Rat Foot Injury

Question
Hi - I found a baby rat ( I suspect he is a Vole) with an injured foot (the back right). It's very swollen with open sores, and little bit of bleeding. Sores are mainly on his toes. I put a tad bit of neo-sporin on it, and gave him a tank with pine chips (until I get paper). He is very docile, only "used the restroom" once - six hours ago. Oh, and I gave him a sock, he loves the sock, he won't stop cuddling with it. I gave him rat/mouse pellets, and some collard greens, he ate so much! But he won't go near any water! What can I do for the little guys foot? I don't want to let him go until he's better! Any anti-biotics I can give him? I have a bunch of leftovers and whatever I don't have I can probably get for him.
+ I found him because he hid in my tire to get away from the rain, and would not leave my tire. I had to scoop him out with a stick. Once I noticed his foot, I couldn't leave him.
- Thanks so much!

Answer
You may be stuck with him should he bond with you.  Releasing a wild rat once they are imprinted with the human print is, well, difficult to say the least.  For starters, remove him from the pine chips and use shredded paper for now.  Pine contains phenol oils and is bad for rats and other rodents. depsite the fact pet stores continue to sell this product.  You can simply type in PINE LITTER BAD and you will get oodles of negative stuff on it. Cedar is bad to use also. You want to stay away from wood shavings and heavily scented or dusty bedding as this aggravates the respiratory tract and can cause respiratory problems.  Wild rodents are not much different than domesticated ones and in fact it was easy to tame one of my wild rats and she became one of the best rats ever, living to be near 4 years old.

Antibiotics? Rats can take just about any of them.  What do you have? Can you take a photo of her so I can know how big she is and at least guess her weight?  I mean....HIM.  LOL

Meantime, read up on sandyscrittercity.com on rat care and proper diet etc...

Also, what do you have to soak his foot with as far as antiseptic solutions go?

Thank you for saving him, by the way!