Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / March 2008

Hello
My pet rat just had surgery to remove a small lump. No problems with
the surgery or the stitches; however I noticed about a week after
surgery, she's scratching around the cut a lot (not the stitching
itself), where her fur is shaved.  There are small wounds, no bleeding
though.  There are some larger areas that have scabbed over, where
there was fur (We suspect her cagemate bit her so we're going to try
separating them). Additionally, the fur hasn't really grown back yet
and it's been 2 weeks.

My questions

a) Is this normal?  Is new fur itchy?
b) How long does it take for fur to grow back? Could she be barbering
herself?
c) Anything I can do to ease her discomfort?

I'm going to make another appt with the vet but it'll be a few days
before we'll be able to get in and I was wondering if there was
anything I could do in the meantime.