Scratching at her stitches.

Question
QUESTION: One of my ratties has just had an eye removed. Everything's going well, she's eating, drinking, is alert and taking her meds. The problem is she has started scratching at the stitches when she's grooming and I'm worried she's going to pull them out. What can be done to prevent this? I will of course take her back to the vets if she does manage to pull any out but what can I do to deter her? The vet has used dissolvable ones that should last another week (she only had the surgery four days ago.


My one eyed boy   ANSWER: My rat had the same thing done (enucleation/eye removed) about 18 months ago.  He and his brother sat there like little rat surgeons and unstitched the eye!  No big deal since it had no only been stitched inside, but also totally sealed shut and fused in a few days so there should not be a huge problem if the outer stitches are removed after day 4, but its still not really the best idea that it happens.

Usually the internal sutures are the dissolvable ones and the ones on the outer layer are skin sutures (nylon or silk sutures) in the eyelids.

A few reasons why rats pull their sutures are:

1.Itching due to healing. This is common when a surgical site heals and often causes the rat to pull the sutures when scratching.

2.Pinching, causing discomfort, which causes the rat to try to get relief from discomfort by pulling the sutures.

3.Because he can, and hes a rat :)  

There is really no way to stop him to be honest, unless the vet gives you a little collar to put on around his neck and usually this causes so much stress for the rat it can even hinder his recovery due to high levels of stress from the collar.  How much has he pulled out? Is the eye opening at all or is it sealed shut?  

Here is my boy a year after his enucleation. You cant even tell an eye even existed in the spot!          


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

QUESTION: Hi, thanks for replying so quickly! She's got just under half of the nylon sutures out, the eye is still closed so it looks like the dissolvable ones are doing their job. There's no bleeding or discharge it just looks scabby and sore. If she makes things worse I'll take her to the vet for a check up, I'm just a bit anxious that she going to harm herself.
Love the picture of Santana! What a cutie :)

Answer

Santana my one eyed wo   How is she as of this writing?  As long as the eye looks sealed and there is no discharge, it "should" be fine.  This is day five now so it should be pretty fused.  The way they usually do it is fuse the eyelids together with the dissolving stitches plus they grow together as it heals and some vets  use a technique to fuse it together permanently, sort of like welding it if that makes sense.
You may see a bit of seepage anyhow even down the road. Sometimes the area fills up with fluids and it looks like there is a bubble under the eye. If this happens, by all means, have the vet look, but usually it is fluids from the harderian gland if the vet left that, which they usually do in most cases since its a tiny space they are working in and it may be hard to remove every single tissue from inside. Often the eye drains some porphyrin and it sends the rat owner fleeing to the vet fearing it is bleeding but this is totally normal to occur. Just so you know for future reference.  When something that is supposed to be a part of the body is removed, the body automatically tries to fill in that open space, which is usually in the way of fluids. Every time Santana's eye socket would swell, I would make an appt for the vet and the next day, it was gone. I decided to take pictures of it when it swelled after that and emailed it to my vet and told him about the brownish reddish drainage I figured was porphyrin and he agreed.  We put him on meds for 14 days the first time it happened thinking it could be infection but when he kept doing it every few months, we stopped medicating him for it and in a day or three he was fine.

Just something to keep an eye out for and also it should make you feel better reading this and knowing this is normal should it occur.


Here is another photo of my guy this past Christmas. Despite the fact he has just one eye, he never acts like he has any disability at all.


If you want to take a photo of your girl and her eye I can try to see if I am able to tell if it looks healed and fused enough that it wont matter if she succeeds in removing the outer sutures, just to give you peace of mind. You can mail me at Sandyscrittercity@yahoo.com with the photos or put one on here, although they dont come out as clear here.