# rat pulling out her stitches; how long is OK to bind her up?



## carrotflower (Sep 12, 2012)

Hello! Made an account just to ask a question, as I've never had to deal with this before and I really, _really_ want assurance that I'm doing things alright and not causing Earl any harm.

Little Earl had to go in for surgery to get what wound up being a tumor removed (up and around her chest). She handled it all really great, and everyone at the vet is in love with her. We were given pain medication to give her every 12 hours for the next few days. Her incision was closed up with a combination of sutures + some staples to add an extra line of defense. She pulled out 2 of the _staples at the vet_ like a champion.

Taking her home I kept my eye on her CONSTANTLY, just to nudge her any time she started fussing with the staples. Night came, my partner fell asleep, and I left for 3 minutes (she was eating, I thought I was saaaafe) and turned around to find she had hastily removed 3 staples. I hadn't even seen it happen; I came back and 3 staples were just sitting on the floor of her cage. I was told that so long as she was on pain meds, she wouldn't be tempted to mess with them; NOPE! Earl is apparently just a very determined rat.

It was very late at night at this point and I was panicked, didn't want to leave her alone all night and potentially wake up to a bloody mess. I did some research and it turns out that what many owners do when their rat is adamant about picking their stitches, is *bind their bodies using gauze to restrict their movement so they -can't- touch them*. Thankfully we live right next to a 24hr CVS pharmacy so we ran out and got some gauze and medical tape to secure it.
Here are some pictures of a Earl as she is now



















She stumbles about and falls over a lot with the stuff on, but she is eating and running around and seems OK. Still running up to us and wanting to skitter off! She's been wearing it since last night (been about 12 hours?)


I'd love to hear some re-assurance from other rat owners who have had to do the same thing with their babe. *Am I doing anything wrong? Is it OK to leave the gauze on for a couple of days until she's healed enough to not be in the danger zone?* She's still being given regular pain medication and has a few more day's worth of doses to take. I believe her sutures are still in place, as she's not bleeding out nor does she seem to be in too great a discomfort.


----------



## jadeelizabeth (Jul 26, 2012)

I haven't had any experience with this but I'm sure aslong as she can breathe and go to the toilet okay I'm sure it's fine .


----------



## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Rats HATE staples and most remove them quite quickly, so let her. She will likely leave the sutures alone and if she does not, then you can wrap her.


----------



## unlikelyfather (Sep 11, 2012)

She looks pretty mad at you about the ridiculous bind. "Why did I deserve this?!" is written all over her face. Poor thing, haha.

On the subject of you leaving it on her - as long as her breathing isn't labored, she isn't incredibly stressed and biting at it, and she's able to eat and relieve herself, you should be able to have her binding on for a while. HOWEVER, I must say that most people recommend airing out wrapped up injuries, on humans, now and then so that the skin doesn't stay too soft and you can check on the condition. I'd recommend unwrapping and rewrapping her once a day to check on how it's doing. Any more than that may hinder healing or stress her, but keeping her in that indefinitely without changing the bandage - so to speak - is a bit iffy for me.


----------



## RedFraggle (Jun 4, 2012)

I've always just left them to get on with it. I had one rat that would chew everything out and by the 3rd tumour removal we just left her to get on with it. She actually chewed open a new wound along the side of the stitches once because she couldn't get the stitches out. At that point I had been with her 24/7 for 3 days. I left her for 10 minutes to go downstairs and eat with my OH for the first time in 3 days, came back and she'd done it. The wound was 3 to 4 cm in her armpit. They heal incredibly quickly regardless.


----------

