omg, poor Oskar

[ratcreature]

Kieran is a vicious, little savage. He just scuffled with Oskar in their cage (brief but intense), and when I checked Oskar over after he had fled, I noticed that Kieran nearly gored him. Okay, that's overstating it slightly, but he has a long (almost 2 cm I'd guess) wound on his belly. Thankfully it seems shallow, but still! I put a little of the antibiotic wound salve on it, that I still have for Kieran's and Rusty's bleeding bumblefoot sores, in the hope that it'll help and prevent infection. I still remember Linus who died from a lower belly abscess spreading.

I'm pondering whether I ought to bring Oskar to the vet tomorrow. On the one hand, they probably wouldn't put in stitches or anything (because it's in a place where he can pull them out), otoh they could check the wound and give an antibiotic. Maybe I should decide on how the wound looks tomorrow and how Oskar himself seems, or phone them and ask whether they think I should come in. *waffle* And just when I thought I had a reprieve from frequent vet visits until the next foot check up in two and a half weeks. I mean, Oskar only was at the vet two days ago for the check up on his skin. (That went well, the nail clipping and injection a week earlier had stopped the scratching enough that all that healed, and he didn't need the blood test.) One thing after another.

Maybe I should consider plastic goldfish for my next pets. Decorative yet no drama.

Comments

[oyceter]

Oh man. Momo and Haru were doing that before I got them neutered, and the first time I freaked out and brought them into emergency, and basically the vet shaved the area, disinfected it, and then put on surgical glue, FWIW.

[ratcreature]

Mine usually don't fight quite so brutally. I mean, just scratches and small bite wounds. I think I'll take another look at his wound after I had breakfast and then decide.

[droolfangrrl]

Lol cant post to your journal on lj.

Guinea pigs for the win! ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q85Tq3C6Bcc

Unfortunatly they injure each other in dominence fights as well. :(

[ratcreature]

Well, it's not like their rodent teeth are any less sharp.

ETA: And sorry about the LJ commenting, but the spam there had gotten so bad that I had to set it to friends-only commenting, because I got a on of spam comments, but otherwise very few used it.

[ani_bester]

Oh man -_- I'm sorry to hear that. I would if you have a good vet, which it sounds like youd, for peace of mind take him in just to be sure.

My sympathies. I hate worrying if I need to go to the vet or not (is allergies or respritory infection).

But at least you have a good vet! I've had no vet option before once and it was awful :(

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I go to the practice that one of the first breeders I got rats from recommended to me, and the second breeder I met knew of them too, and went there for the complicated stuff, even though she's some hours away by car (and thus had a different one for the routine things). It's unfortunately not really close to me either, so travel takes some time with public transport, but I've had such bad experiences with vets when I had some as a teenager, and just went to a practice that someone recommended me on the basis of it being good with their cats, that I don't dare to just try out a closer vet.

They really care a lot and put in effort even for rats. Like I've had a rat with an abscess in his eye, and instead of going the easiest route to just remove the whole eye, they did a more delicate procedure, removed the abscess and saved the eye, even though it was tiny.