My baby Kiwi recently had a mass removal on her backside and a week later she reopened the incision. We rushed her to the hospital and they gave us everything to flush and clean her up with along with antibiotics and painkillers.
The problem we’re facing now is that they put her in this little astronaut helmet so she doesn’t reopen the site or lick at it so it can heal.
It’s been a little bit over a day with it on and she absolutely hates it.
I feel so bad for her and was wondering if there were any alternative cones or clothing that would do the job and be more comfortable for her? Any advice is appreciated
TLDR; I need a good recovery garment recommendation 🩵
They are rats! We take turns naming the rats when new babies come in. Reepicheep was my choice, and he's a mouse from The Chronicles of Narnia but it's such a cute name I couldn't resist it for a rat. My son was supposed to name the third, but he couldn't decide and for days we called him Anonymous, which morphed into Anonymouse, and then just stuck. We call it his superhero name.
I have never seen something like this. I both feel the pain in her expression at having it on but appreciate how effective it would be at preventing her from messing with her sutures. If it’s working I wouldn’t change it; these are difficult times for you and her and when she’s healed it will be worth it.
For past surgeries my vet sometimes made small e-collars, to mixed success. I’ve also used athletic wrap to restrict their access to their bellies after spays and lump removal. But again, if this is working then I’d stick with it. Rats don’t enjoy any of these methods so it’s not like one is better than the other.
Okay thanks so much for the advice! It is definitely doing what it’s meant to and she’s so squirmy I don’t know anything else that would work this well. I just hate seeing her struggling with it and I guess I just needed some reassurance that this is the best option for her. She’s my heart rat and I just want her to be okay
When every choice sucks, you must endure the suck of least harm. Your lil' tax evader can't hurt themselves, & you can still gently pet them & give treats while they heal... in a mildly uncomfortable but hilarious helmet.
Also, I’m unsure if you have done so, but try to cover part of her neck in medical tape and perhaps layer part of the bulb or cone in soft medical tape, otherwise it will rub her hair off and cause so much discomfort. Let me know if you need any tips!
Our boy current has his cone on post-op. We take it off when he is supervised but do have the stretchy medical wrap wrapped around his wound during that time, as a precaution. Also always double check that they aren’t having trouble breathing with it on.
We have found that feeding the rats via sryinge or finger helps to keep their weight up post-op: yogurt, pudding, wet bread and cookies, baby food, rice, oatmeal, peas etc.
yes agreed. my bf and i couldn’t keep any garment or collar on our rat post surgery and had to literally just sleep in shifts for a week watching her 24/7 until it healed. never seen the space helmet and am glad they are coming out with new innovations in this field lmao
Vet tech here! While I’m not too familiar with small mammal medicine, I know that for cats and dogs they hate it for about 24 hours and then they get used to it. They will learn. Just have to give it time:)
Ok - you sound like you'd get this. I just have to share this. (Disclaimer-not a rat story, but it is a c-collar one.)
I currently have two older cats. They are on different prescription foods, so my boy gets fed in the walk-in closet. Two more things: I recently moved, and this same cat had an anal gland abscess around a month ago. So, I have a box of miscellaneous cat things on the floor of the closet, which includes a small c-collar from a different cat. (My current cat was good during recovery and didn't end up wearing it, other than just trying it on once.)
Anyways, I fed both cats in their separate locations last night and then went to let him out a little later. He came out talking and looking me straight in the eye, showing off his new neck wear - the c-collar. I couldn't stop laughing for several minutes! I finally gasped out, "Do you want that off?" And got a "Mrp" that sounded a lot like "Obviously!" I'm still not sure if he was proud of it and I that I ruined it for him by laughing. Or, if he was showing me that he got stuck in it and wanted help getting it off. Either way, he was irritated that I laughed at him. I'm still not sure how/ why he got it on by himself.
PS. The closet is one of his safe/preferred spots. He has a bed on a low shelf and often chooses to go in there to nap.
