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

[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.