*Warning*Poor Boomer*injury pictures*

Gamina · 12-30-2011, 03:11 AM

Well on Wednesday night my boys were all on the landing having a run around. My alpha male Adama has been getting steadily more and more alpha and aggressive to the other boys. Me and my OH talked about getting him castrated and then Adama sealed his castration for sure...

Now when I say Adama is aggressive I do not mean that he is horrible or fighting I just mean he is a little bit of a bully and not only to his younger cage mates. He bosses around and treats his brother and my old boy the same. To show his dominance he will often pin another rat down and he tried to do this with baby Boomer. Boomer would not roll over so Adama pinched him with his teeth but Boomer pulled away resulting in this horrible injury

It tore the skin. Rats are amazing and while the skin was torn there was no bleeding, the muscle underneath can be seen but was intact. Now rats heal very very well. I have seen gashes double this size heal overnight on other animals and Crashdowns lost tail was healed over in under 3 days. We cleaned the wound up with some purple spray and gave him some pain relief. However this injury is on Boomers shoulder blade and he will not slow down so over night he opened the would up more and more. By morning it was showing no signs of knitting together so I called the vet. She confirmed my thoughts that he was reopening the wound himself and it needed closing. The choices were anesthetic and stitches that he would more than likely try to rip out or if he could sit still enough staples. I have only had Boomer a short time but he is an angel so he was able to go through and have staples with no issues. He got home and ate his weight in food and then lay down for the night cuddled up to me. He is now in a hospital cage but I shall be giving him the company of one of my quiet boys for today so he is not alone.

Ohhh and Adama will be going to have his boy bits removed at the end of this week!

Nikorusama · 12-30-2011, 03:15 AM

Aww poor little poppet! Give him an extra cuddle for me. I hope he heals well.

Erin Loves Dwarf Hamsters · 12-30-2011, 03:17 AM

Aww poor Boomer

Sounds like he was very well behaved about it all

What a punishment for Adama though

StarlightSerenity · 12-30-2011, 03:19 AM

Poor lad! It's awful when something like this happens, just Adama following his instincts, I wonder why Boomer didn't submit to him? Too young to know what to do, or an alpha in the making I wonder?

I hope Boomer heals up soon and well and that Adama gets through loosing his manly bits OK

MummyofMonkey · 12-30-2011, 03:25 AM

I hope little Boomer is feeling better today.

I don't know anything about rats and have never kept them. Will having his operation completely stop Adama's aggression?

Gamina · 12-30-2011, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StarlightSerenity

Poor lad! It's awful when something like this happens, just Adama following his instincts, I wonder why Boomer didn't submit to him? Too young to know what to do, or an alpha in the making I wonder?

I hope Boomer heals up soon and well and that Adama gets through loosing his manly bits OK

Well he had spent a lot of time on his own and was released from his mum far to soon to live on his own in a tank. I think that he has never had to deal with much social interaction from other rats before. He was getting much much better but still struggles in some of the social situations. When he first joined us he had no idea that he could climb and seemed to think the cage was the size of a shelf. He had no idea what levels were it took him about 2 weeks before he would climb about.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MummyofMonkey

I hope little Boomer is feeling better today.

I don't know anything about rats and have never kept them. Will having his operation completely stop Adama's aggression?

It works in most cases unless the behavior is driven by something happening in his mind. My buck Starbuck was not treated very well in his first home and so he will be aggressive to us and was before he hit the 6 month puberty mark. His biting is psychological.
Adama on the other hand was a calm happy boy and is non aggressive to us. It was only when he turned about 6 months his hormones began to go mad and he began to get more aggressive towards his friends. The procedure will remove all the testosterone from his body and while he may still be playful he will lose the urge o fight and he will no longer be the dominant gent in the cage.

**Emma&Bee** · 12-30-2011, 03:38 AM

Aww poor Boomer. Looks like he is getting lots of fuss though. Hope he heals up quickly. I expect Adama will wish he did not do it by the end of this week then! Hope he recovers from his op quickly too!

Gamina · 12-30-2011, 03:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emma&Bee

Aww poor Boomer. Looks like he is getting lots of fuss though. Hope he heals up quickly. I expect Adama will wish he did not do it by the end of this week then! Hope he recovers from his op quickly too!

It has been something we have been talking about for a while with Adama this was just the last straw really. He is booked in with a highly recommend rat VET (lol) who has performed this op many times with rats so we are confident it will help him.

Nikorusama · 12-30-2011, 04:00 AM

I guess I have that all to look forward to then when the hormones kick in. I think mine are about 3 months so I have another 3 months ish before all he'll breaks loose. I guess I'll have to wait and see if any of my boys have the same problemand then find a vet to do the proceedure if so.

**Emma&Bee** · 12-30-2011, 04:04 AM

I have old ish men although they did fight for alpha on the first week and one did bite the other but after that Draco just gave in and I have had no trouble since. Never had rats younger than a year before so I have all this to look forward to if I get some babies. Lol!