blood everywhere but no serious wounds?? (warning: pic)

[elegy]

i just got home from work, fed the poo, went upstairs to check on the rats, and this is what i find in boomer and tellers' cage:



heart attack!!!

they were both of course snuggled up inside the box, so i pulled them out one at a time. teller first, and he has some scratches and a patch of missing fur and a bite mark that doesn't look like it could have bled much if at all on his back/shoulder. certainly nothing that would have produced that much blood!

i pulled boomer out, no scratches anywhere. everybody has all their toes. they both are acting fine, no limping, no noticible pain. i was expecting like an eviceration or an amputated limb or missing tail. but i can't find any explanation.

i don't know what to think. maybe that bite is deeper than it looks, but even when gus was bitten all the way through his skin it didn't bleed like that.

i am totally at a loss.

i'm pretty sure they're trying to kill me.

i don't know if i should call the vet or not.

[Rolanda_Rattie]

I've never seen blood as bad as that! But if you've checked your rats thoroughly then it may look worse than it is.  I'm not the expert so please don't take my advice as gospel, keep a BIG eye on both of them and if they have any signs of being ill or more bleeding then ...take to the vets!

Hope they are fine, no wonder you had a heart attack, that picture is quite bad.

[angelratgirl]

do you live with anyone else, anyone who might have had a nosebleed and thought it would be a fun practical joke?  because the last time i saw that much blood was when i had a serious nb.  and it had to have dripped from somewhere because there are splash marks. not to mention only ONE bloody footprint.  (is the "poo" a dog?) and did you check for any rat nips cause i had a mama rat that would bite dogs noses, and believe me they can bleeeeed!

i don't know what else to say.  but it looks fishy.  i would expect it to be smeared everywhere. with lots of footprints.  still cause for concern, tho

[ChipmunKira]

Maybe blood in the urine?  It does look like it was dripped.  Maybe one of your boys has a UTI?  I wouldn't think it would be that much blood, but it could happen.

[Panda Phil]

 Seems similar to what happened to me a few months back when I found several large blood splotches in my boys bedding. It's never happened since and they all seem fine and healthy. Very strange.

[SADCAT]

Oswald got a little cut on his foot once, didn't look more than a scratch.. but when he walked over my bed there was a ton of blood.. stained my pillow, my sheets, even me! I didn't realize he was bleeding until I went to bed and saw it everywhere, then checked him over and just found the teeny little foot scratch.

The blood wasn't nearly THAT bad though.. if you can't find any serious wounds on them, I'd wonder about a UTI too..  

Hope you figure it out! That pic looks really awful. I would have just about keeled over too after seeing that!

On a side note, I remember one day waking up and Tortellini was completely purple/blue in colour. Her fur was just stained that colour. There was NOTHING in that cage that could have done it. No berries of any kind, no coloured candies, no anything. They hadn't had any coloured fruit chews.. as I recall the only thing they'd had was toast.. but there she was.. her fur dyed..  

[Ziggy]

eek, I'd panic too! But as everyone has said, if theres no serious wounds then I'd geuss it's ok. Some rats do bleed a lot. My boy gabrile bleeds loads from the tiniest cuts, it's like turning on a tap!

[ratlovinblonde]

On a side note, I remember one day waking up and Tortellini was completely purple/blue in colour. Her fur was just stained that colour. There was NOTHING in that cage that could have done it. No berries of any kind, no coloured candies, no anything. They hadn't had any coloured fruit chews.. as I recall the only thing they'd had was toast.. but there she was.. her fur dyed..  

I think our ratties go on nightly excapades and try their hardest to kill us with worry.
The Houdini Twins are under blame for many things.

[flannel]

Geez, that's awful!  Heart attack is an understatement.  I wonder if you put your little darlings in a small cage overnight one at a time to rule out UTI's. Well, maybe not rule it out exactly, but maybe you will find out who's bleeding.  If you use a white towel for the cage floor then you would see if there's blood in the pee.  That is so scary!  I do hope every one is ok.

[Apopli]

teller first, and he has some scratches and a patch of missing fur and a bite mark that doesn't look like it could have bled much if at all on his back/shoulder. certainly nothing that would have produced that much blood!

Oh yeah? Ever cut yourself shaving? Doesn't hurt that much, it's just a nick, but it bleeds for HOURS!!

[luckies4me]

The same thing happened to me about  a month ago with my does. I came home and blood was splattered on the wall and a big drop which had fallen down the wall and left a streak. I checked EVERYONE! NOTHING was wrong, no scratches, no bite marks, all toes, teeth, eyes...nothing was wrong, but a few girls had blood on them.   They all acted normal and I have seen nothing since.


