Rat Stitches

Question
QUESTION: My rat has just had a tumor removed a few hours ago. When we first went to collect her, they had to take her back because she had opened all her stitches. Now she is home she is still desperate to bite and clean them. Is there anything I can do to prevent this? And how long will it take till she is able to investigate her wound without doing herself serious harm? Thanks.

ANSWER: There are a few reasons why rats chew their stitches and its is usually preventable.

For starters, she should not have visible stitches. The vet should stitch from inside the incision and finish off with surgical glue. This way the rat will not be bothered by being pinched by stitches. Second, if the rat is in pain from the surgical site, she will bite them. The vet probably pulled them very tight which makes them hurt. If the rat has pain in the incision area, she will chew on it trying to get relief.

Finally, the the most important question I have: What is she on for pain?

Healing time for a mammary tumor depends on the skill of the surgeon.  
If the surgeon dug into her deeply and has her all stitched up like "franken-rat" it could be more than a week before it heals properly.  

If the surgical site is clean and not deep, which they usually are very shallow since mammary tumors are more or less on the surface rather than deep inside the boy, it should look good in about 4 days or so.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: They have given me Baytril, which I am supposed to mix in with 10 ml of her water from this morning.

After she pulled out all her stitches the first time they applied the tissue glue to her wound. We asked the vet then how we could stop her biting at them, their suggestion was to put her in a sock with leg holes which she escaped from very quickly. I've stayed up with her so far to make sure she doesn't do any damage to herself, but just wanted to make sure if i do fall asleep she won't pull herself apart at the seams? Thank you so much for your reply.


Answer
Baytril in water?   

I hate to sound harsh but.....where did you find this vet at?  Baytril is NOT water soluble for starters and in order for her to get the proper medication in her system she has to drink the entire bottle of water.  This is not acceptable way to prevent or treat infection.  

So this tells me no pain medication was dispensed, so your rat is left to be uncomfortable, which explains why she is pulling the stitches.

The sock idea also was a no brainer. It shows he obviously doesnt know rats very well or he would know that they would get out of it in minutes and this could have caused her to split her stitches by struggling to get out of the sock.  

My suggestion is to find another vet to finish up with your rat and not return to the vet that did the surgery.  I am just grateful she made it through the surgery ok!

If you need names of real exotic vets or vets that have a special interest in exotics and know what they are doing, please let me know and I will happily give you some names.  I fear she may end up with a nasty infection and the way this vet told you to give her the baytril is an absolute joke.