abscess?

[Liz]

I noticed this morning that one of my three-month-old boys, Yankee, has a lump (about a cm diameter) on his belly right in front of his left back leg. It wasn't there as of last night, or at least wasn't this noticeable.

I'm thinking it's an abscess, and I'll give a quick backstory for my reason:
Yankee was neutered about seven weeks ago with no problems by the veterinarian of the woman who rescued him and his two brothers. About 4 weeks ago, I left for a week to visit family, and my husband was caring for the rats (and not handling them as much as I do). When I came home, I found that Yankee had what looked like a small dark scab on his belly toward his right back leg. To me, it looked like an abscess had opened up, drained, and healed over. I kept an eye on it, but there was no redness, swelling, odor, etc., and it got smaller and appeared to heal up nicely.

The bump that's there now is on the opposite side. I'm wondering if there was still some infection there and another abscess formed (though I know there's also a small chance it is a tumor).

Does this sound reasonable? And if so, should antibiotics clear it up well? I'm taking him to the vet at 4 this afternoon, but have no idea which vet I'll see, so I want to be armed with information, lol. Is there a particular antibiotic that works best? And should they be on one longer than you'd expect for a dog or a cat, the way they need to be for URIs?

I go to a larger vet hospital where you pretty much see whomever is available when you need a same-day appointment, but so far they have all been open to whatever info I bring in with me. No ego issues, lol.

 

[Liz]

After looking over a couple of other threads about abscesses - is there anything I can do for Yankee before his appointment, or over the next few days if it's determined he does have an abscess? i.e. warm compress, soak, etc.?

And if so, any tips on the best ways to do a compress or to soak it?

Thanks so much!

 

[handmeafish]

A warm epsom salt soak will help draw out nastiness and might help keep the infection from getting worse.
Or just rinsing with saline....
Is it under the skin? because this wont help if its under the skin.

 

[Liz]

Is it under the skin? because this wont help if its under the skin.

Yes, it's under the skin. No opening as of yet.

 

[MomRat]

A hot compress can help bring it to the surface. Soaking won't do much unless it has at least reached the 'black patch right under the fur' stage. We've treated abscesses without ABS before, but if he's already had one, you're probably better off kicking them all out of his system.

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

If the vet determines it is and abscess then Baytril would be a good idea, especially since he's already had one abscess and you should only need 2 weeks of it.

 

[jorats]

You're right, sounds like an abscess. Good news is that they are easily treated with meds.
If you are seeing the vet, you don't need to do anything before hand. If you were trying to treat at home, then you start with the warm compresses.

 

[Liz]

The vet agreed it feels like an abscess. He's on antibiotics for two weeks, and I'm going to do warm compresses to try and encourage it to open up. If it gets worse or he starts acting sick I'll take him back and they will lance it. She did say she felt a soft spot on it, though, so we're hoping it happens on its own and the antibiotics keep it in check until then.

Thanks for all the input! I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[Liz]

So it's been a week and Yankee's abscess hasn't opened up yet, but I had been trying warm compresses with a washcloth and just switched a couple of days ago to soaking in warm water in the kitchen sink.

What's a good amount of time to wait? He's on an antibiotic and is eating, drinking, and active. Do you think the soaks will get it opened up faster? And should I be putting something like epsom salt in the water? The washcloth method was just too hard to keep warm and to keep in place. How long do you wait before having it lanced by the vet? I'd really like to have this happen at home so I don't have to stress Yankee out with another trip to the vet.

I called to give the vet an update, and I'm hoping to let her know what some knowledgeable rat people say when she calls back. She doesn't have much experience with rats, but is open to the information I gather up for her, lol.

 

[MomRat]

We've had abscesses we didn't notice the lump for before there was a gaping hole and they had opened on their own, and we've had lumps that hung out for so long(4 months!!) that we decided it was scar tissue and were pretty darn surprised when the black surfaced. So, if he's not acting sick and it's not growing, its not a huge time constraint.

 

[jorats]

Sometimes it takes three weeks on meds for the lump to shrink and not necessarily open up.
But if you are trying for it to open up warm compresses on the lump will make it come to a head and making it more likely to burst open.

 

[Liz]

So after days of warm baths in the sink, the abscess started looking dark in one area yesterday morning. It kind of scabbed over, and when I checked him this evening it had opened up.

I squeezed some icky green puss out (guh :sick2: ) and then took him in the bathroom and squirted it out a few times with saline solution until I was just getting clear liquid back out. He wasn't real happy with me afterward, especially after I gave him his antibiotics and some ibuprofen (it looked like it was probably sore).

Now everybody else in the cage is following him around licking him, lol, they can still smell where I wiped off the meds that didn't quite make it down his throat. Hopefully the antibiotics and daily cleaning wrap this adventure up soon.

 

[jorats]

Now that it's open, keep cleaning it and it will heal faster.