I had an awful scare today! Harlequin one of my "foster kittens" likes to lick the cage bars of my rats' cage for some reason and I always pick her up by the scruff and put her on the floor to discourage her. Well she did it today and I put her down and told her she better stop or she was going to get bitten. Well she jumped back up a few minutes later and then she was suddenly yowling and struggling! I ran over and one of the rats had Harlequin's tongue clamped in her jaws, the tongue was pulled through the cage bars and the rat was pulling and would not let go! I banged on the cage and got Harlequin's tongue free but she was bleeding all over... She leaped away and ran into the kitchen. I followed her and grabbed a paper towel. There was a trail of blood leading to the kitchen and a puddle underneath where she was crouching. I got to her and tried to stop the bleeding but there was so much blood I couldn't find the source to press the paper towel to it... I tried to put pressure on her tongue but it was very difficult. I finally found where the bite was, it was the underside of her tongue... There were splashes and puddles of blood all over the place.
I held paper towels on her tongue and it stopped bleeding as much but was swelling so I got the phone and called my vet, unfortunately she was in surgery so I couldn't talk to her but I told the receptionist I was bringing Harley in... When the vet looked at it there was a huge blood blister type thing underneath Harley's tongue and it was still bleeding a little. She said it can take quite a long time for it to fully form a clot. She gave Harley an anti-inflammatory shot to bring the swelling down and an antibiotic shot and sent us home with Clavamox. Poor Harley is resting on my bed now. I offered her some food but she wasn't interested. The vet didn't give her any painkillers because she thought if it didn't hurt Harley would probably get too rowdy and end up opening the wound again.