rat scratching wound

Question
i hava a 11month old dumbo male. he is not nutered.  i received him and his brother from a rat rescue organization.  . i have had them for 9 months. a few months ago he started scratching his shouldeer area  pretty bad to make a large wound. after trying to dr it myself for a week or two, we went to the vet. the vet was the founder of the rat rescue organization and i felt should be very knowledgeable about ratties. my boy was diagnosed with a bad lice problem. he was started on the 4 dose of ivermection and antibiotics by mouth and cream.  even tho his brother didnt scratch he got 3 doses. after 4 weeks he was still scratching the wound terrible. so he got another 4 week dose and another round of antibiotics by mouth.    now  a week later, his back is still the same. vet just keeps saying its going to  take a long time to heal. i am very discouraged. i clean the cages twice a day, i dont use bedding - only soft cloths and rags. the cages are disenfected eeery other day. i freeze the dry food before they get it. ive purchased a bird lice spray to spray on the cages, the antibiotic cream kind of makes him scratch more so i dont put it on every day - only every few days. it stays wet and bloody when he scratches. i know it hurts him people have suggested trimming his nails. i cant do it and he would only then scratch with dull short nails. i wish i could bandage it so he would let it dry and heal. one day i will see it dry and hope he will leave it alone, ane i look later and its bloody. i have spent hundreds of dollars, which i dont regret, but i cant afford any more, and hes still not healed. im afraid this wound will turn serious. i do not feed him peanuts. and very little corn. he is much more nervous than his brother. i have also used neosporin. someone suggested using olive oil and also  kitty revolution. i wold be so happy to hear any more suggestions. thank you so much

Answer

I hate skin ailments. I had a case here a while back that had not only me stumped, but an entire team of board certified exotic vets stumped as well.  You can read about him on my website

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/skinproblemsabscesses.htm

Scroll all the way down to the bottom and look for the story about Jasper.  Not that it has anything to do with your little boy, but still an interesting read.

Anyhow, what exactly do you feed him as far as diet goes? Even though he doesnt eat peanuts and very little corn (corn wont or should not do that anyhow, my rats eat frozen corn several times per week only because they love it,  and some live to be 3 and 4 years old without any skin problems)  
Protein sensitivity could be a problem, even if your making homemade foods.  I am thinking though that he has a problem more with dermatitis, perhaps.

I also agree about using the kitten revolution on him and also olive oil. Sounds like someone reads my stuff.  LOL   Olive oil really works when dealing with a rat with dry skin. You can feed it to him on a cracker a few times per day.  Also, try rubbing cortisone ointment on the area taking turns with the antibiotic cream.  Did the vet happen to give you silvadene ointment for him? That works absolute wonders on wounds like this.   Does it ooze pus at all? Is it deep?

Ivermectin is not a bad idea but I do prefer topical revolution used once every 3 weeks right between the should blades but where is his wound at? You would need apply it lower than the wound so it doesnt get in there and burn the daylights out of it.  

Also, if he has lice that bad, the other rat would be going nuts himself and not to mention YOU would feel the critters on yourself. They do not live on us, but a heavily infested rat, when held, will shed the parasites onto you if your holding him.  Once, one of my elderly sick bucks had lice and I did not know it.  He was not itching or anything and I had on a dark shirt and was holding him. When I put him back, my chest felt....creepy crawly. I looked in the mirror and didnt see a thing, so I took the hand mirror that was magnified, and saw tiny itty bitty elongated almost transparent looking critters, wiggling around on my chest and all over my shirt. I was so upset for my poor old rat...thankfully I had one vial of the kitten revolution and put some on him  He was getting .1ml of it and within two days, there were no critters to be found.  I cleaned his cage best I could but could not remove him from the cage or it would upset him to the point he could die due to heart problems he had, but even the moderate cleaning I did was enough to rid him of a heavy infestation of lice.

Anyhow, for sure try the cortisone (hydrocortisone cream) three times a day to the affected area and also add olive oil to his diet.  Also let me know what his daily diet consists of.  I dont need to know what treats hee has once or twice a week since his would not do it, but a staple diet is more likely the culprit if we are going to blame his diet at all, that is.  Lets just see, go over it and evaluate it and go from there.  Poor little guy! I hope we can offer him some relief soon!