Then about a month ago I woke up in the morning to take my hedgie out of the tub. He goes in there for excercise every night. Well the tub was full of blood, literally. There was nothing he could have hurt himself on, but I gave him a bath and checked him over. Nothing. Well I took him straight to my vet who determined that Speedy had a pollop in his anus, and that when he was straining to go to the bathroom that it had popped, hence the blood. They put him on Sulfa and his butt is now all healed, so perhaps one of the boys tore his butt? Sometimes you can't tell unless they go in under anesthesia with a tiny microscope. But anyway, that's what happened to Speedy. So I guess small animals can get hemmoroids as well.

[luckies4me]

Here is how much blood Speedy had in the rub with him when his bum exploded:



Thank goodness I have a digital, because I took this pic to the vets with me and it really helped them a lot. Now look at how small my Speedy is.....that's a lot of blood for such a little guy.

[KayR]

Luckies 4 me.... sorry I'm laughing so hard at your post. I know it's not funny that your fur-baby was hurt... but the way you put that.... too much!

Last night one of the solitary fosters was bleeding. The whole cage was covered litterally, from the top of the cage where he was stretching to the bedding. Totally covered in blood. To make matters worse for me we tried for the longest time to get him out of the cage to inspect, and doctor him but he turned into "psycho the WWF kickboxing ninja rat from hell". He even stole the thick leather glove *OFF* my husband's hand. Well, we gave up and left him alone. I didn't even try to clean the cage since he was so po'd at us. I kept watching him and figured that when they are in the wild and get hurt they do what they can to fix themselves. After about an hour the bleeding stopped and he let me look at him through the bars. And I can't find a thing wrong. I know he was bleeding from his foot, but he has all his toes and I don't see any signs of other problems.

Today we cleaned the cage again, washed it down and changed the bedding (which he immediately pushed out of the cage onto the freshly vaccuumed floor.   )

I'd check any roomies and the dogs nose and feet for the blood.

 

[elegy]

the box was under the balcony, so i figure whatever happened happened upstairs and it all dripped down onto the box. there are a few blood smudges elsewhere, blood on the wall behind the cage, blood on the food dishes, blood on the other nesting box. whatever happened was legitimate, i just can't figure out what in the world it could be!

they still seem absolutely fine and no more blood. maybe it was that wound on his side. i'll keep an eye on them. hopefully this was a one-time thing.

never a dull moment.

[quellykin1]

I bet it's from the bite; must have been deep, but not wide. Just keep an eye on it in case it abscesses (Apollo's did when it was deep). I also had a mystery like that (not THAT much blood, tho) and finally, a couple of days later, discovered that Hannibal was missing a bit of his ear!

[WS]

A bite could easily produce that much blood. - If you see a bite wound you should have your vet check it out. - (Rat bites that draw blood are serious puncture wounds and can introduce bacteria deep into tissue)

I know the heart-attack feeling though... I once saw blood EVERYWHERE in one of my cages only to find that my boy had torn a nail. - He was fine, but it was a scary sight.    --- I also had an attack of fear when I saw red gore all over a cage ....  but was happy to discover that a friend had given my rats a strawberry or two behind my back!

Good luck with your little ones and hope they're all OK!


*Always consult if your rat is bleeding or has been bleeding.

[TheChicagoCrew]

A UTI?  

 I noticed something very similar to this in my new girls' cage yesterday. It's on their igloo, on a few lab blocks, on the food dish below them. Big drizzling drips of it like in the photo. I of course freaked a minute, thinking they got into a fight. I checked everyone over YESTERDAY and everyone was fine. I check them over again today and Breezy has a torn nail that wasn't there yesterday, but no additional blood.

 Between the boys arguing and the girls spurtin' blood, I'm gonna go crazy. LOL I hope it's not a UTI   I will keep an eye on the girls to see if it happens again.

 I hope your boys are ok Elegy.

-Melina

[elegy]

i know it's possible it could have come from that bite but i really don't see how. if it was that serious shouldn't it be at least a little bit open? it's two long grooves, but honestly, it doesn't even look like it bled. no scab or anything. no swelling at all. i don't know. i realize that rats heal quickly, but still.

i tried to kind of pull it apart and open it up this morning when i got home, thinking i'd flush it with nolvalsan, but it didn't open at all. so i just put a little antibiotic ointment on it.

there hasn't been any more blood and everybody is eating and drinking fine, alert and active, so i'm not going to worry about it too much.

with all the respiratory problems i've had in my rats lately, and with all the antibiotic tolerences, i'm hesitant to put my boys on antibiotics unless it's really necessary. i'll leave a message for my vet, but she won't be in until tuesday, and she'll probably skin me for having yet another weekend rat disaster!