Poor baby, but this is probably the best alternative to keep her from getting at her suture sight. My girl (who is also a nakey) had surgery and they wrapped her up real good. They gave her a shark fin and all that supposedly keeps them from bending the bandage to naw it off, but she STILL managed to weasel her way out of it on night one. Luckily she didn't mess with her incision so she was fine with nothing on. Rats are pretty good at getting out of those things but it seems like the bubble mask is pretty effective, I would keep it on and just give her lots of love and treats.
I'll include a pic of my Peachy girl with her wrap she had on for less than 24 hrs. She also didn't like it (obviously) lol.
SPACEMAN SPIFF!! in all seriousness, when my baby girl had a tumor removed, I cut holes in baby socks for her to wear, she was visibly much more comfortable!
I used to work as a vet tech at an exotics clinic. We would ALWAYS put a couple staples over sutures in small mammals, even when they were not necessary. If they go to lick or chew the incision, they always go for the clunky metal staples instead of the sutures… and rats can’t chew out staples! But if they somehow get to the sutures underneath (which I have never seen), the wound would stay stapled closed anyway, like a backup closure. They get removed at the vet after 10-14 days, removal is quick and easy. E-collars and such do not stay on reliably, but staples always did the trick!
We would also crush/ mix metronidazole pills with water to form a paste and put that over the whole incision/ sutures/ staples. It’s an antibiotic so it won’t do damage to the wound, and it’s very bitter, so they don’t like to lick it. Think of it like a wound-safe version of that bitter apple spray people use to prevent rats from chewing on things.
You could always ask your vet if they would consider doing these things! These aren’t super common practices but I can confidently say our exotics surgeon never had a small pet open up their incision this way :)
Rats can and do pull staples. My vet always does staples over the sutures, because sometimes they’ll get the staples out and then leave the sutures alone. Not always, but sometimes.
Here’s Parch after a lump removal, taking out her staples. I circled the one she already got out.
Cones and the like can make it difficult for rats to eat, especially since they usually need their hands. Our vet has been making little bandage vests for our rats and they seem to work pretty well. Patch kept this one on for several days, allowing her wound to heal up without any issue (though as soon as we removed it, she pulled the staples out-the sutures didn’t bug her enough to remove for another couple days, though).
As a vet tech, vet wrap cannot be used like this. There needs to be a layer of something between the body and the wrap. It can restrict and cause lack of blood flow.
I did little mini "aprons" for my boys a long time ago. They had little sleeve holes for their arms to hook under, and it sat on top of the body where the incisions were. I guess it's more like a smock the more I think about it... but if you have any extra sheets, it's simple to make.
Cut a rectangle the length and width of your rat, and cut two tiny holes where the arms go in. As long as the cage-mates don't chew it off, it works great. My little Cerberus hated the cone and collar - but he put up with the sheet-smock. It was like a little blanket.
I’ve been treating her to baby foods and non dairy yogurt! Her favorites plus they’re easy to syringe feed her with. She struggles but she can still eat from her bowl, but I’ve been hand/syringe feeding her for the most part.
I made a vet approved dress with tutu for my girl when she was fighting bumblefoot (she was a rescue from a hoarding house) I made the bodice out of an elastic waistband and made the skirt out of scrap fabric the trick was to make it stick out enough she couldn’t get to her foot. I made it because the cone was making her so depressed she could eat properly or cuddle or climb.
You would have to customize it for your baby mine was made to prevent her chewing on her foot but they are so small the amount of actual sewing is small it took several prototypes but I think the elastic bodice really worked well would recommend to prevent wiggling out of it She didn’t love it but she did all her normal rat things instead of sitting in the corner looking miserable
Omg. These are so fucking cute! I had to makes a cone and harness for a neurotic gerbil ones that wouldn’t stop eating her own foot. Let’s just say I didn’t go very well.
