Poor thing! If a rodent is removing the bark (which is what this sounds like to me) the best thing you can do to help the rose is limit the access of rodents to the plant. I am no expert in rodent control, but if I were you I would make a cage out of a piece of woven wire fencing (or the like) to keep them off Felicia. You'd probably have to dig it in a bit at the bottom, and if a squirrel is at fault maybe close it off at the top as well. Maybe someone else has a better suggestion. :(

I did make a cage for it out of chicken wire. I was wondering if I should wrap the stem with a light fabric or if there is something else I can do to protect the bark.

Hopefully someone who has had this problem before will answer, but my gut feeling is that putting anything on the chewed canes might irritate them even more, or provide an environment in which the canes are more likely to become infected. Anyone else?

oh boy. I have this problem in my garden every year. Mostly I wait until the roses break dormancy (bark stripping generally only happens for me over the winter) and trim off anything that doesn't wake up. You are so far south, that you are in a totally different situation. If it is small spots, you could try coating the stripped spots with a tree sealer... I'm not sure how well that would work on roses.

In the past, I have wrapped damaged canes in some of my wax grafting tape, which seals off the damage from bugs, has some flexibility for new growth, and is easy to remove when the wound has healed up. It also helps support those damaged young canes. That would be my immediate band-aid fix in your situation, although I'm not sure if it is the ideal one. You definitely did the right thing, caging the rose off from further damage! Barriers tend to be the most effective rodent repeller.

I'm mad at myself... I should have left Felicia in her pot where it was safer :(