Kitten got bitten by rat! HELP!

[hairless_love]

My five and a half week old kitten ventured too close to the rat cage, and mean Dib bit him.  He has a pretty big gash on his shoulder...probably just short of an inch long. The skin is broken, but it's not bleeding and not deep enough to need stitches. The kitten was very frightened at first, but seems ok except for that.

How should I treat the wound? What should I use to clean it, and will neosporin help?

((BTW, mommy is with me too. He's not weaned yet.))

[Popcorn]

If he's not weaned and the cut is not bleeding then let Mommy take care of him.  She'll just lick off anything you put on it anyway. Just keep an eye on him and make sure there are no signs of infection.  I'm sure he'll be fine!

[Moondust]

Rat bites are very clean.  However, you need to make sure to do something so as to prevent this from happening again.  See, if it were the other way around you would have almost 100% needed to go to the vet for antibiotics because cat bites are virtually guaranteed to get infected. Cats carry a bacteria toxic to rats.  To humans too, which is why doctors treat cat-bites with great care. 

Either close off the room the rats are in or you need to cover the outside with a smaller mesh for a little while to ensure the two kinds of animals never have physical contact.  I've had to cover cages with mesh more than once for that reason.  If it's possible for your rat to bite the kitten's shoulder then it's more than possible for one animal to kill the other.  Lucky it wasn't worse, a rat could easily kill a kitten, even through bars. 

[Addicted2Rats]

Good advice, moondust.  At this point, its too late to get stitches even if they were needed.  Just keep a close eye on it and make sure that it doesn't get infected and heals up ok.  I don't think I'd put any triple antibiotic ointment in it because of the size of the wound.  You might end up introducing more contamination that way.  Definitely make sure that you do something so that this can't happen again.

Deb

[hairless_love]

Rat bites are very clean.  However, you need to make sure to do something so as to prevent this from happening again.  See, if it were the other way around you would have almost 100% needed to go to the vet for antibiotics because cat bites are virtually guaranteed to get infected. Cats carry a bacteria toxic to rats.  To humans too, which is why doctors treat cat-bites with great care. 

Either close off the room the rats are in or you need to cover the outside with a smaller mesh for a little while to ensure the two kinds of animals never have physical contact.  I've had to cover cages with mesh more than once for that reason.  If it's possible for your rat to bite the kitten's shoulder then it's more than possible for one animal to kill the other.  Lucky it wasn't worse, a rat could easily kill a kitten, even through bars. 

EEK!  Thanks for the info. This was the first day I'd let the kittens explore out of the room that they had been in since they were born. I'll have to pen them back up until I can either move the rat cage or get some mesh to keep them away from each other. I plan on keeping one of the kittens, and was going to try and socialize it with the rats so they would get along when he/she gets older...but would this be a bad idea?

I also find it kind of funny...with the bad rep that rats have, you would expect THEIR bites to be worse than a cats! 

Also...thank you for the reassurance Popcorn. 

[Cigar]

Penning the kitties back up is a good idea. Mommy should take care of the kitten just fine.

"See, if it were the other way around you would have almost 100% needed to go to the vet for antibiotics because cat bites are virtually guaranteed to get infected. Cats carry a bacteria toxic to rats.  To humans too, which is why doctors treat cat-bites with great care."

I lost feeling in the tip of my pinky when I was bit by a cat. When I worked at a pet store I had to stress to the children all the time "Don't stick your fingers in the cage. Cats have VERY dirty mouths. You may very well end up needing a tetanus shot." I had to catch a rat once - a H.U.G.E male. He latched onto my finger and I'll never forget the pain that ensued. The wound never became infected though! So I can believe that their bites are quite clean.