baby rat eye popped out

Question
our rats littered a few weeks ago and one "kitten" has
recently, possibly even today, had it's eye pop out. this
doesn't look like a swelling as it simply has no visible
eyelid over the eye.

my diagnosis is that it has been squashed by one of the
mothers while feeding or tried to squeeze itself through
the cage and has suffered the consequences. these babies
are about 3 weeks old and i fear that if the baby in
question is taken to the vet they will resort to putting it
to sleep as it is probably too small to do anything for it.

i have no problem with having a half-blind rat or looking
after the baby in question until it is capable of
sustaining itself and was wondering if there was anything i
could do in order to keep this rat healthy at home. my main
worry is it will get infected as it keeps scratching at the
area in question and also being in a cage with 18 other 3
week olds, 3 mothers and 15 new borns i'm guessing this is
a concern. the cage is big enough to house all of them, but
2 of the 3 mothers are very energetic and as a result of
this so are their babies.

on picking the rat up after noticing this problem it was
happy to be handled and it had probably been like this for
a couple of hours as the pack is left so the mothers can
"get on with it". it still responded to movement through
it's bad eye when it was noticed and seemed to be doing
well on subsequent hourly checks thereafter.

there is brownish liquid around the eye, but upon reading
other posts i have discovered this is normal for a stressed
or injured rat.

the vets won't be open now until Monday and the 24 hour
service is just a bit too expensive so is there anything i
can do to ease it's pain until then? antiseptic, saline
drops or other wise?

Thank you

Will

Answer
I'm sorry it took me awhile to get back to you - I hope your baby is still with us?

Most likely if he hasn't passed by now, the baby will be fine. A vet won't be able to repair this, other than to possibly remove the eye. Over time, the eye will atrophy and become flush with his skull. Watch for signs of infection and try to keep the eye clean in the meantime using saline drops. Blind rats do just fine usually - so a half-blind baby will probably adapt very well.