[renay]

OP is bleeding from the INSIDE of his ear, and everytime the scratch or wound or whatever the **** it is starts to clot he shakes it out and it starts bleeding all over again, i wouldn't be very worried except hes bleeding pretty badly and a vet trip is not an option, ask me questions on my reasons for that later, right now i just need help, i need to somehow stop the bleeding, and i know i should know this but my mind has drawn a blank, im stressing right the **** out and i'm scared for him... please HELP!

 

[Forensic]

Do you have any gauze you could strap over the ear? Like, folded up and bound into place?

 

[renay]

no but i have like cosmetic whipes type thing that would serve as the same purpose, i've thought of that but i don't know how to safely strap it to his head and hes hairless so i dont know if that make it anymore or less difficult :S we've been using q tips and applying pressure to the ear but like i said, everytime it starts to clot he shakes it out and we're back to square one

 

[Forensic]

If you can keep the Qtip in there to make the clot smaller perhaps that would help, harder to shake out and such and make sure it's clotted before you remove it? You could attach a bandage with pantyhose, I've seen that on here, I think.

 

[renay]

i dont have pantyhose! This is seriously freaking me out, I've never seen a hurt rat before never in my entire life with rats have I seen an injury that actually bleeds, like drips out... and the clot is pretty big,... and i don't know how this has happened so hes seperated from his friend incase his friend did it agh if he dies i'll have a heart attack what about baking powder or baking soda? i know people use it to clot blood when trimming birds nails would this have the same effect on his ear?!

 

[Forensic]

Flour would probably be safer - less basic and such... It's worth a try. Hopefully you can wash it out later.

 

[renay]

thanks, i'm gonna have to get going OP kinda needs all of my attention right now, thanks again, i'll let you know if it works and who he is partially in debt to for his life (you lol)

 

[Forensic]

If it doesn't work I hope it stops soon... Poor OP.

 

[lilspaz68]

Did you use the flour? I personally wouldn't since you couldn't guarantee it won't go down the ear canal and cause a problem later.

I did the gauze and pantyhose bandage on an ear cut. You always start with pressure, no matter how much they hate it. Then you do the bandage so they stop reopening the wound.

You can use anything at all, it was just me here to try to bandage a squirmy bloody rat and thats what I had. :roll:

 

[Pomperella]

what about an ordinary plaster? yes it will stick to his head quite a lot but you can think about getting itt off later. just plaster the whole ear underneath. it will allow the blood to clot, therefore the bleeding to stop.

hope she's ok

 

[renay]

the cut was INSIDE his ear, it was not an external wound, therefor I'm not sure a band aid would have helped at all. I ended up staying awake all night with him and watching as every time he would shake out the clot it was slowly getting smaller and smaller, but he lost a lot of blood. When i went to bed at 3:00 because I had an exam yesterday I expected to wake up to a dead rat. Now having said that, OP is now perfectly fine and is undergoing a "quarantine" if you will until the wound completely heals, I'm not sure if the wound was caused by his metal wheel (which i can't see being possible as the cut was like i said, inside his ear) or caused by hot shot his cagemate... I'm guessing the latter of the two, BUT heres the problem, i've never EVER seen hot shot show any aggressive tendancies toward OP and the same goes for OP towards hot shot. Anyway, I'm confused and they're both going to be extremely closely monitored upon their reintroduction.
Finally I would like to explain to you as to why I did not take OP to the vet. This whole incident occured at around midnight. Unfortunately I do not have a regular "rat vet" whenever I run into problems I generally go to the small animals vet who knows less than i do about rats, and i have to tell her what i need. Worst than all of that, she doesn't do emergency calls, and even WORST than that, the nearest vet who will treat small animals is over an hour and a half away, I was scared OP wouldn't have made it that long being stressed out in a car. So those are my reasons, I'm sure there is someone who thinks they are irresponsible or selfish or whatever you want to call it, but know this I had OP's best intentions at heart and I balled my ass off going to bed that night thinking I would wake up the next morning, and he wouldn't.

 

[lilspaz68]

You did the right thing renay. Those ears, tails and toes bleed like crazy, but they are not that serious...scary though. Hestia's was a scratch inside her ear, caused by a small bite or even a scratch. I wouldn't worry about aggression in this case, since you are not seeing overt signs of it. You can probably put him back in with Hot Shot if the scab is healing nicely. They get so depressed on their own and I find it hinders the healing at times.

Things happen.

 

[renay]

You know, I think I might have figured out what the cause of this is.... Inside his wheel there is a little bar that is just the perfect size to fit inside and scratch an ear canal... I'm almost certain that I've finally figured it out, and I've taken your advice and OP and Hotshot are being supervised as we speak, they're both very happy to see each other again!

 

[Forensic]

I'm glad OP is feeling better (and with his buddy again!)

 

[Pomperella]

i am glad he is better. my band aid suggestion was to sort of "pin" the ear down so he couldn't shake the clot out but he probably would have just pulled it off, we know what rats are like!

i understand the inability to get him to a vet - unless i had a car i couldn't get mine to the emergency vet either (luckily i live with two car drivers) and even then it's only half hour away not like yours.

you did the right thing. so glad he's ok!