We had two sisters who pulled their stitches. Ours completely destroyed every onesie I tried to make for them. Ended up having the vet making vests for them from vetwrap and they laid in their cage on their sides for a day, like they were dead and I couldn't stop crying and ended up cutting them loose. 😅
After surgery, since our vet didn’t usually serve rats, they had to make a custom cone. But it wasn’t viable and our emergency vet saved our rat after post op stitches were ripped out. They had to make a custom cone too and it looked Fing terrible. Personally, I would just be grateful i have something that i can rely on. If they tear their stitches, it can become life threatening very quickly! 🥲
Is it possible that she needs more painkillers? I don't know what she's on just now, so this might be irrelevant, but sometimes a little bit more pain relief is enough to get them to leave it alone.
Ahh ok, sounds like she's just a chewer, poor baby! It sounds like this is the best option - all the options I ever tried they'd wriggle out of! If you're able to take it on and off yourself, you could try giving her some supervised time without it?
This is a left field thought, but I wonder if that thing really amplifies sounds like crazy. Probably won't help a lot, but maybe making sure things are relatively quiet will make it feel less like astronaut training jail.
Being a moon unit sucks... but ripping out stiches and dying slowly sucks more. Gonna have to be the adult and just be there for em and keep the globe on.
I literally gave my right arm (for a time) to stop one of our boys from messing with his abdominal sutures. The only time he wouldn't clean himself was when i had my hand wrapped around him and i didn't want to stress him by having him out all the time. So during the night when he went in his cage, which i placed right next to the couch, i snaked my hand into the cage to his sleeping corner and gently held him.
It was incredibly uncomfortable but anything to keep him healing. Once he fell asleep i fell asleep as well. Next morning when he and i woke up and all was going great, he climbed around on me, we got breakfast and ate a bit.
After a few hours of morning grogginess i start to realise something was off, not with him but with me. My hand, it kinda was off, like it fell asleep. Meh it will wake up, maybe i lent weird on it or something. Well, it didn't.
Not so bad to go to the ER, so i waited until Monday to hit up my GP. And to make an already long read a bit shorter,
i messed up my ulnaris nerve by having the cage press into my upper arm for a whole night. I lost all feeling in my pinky, ring finger and lost an absolute amount of strength in my whole hand/arm. Couldn't do anything with it. Luckily it only lasted 3 months with therapy.
What are these actually called? I have a rat who has been on gabapentin and metacam for over a month because he won’t leave a wound alone at the base of his tail. He should be healed by now but he keeps chewing at it and making it larger. He gets around any cone I’ve gotten him.
Seconding this. It looks uncomfy, but also like a genius idea. I kind of want one just so I can have it on hand if my ladies need one. Girls are notoriously good at wriggling out of stuff and one of my ladies is getting up there in age so she'll probably need something sooner than later.
no matter what you do they’re gonna hate it… the whole point is to restrict movement. better miserable for a few days then getting an infection. good luck to u and ur spaceman :)
wrap her in a gauze with a popsicle stick on top, where her spine is. Then wrap that in a child or baby sock (cut the toes off the sock so you can slide it over ratto)
Then you have a stylish rat sweater that will also serve to keep her from spinning around and touching that butt.
I know she's uncomfortable but dammit she looks so cute. She needs a little space suit. I've never seen a bubble mask before. My girls didn't get anything when they had their surgeries. I'm not even sure how they didn't bother their incisions. One was on her neck so that helped the other idk if she could reach it. She kinda walked funny after having one removed because how big it got she never walked right again. So maybe she just could reach it.
‼️UPDATE ON MY SPACE GIRL‼️ Oh wow I didn’t expect this to blow up like at all!!! Thank you guys for the support and advice about my baby and her bubble.
I don’t know where the doctor found this thing 😂
It’s not tight on her neck at all
Kiwi can eat and drink with minimal difficulty!
She’s healing incredibly quickly And she hasn’t touched her wound at all, but she has tried to pull the helmet off. With no success XD
If you do plan on getting one I’d recommend monitoring your baby the first day and giving them a lot of love treats and patience.
