 2 cubes of cucumber. He was very out of it and just moved about from place to place falling asleep all night. His brother though was in terrible distress once he realised he couldn't get up to him so i have them both running around on a clean ratty bed cover right now and i think i will have to put them both in the top bit once i've done today's cage clean. Couldn't get the wrist bandage to stay on him because he is such a squiggle so we are getting adhesive bandage today but thankfully for now he doesn't seem to be picking at anything.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

if he's not fussing it after 24 hours I would leave the bandage off, to be honest it distresses them any way, so I only use it if I have to (or with a spay where the consequences should they unpick themselves are very bad).

I'm so glad he did so well, and that his brother clearly misses him as this bodes well for them settling down back to normal now, though hopefully with him being a lot nicer to you in the near future


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## Flavienne (Oct 26, 2015)

He's being a complete love to me now, always licking and wants to sit on my lap. But his brother and him have had a falling out, not sure if it's a powerplay because Alfie can sense something is different. During ratty play time Alfie tried to razzle with Marshmallow, who nipped him to get him to stop and Alfie puffed up and attacked him. Pulled a good chunk of Marshmallow's fur out before i could grab him. He's never bitten him back or gotten aggressive before. They are in separate cages again until Marshmallow is 100% and can deal with his position as alpha being challenged. Not sure what else to do.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

I have read about some people who would get good results by neutering the subordinate rat instead of the alpha. The theory behind that is that the alpha rat would calm down if the other rat would be neutered, as he would not be a threat to his dominance anymore...I personally never dealt with such a situation- just read about it. In any case you might want to neuter your other rat too if needed.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

The trouble with bucks and hormones is that a good strong Alpha supresses the hormones of the other bucks in the group (a bit like silveback gorillas though to a lesser extent) this can mean when you neuter one the other has a hormone surge and becomes a pain. Often its short lived and just takes time for him to get used to his new role. I would work on the assertive handling mentioned before and see if that helps. Also when you do put them back together follow the carrier method. If he carries on being overly rough I would give 2 weeks before doing that.

Neutering the rat being bullied / lowever ranking rat etc can help in certain circumstances. However it only really helps if the lower ranking rat is the problem (and they really can be). It tends to work when the lower ranking rat refuses to submit, or constantly snipes / challenges the alpha (typically seen in bum biting type attacks during free range). In this case the buck was being outright aggressive and hormonal to his human, which is a really different matter. It might still be that his brother is a problem too, but I'd give it a couple of weeks of strong handling and see how it goes.


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## Flavienne (Oct 26, 2015)

I will give it a while to settle down before I put them back together and keep practising the handling. Thank you for all of your invaluable advice, you have helped me tremendously.


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