battle wounds, the sequel

So, I decided to bring Oskar to the vet, and a good thing it was too, because apparently the wound didn't just slice the skin open, but nicked the muscle layer underneath, so it needed stitches in two layers. And to fix the damage underneath the vet had to open the skin a bit further, so now poor Oskar has a gash that's twice as long on his belly, closed with a row of scary, Frankensteinian-looking staples, and some stitches underneath. Also it's covered in silver, to hopefully prevent infection. And of course he got an antibiotic shot and pain medication, and I got some of both to give him orally. I'm supposed to come back Monday, but watch him closely for infection and come in during their emergency weekend hours if I see any pus. Of course pets always have to do this before weekends, because otherwise the inconvenience and stress would be slightly less inconvenient and stressful. Argh.

Also I was instructed to keep him separate from the others for a while so they couldn't mess with the wound, and for now just have to hope that he doesn't do damage to himself. The vet said that if he gnaws on it himself and tries to pull the staples, they could try a small collar, but they don't work very well on rats (I presume because they don't have much of a neck, and are good at squeezing out of things.)

At least I could just put a divider between the modules of my cage, so keeping them separate is logistically easy, though both Rusty and Kieran were annoyed with me when I just evicted them from the favored spot in the top module. And Oskar was quite befuddled that he couldn't take the usual way down.

Cross your fingers for Oskar, so that he won't gnaw on his wound and that there won't be an infection?

And of course I'm now €82,77 poorer again for the exam, stitching, anesthesia, and meds, and who knows what all the follow up from this one will come to in the end.