Serious rat fight injuries

Question
I have 2 male rats one is about 2 1/2 his name is frank and one who is about 2 years old, they lived together happily until one night the had a massive fight, i had to take them to the vet who said the wounds would heal but it has been a week and the large wound under his neck looks clean but id still red and moist, most of the cuts are, do i need to take him to a vet again? they have been separated permanently now. THANKS!

Answer
I strongly suggest that you take the wounded rat back to the vet for a re-check. Rats heal remarkably fast, but if the skin looks raw and red then there might be infection present.

Only 5 days ago I had my own incident just as you have described. Ravi has a chunk of skin the size of a dime removed from his belly. Within 3 days it had healed and today, when I checked on him, you would never know the fight had happened.

Even if the boys are separated into separate cages they may still be able to live side by side. It's just that at this age they need their own space for awhile. You may be able to reintroduce them again some day.

May I suggest that you ask the vet to check over the boys and see how their health is. It might be that the beginning of an illness has caused one boy to become vulnerable, and this may have been the cause of the fight?


All my best to you and your ratties
spazrats