New protective system preventing self-mutilation of rat surgical sites

The paper presents a new approach to the rat self-mutilation mechanism, and introduces an appropriate protective system. Observations revealed that rats use three main implements to damage experimental sites, i.e., their teeth, forelegs, and hind legs. Ignoring even one of these factors diminishes the reliability of a protective system. Commonly used rat vests sometimes fail, since free fore- and hind legs may damage the system itself or the surgical area directly. A new system was designed to avoid these problems. A splint is glued to the fur of the rat neck and chest with fast-bonding glue, to prevent flexing the neck. Then, a vest is fabricated by wrapping adhesive tape around the chest and neck. One of the forelegs is immobilized by incorporating it into the tape vest. The action of the hind legs is neutralized by taping the feet with toes flexed. Such a protective system design is more reliable than those previously proposed, since teeth, forelegs, and hind legs are all prevented from self-mutilation. In addition, the tape vest and mittens fit the rat body well, and are easy to apply.