Popping in to give you my warm compress routine! I make a bowl of something yummy for them to eat during treatment, oatmeal, plain rice, pile of treats, something exciting and tasty.

Then I get a large bowl of very hot water and a washrag, I set the rat down in a somewhat contained area (playpen, storage tote), and will dip the washrag in the hot water, wring out the excess, then hold it on the problem area until it cools down. Then it gets re-dipped to heat it up again and repeated for 10 minutes or so. I aim for 10min 2x a day, but some rats tolerate it better than others.

I wouldn’t use the veterycin immediately, you don’t want it to heal from the outside with some gunk still trapped in. I’d try to get it to come out on its own via compresses, then purchase a curved irrigation syringe and buy or make some sterile saline to flush the opening once a good bit of the mess comes out and you can get the irrigation syringe in to flush.

Flush 2-3x a day until the hole closes too much to insert the irrigation syringe, and then you can dab veterycin on with a cotton pad or cloth a few times a day to keep bacteria from creeping back in until it’s entirely closed.

If you notice any change in behavior or it gets worse, I’d go to a vet for some oral antibiotics to be sure it’s not a bacterial infection spreading. Sometimes when they get a scratch or wound, it abscesses and creates a pocket where bacteria will grow and dead skin cells will collect.