Alongside general war crimes, growing and selling illegal substances and now strangely enough, childbirth, you can also care for animals in Rimworld. Colonists with the Animals skill can tame fuzzy (or not so fuzzy) creatures to be apart of the colony.
Unfortunately just like colonists, these creatures can also be hurt. This guide will show you how you can heal animals in Rimworld, should something happen to them.
Checking an Animal Injuries
Just like with humanoid pawns, animals will all have their own health tabs as well. Their injuries will be apart of one of their limbs or an overall sickness. You can see whether an animal is injured or not through the animal’s Health tab.
To view this health information screen, select the animal and then select the option on the bottom left reading Health. Here you can check on the animals vitals and see a list of injuries on the right hand side of the panel. You can also change which types of medicine to use on your animals here through the icons at the top of this panel.
Creating a Medical Animal Spot
Just like pawns, animals also need somewhere for colonists to operate on them. For colonists who are sick, you will need to create a medical bed ideally in a clean bright environment. This is no different for animals as well. If there is nowhere for colonists to take animals to rest, they won’t try to help them.
The easiest thing you can do is to create an Animal Sleeping Spot and define it as a medical bed. This will ensure that sick animals are brought to this spot to be healed.
To do this, open up the Architect menu on the bottom left and under the Furniture tab select the item Animal Sleeping Spot. Place this on the ground. To give your animals the best chance of surgery success and to lower the rate of infection create a clean room for your doctors to work on them.
Once you have placed this spot down, select it and mark it as a Medical bed by selecting the option at the bottom of the screen, or by pressing H.
Ensuring You Have a Doctor Pawn to Heal Animals
One more thing to note about healing animals is that the pawn that is helping them is not the one which has the Animals skill. Your doctor pawn will work on pawns and animal injuries as well. Make sure you have at least one pawn assigned to be a doctor in the Work tab otherwise noone will heal your animals when they suffer injuries.
If an animal is badly injured and you wish to get them medical treatment right away, select your doctor pawn and right-click on the injured animal. You can then select the option to prioritize helping this injured animal.