Rats and tail amputation

[ratspeaker]

Somebody tell me something cheerful about this please.
We aquired a sweet wee rat the other week, he'd had an accident and only had part of his tail
I'd already had a disabled rat so had a cage set up where everything is low down.
Our vet checked him over and has tried antibiotics but the remaining bit of tail is infected
He's in tomorrow to get the whole tail amputated, well as good as, he'll end up with a little stump.
But I'm worried the infection will spread futher
Anyone dealt with anything like this?
An idea of his chances?
I wont let him suffer in pain but want to give him a good chance

I had a rat who degloved her tail (2 years later DD admitted she caused the deglove by holding the poor thing by its tail :(). Not a complete amputation, but similar.

The rat was about 18 months old and otherwise in good health, she survived the op fine; she lived for about a year before starting slow decline into old age (probably had lung disease), died 2 months before she would have been 3yo.

I will X my fingers for you; IME, vet normally won't advise a procedure with rats unless they think the odds of success are very high.

Thanks
I've got the feeling either this works or he'll be put to sleep if the infection gets into his spine.
We dont know much about how he got the injury, I should have asked more questions when we picked him up
My son had heard of a rat looking for a home and thought I was missing my previous rat ( the disabled one )
He's bright and eating well and is making friends with our other rats, though we seperate them at night

Well he had the op but was lethargic the next day. So I made another vet appointment, while I was on the phone he ripped out his stiches!
So they had to operate again, glued it this time, gave him some fluids, different antibiotics.
By Sat afternoon he was exploring the cage
Back to vets Wed, infection starting again so we're trying a last ditch attempt with another antibiotic

He's improving. Was back at vet today.
His stump is a lot less painful
Been giving him the antobiotics in some butter
He's looking brighter and put on a bit weight
So 2 more weeks on antibiotics
The hard part nw is to get him used to being handled and to slowly introduce him to the other rats. It'll need to be suervised so's the others dont rub or chew his op site.

Paws crossed

How's he doing now?

He's still with us, he'd developed an abcess again but it's gone now. The wound site is healing slowly and he's still getting antibiotics. The vet had to amputate really close to the spine so there wasnt much skin to close over the wound
But now he's out of pain he's a lot more active and taking an interest in his surroundings, making nests and exploring the hammocks. gaining weight too
He enjoys his playtime with the other two boys, although he's not as agile he tries hard to follow them

That's fantastic news!

Just in case anyone is interested the antibiotics we've used so far have been Baytril, Seprin and Clavaseptin
Its the Clavaseptin that was the last resort,but seems to be working, it's really meant for cats/dogs so we use quarter of a tablet twice a day.( half a tablet crushed up, then divided, mixed into butter or yoghurt)
It has made his stools a bit loose so he gets a pinch of Lacto B9 as well
He's currently fussing around his cage as I've cleaned it out and put in clean hammocks

Hi there, I am a ratty mum of 8 and just wanted to say that I am glad your ratty is on the mend. One of my gerbils had his tail amputated and lived to a good age of just over 3.5 years. You would hardly know there was anything wrong with him. Give him hugs from me and my group :) x

He's doing fine, had our last vet visit on Thursday.
His stump is almost completely healed, fur growing over it, no more antibiotics- so happy for him. He's still gaining weight and confidence
Our other two are happy to socalise on neutral ground but dont like Alf in their cage so guess we'll keep him in his own cage for the time being with playtime breaks