open wound on single rat

Question
QUESTION: Sandra, you help my daughter and I with Francy and his scabby problem.  Thanks so much, he's been doing well.  Of course, he is the one that I am asking you about now.  Ugh.  Hannah got him out of his cage tonight and noticed something on his belly.  She thought it was stuck on poop and realized it was an open wound.  He is in aspen bedding, no sharp objects that we can see, no scabs, haven't noticed any tumors, no contact with other rats.  We don't know what to do for him other than change his litter and try to keep him in a clean environment.  What should we do?  We have found trace amounts of blood but nothing oozing.

Thanks for caring so much and your willingness to help.  You're a gem!

Jennifer (and Hannah :) Rice

ANSWER: Hi ladies

SOunds like an abscess that has burst on its own. You can clean it out well using plain clean water or antiseptic (diluted) such as novalsan or hibicleanse, but water is fine, and apply neosporin on it a few times a day.  Keep him busy for a few minutes because he will lick it which is OK but you want some of it to at least absorb so about 5 minutes is good.

Gather up all of the litter and put it in a shoe box or small plastic litter box or whatever you have handy. You can put down plastic needle point canvas where the litter used to be. You can find this in craft stores or even Walmart in the craft section sold in sheets that are 12"X12" for less than $1 each.  I love them and they can come out and be washed right off.  You will litter train him in the process and keep the wound clean while your at it.

Do you have a way to take a photo of it and attach it here? You can attach photos which is awesome, soon as your done with the message there is a place to insert a photo.

Is there a mass under the wound or just the wound?
Do you notice any odor?

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

QUESTION: Sorry we've been so busy just haven't had time to write back.  We have done the things you suggested.  I haven't had the chance to upload a photo :(.  It's hard to get a really good shot anyway.  We haven't noticed an obvious odor.  It looks like just a wound.

Can the plastic canvas be used all the time for any rat or do we need to eventually go back to full litter?  It'd be awesome to not have to use so much litter and have easier clean up.  We have three rats (sep cages) so the litter can get expensive.

I'll post more later and I'll try to get an image to you.  Thanks for your help.

Jen

Answer
You can use the canvas....forever, with all rats in their cages. All of my rats are litter trained, and I have two different cages going with the plastic canvas over newspaper to protect from the wire floors etc...and it makes it nice and neat too and yes, it saves tons in litter because you can sift the poops with a cat scooper and dump out the litter pan once  a week!