Well, he's not out of the woods yet. The problem is that in the belly all sorts of vital things are as well, so if it becomes infected, it can go bad very quickly. It doesn't help that one of my previous rats died of an abscessed wound in the belly area, that despite vet treatment, turned septic so I had to put him down (or he'd died slow and in agony). And he pulled out at least one of the staples already, so I probably have to bring him back tomorrow to the emergency opening hours. He seems quite miserable as well, just huddling, and hasn't eaten much on his own initiative (i.e. seeking out his food), though he did eat some tasty bits I pushed at him, and ate some cucumber as well (I wanted him to have something watery too).

I asked the vet about glue, but she said it only works on very fresh wounds, so they had to close it up under anesthesia. Thankfully my vet practice uses gas anesthesia for the little guys, so it's well tolerated and can be made very shallow. The pain med I've been given is metacam, I don't know whether that is the same he was given at the practice.

Thanks for the donation offer, but I'm okay to cover them. I mean, the vet costs have totally broken my budget for January likely will for February too, but I'm lucky enough to have some savings that can cover emergency expenses like this.