Face/Eye injury on a male adult rat

Question

My boys apparently got in a fight today while I was gone and I came home to a decently bloody sight. I discovered the wound at 3:29 AM and it’s currently 4:46AM meaning that the vet doesn’t open for another 3 hours. I cleaned the wound as best I could but he just wanted water, food and to go to sleep.

I have separated him into another enclosure with clean blankets and a hide to sleep in along with a bowl of water and some food. He’s gone to sleep without much of a fuss as I think the whole ordeal has put him into shock.

The wound isn’t actively bleeding but I haven’t removed the dried blood/huge scab looking piece as I am sure that is what has closed the wound.

If he’s comfortable enough to sleep, eat and drink will he be okay for three hours while we wait for the vet to open?

(I would take him to emergency but they charge $150 to just be seen while my vet only charges $75 to be seen.)

I have been checking on him since he settled down and he seems to have relaxed but I am just panicking. They are my first set of rats and they are both usually very calm and relaxed... I don’t know why they got into such a fight.

Answer 1

I hope it's OK with your boys right now, but for the future and possible other people with a similar problem... You haven't told us how old are the rats and how long they know each other. The most likely case is that they were trying to establish which one is the alpha one.

As you can find in Wikipedia:

Particularly with males, there can be some fighting in the beginning, but once an alpha rat has been determined, the rats should get along well. Within two weeks to a month, the rats will most likely have adjusted and become friendlier with each other. Rats are generally very friendly to other cage mates.

You should observe your boys if that was an accident or one of them has a really nasty character, because usually the fights shouldn't be bloody, since they usually don't want to hurt each other but only to determine who is the alpha one, if that's the case.