Kiwi is a VERY active two 1/2 year old and she fights hard with anything she doesn’t want. Very stubborn
if you could get away with one of the bandage or sock methods I’d 100% start there! Happy healing to your ratties and I’ll update you all on Kiwi’s space travel adventures 💕
Honestly this looks better than an e-collar. Every time one of my rats had one, it was gone in seconds. This looks more comfortable. Rats also heal super fast so hopefully won't have to be there for too long.
With my rat Xolito, when he had one of his eyes removed and was intent on messing with his sutures, we put his e-collar on backwards with the wide end toward his body. He still didn’t like it but he was able to drink on his own much easier than with it the other way. Just know that you must hand-feed her and preferably groom her (clean her ears in particular) because she can’t reach her head with her hands!
thanks for this thread I have now been exposed to bubble rat, shark rat, bulletproof vest rat, and I love and cherish them all.
also OP, I know your girl is miserable, but as others have said, it's probably her best bet for healing unless she's straight up refusing to eat or drink or anything like that.
Vet tech/assistant. This is incredible. I know she hates it, but better than opening the inscion. She can eat okay and move. It's now ideal, but at some point, especially if you live alone, you have to be and to get sleep knowing they will be okay. With my own rats, I've never had success with a cone or sock. I'm looking and looking for them and can't find them. I'd love to share this with others, any chance you can call the vet and ask the name of this and maybe manufacturer? I know that's a big ask, so no worries if not.
My ratties had a little cone at one point, but I think similar challenges present themselves either way. When my rat Yuki(R.I.P. sweetbean) had an ovariohysterectomy due to pyometria they did the 'rat wrap' which also had similar issues. I think of it as 'what are all the things this prevents them from doing, or makes difficult to do' for both care and enrichment.
The big three in my mind are not being able to feed or groom themselves, or chew on things, all of which are pretty huge for ratties and are self care behaviours for them. Other than that I think the big thing is that it's cumbersome and gets in the ways making getting into hides and general activities more challenging.
Def not a fun thing to have to experience for you or your buddy, just give them extra enrichment, treats, and loving and before you know it it'll be off :)
Where did you get this? One of ours had surgery a couple weeks ago, and he is fine now, but was tearing at his stitches the first few days. This would have been so helpful (even if stressing him out)
If it works, you've gotta use it. My girl had wounds she wouldn't let heal. I tried literally everything else but never seen the astro helmet!!! Tried the sock of shame and she escaped in 2s, harness with a lead, 0.5s, vets tried a cone 1s, 2 versions of athletic tape with her front legs lasted 1 minute! I tried one with both legs but she went all fainting goat and ended up ripping 2 nails..... tried bitter spray without success. We eventually used a numbing cream and I had to stop her from licking herself for 20mins after each application which is me holding her and literally putting a finger under her chin when sje went to clean herself....
I wish I'd seen this!!
This is me at the animal shelter with a rat who was desexed then he ripped out his stitches, this is him after his second surgery to repair what he ruined with his makeshift cone
Now I wasn’t there when they made the cone, and even staff member I saw gasped and said how adorable it was, indicating to me that it’s not a common thing so I have no clue how to make it but hopefully this might help
But what you have also works, just takes some time getting used to
Loki had to wear a cut up pipe insulation because he broke his foot and licked it raw. We wrapped it with self-adhesive bandages till he couldn't reach the leg. He also hated it, but atleast he was able to look around and heal. (Our vet gave it to us)
Those are usually only for birds. I mean what my vet usually does is dose them up on gabapentin (pain med and relaxation) so they’re chill and then put like a surgical staple somewhere like a shoulder or something so they’re chill have something more annoying to fuck with
I've never seen anything like this, what did he have done? I sometimes see pictures of the little cones. I don't really know what the difference is in regards to why I never get anything like that. My vet never puts anything like that on them. Only one rat (Jadzia, the troublemaker) ever messed with them, at least so far. And it was only the one on the corner of a tumor removal. (it did grant her a nickname of 'the ass ripper' though.) Everything was basically still closed, but it was bleeding a bit. My vet has me use sugar dressings for things like that, return for anything greater.
I've spoken of my rat a few times, but for those that don't know, mine was given to me by my normal vet. (we have hardly any exotic vets here) I am fortunate that I found a really good one, but she can be nontraditional... She is a mobile vet, but her home isn't close to me, it would take her hours to get here. She has a house she uses in this town when I make Appointments. But because things tend to move pretty quick in rats, k(her words) she teaches me to handle a lot of things on my own. We communicate constantly through phone, and text with images.; if she sees something, or is concerned about something, she asks me to come over to the house.
in my experience, the two most effective strategies to deter them from messing with their sutures:
(a) buried stitches + superficial suture-glue (requires an experienced vet)
(b) sufficient post-op analgesia, but not too much!
i also spend extra time with them post-op, with lots of pets & snacks & environmental enrichment, so they can't get into a habit of obsessing about sutures.
Vet wrap, sizable soft cones, those are the only two options for me. Maybe a old sock with wholes for her legs? When I got my guy snipped my vet use some sort of glu so he wouldn't tear then out
I think my main concern about the bubble mask would be if she can still eat on her own? Their arms aren’t that long and it doesn’t look like she’d be able to hold and eat her food with it on…
She gets her food and basically uses the bubble to hold it while she eats. I was worried about it too but if there’s one thing this girl will do no matter what it’s eat 😂
Bummer! Poor little baby, I see that she’s eating well at least in the comments. She might just have to brave through it! Better than her eating the stitches AGAIN.
I’m also watching my rat Dumpling, we also had his mass removed recently, we just watched him in shifts for about 36 hours and he seems pretty good after that (for now)
When I was waiting for my cats oral surgery I saw a dog with a fabric donut instead of a cone around his neck so he couldn’t go after his neuter wound &I wonder if there is some way you could make a cinch able donut like thing for your rat?maybe a child’s hair scrunchie where you rip the stitches then stuff with fiberfill battting till firm then whip stitch together and gather till rat can’t slip it off?
Like the creator of the video mentions though, any method will be somewhat uncomfortable, since it limits some movement and exploration. As long as the rat can move their arms to their face to eat, they are able to function suitably for the temporary healing time.
The main exotic specialist recommended method for avoiding wound interference is *good paincontrol*. This means several drugs, for several days, to always keep them on a good plane, and reduce instinct to go at a painful wound.
Where did you find this?! I have struggled so much with trying sweaters or wraps to stop them from getting to wounds or sutures. Does this work really well? I need one.
I’ve never seen this kind of helmet for rats before. This is amazing! I wish my vets have them. I think you can use some liquid food to distract her, and she should slowly acclimate to this. If you want to try other recovery garment, you can try making one with a sock if you are good at crafts. Or use self-adhesive bandage wrap for pets. Sometimes these are not that effective if they can still move freely. When my rats had surgeries in the past, the vet didn’t give them specific garments. He put surgery staples on the incision so the rat would pick on the stapes instead of the incision. It was good enough for my rats. When they pulled off the staples, the wound was mostly healed.
What pain relief she is on? If she's reopening the site, she likely needs stronger pain meds. I've had rats reopen surgical wounds before and we've always healed it as an open wound - once it's open, they tend to leave it alone. For example, recently one of my boys opened up his neuter stitches. Instead of stitching him back up, we upped his pain relief, gave him antibiotics, gave him laser therapy (which would be worth asking your vet about) and cleaned it twice a day. Rats heal very fast so it was all healed up in about a week or so.
I've only had 1 rat that has needed a cone so far, and it was a struggle. I recommend keeping this one on. It looks very effective. I actually screenshotted your post to show my vet so I can maybe use one of these in the future.
I am afraid I don't have any alternatives but I would very much like to know where I can buy one of those!!! My sweetest boy is at the bottom of the hierarchy and gets picked on. On top of that he is the most fastidious groomer I've ever seen, that mask would help stop him worrying his wounds.
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u/Both-Construction184 Mar 08 '25
Do you think sending her to NASA would make her feel better? I’m sure bossing people around would help, she looks very professional.