ewwww! soaked scab off abscess now what??? my first abscess

[Petunia]

EDITED with an update:
well it is an abscess, I was able to soak the scab off, she's been very very good!
but the crap inside is very thick and does not come out easily, I have read that you try to flush it out with warm salt water, but how much salt? I have those pkgs that you use in a neti pot, they have salt and baking soda in them, do i use those?
does the water have to be boiled or can it be hot tap water?

oh my poor little girl! well it was tender before the scab came off but now that its open she's not minding the warm compresses


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
well although I thought intro's were going well, it appears that my little girl Smidge has a bite abscess on her back, near her shoulders but not quite that high, if you know what I mean

it's roughly dime sized, a bit smaller, and feels like there's a scab on it but I can't see it, this is on her spine where her fur is black

I know that Hope scraped her back about a week or 10 days ago but I thought that had healed, and this seems higher up than I recall that scrape being

I didn't feel anything on her back last night when I put them all to bed, so I don't know, really, what caused this - but I am guessing it was from a bite- it could even be from her sister/cagemate as they have some pretty good squabbles from time to time

do you think she needs to see a vet or can I try to treat it at home?

and what exactly do I do? like, how warm do warm compresses have to be, and how wet should they be?
would it be easier to just soak the whole rat LOL minus her head of course

 

[hopefloats]

I have learned to not run them to the vet for abscesses. The ones I did take only came back. The ones I treated at home, havent showed back up. The vet usually will open it a bit, but It is generally closed by the time you get home. or they will use the needle and antibiotics.

Bindi was on doxy, and it made her abscess swell up huge. once i took her off of it, it shrank to a pea size from the large grape size it was.

I dont mess with them till they start to get the black/scab on them. Then they are mine! I soak them depending on where it is in the salt water solution recently I started to use epsom salt, if it is in an area that is ugly. I will do it a few times a day, till i see the skin nice and pink again, then I will do it maybe once or twice. I change everything in the cage out alot more when they have one open, but mine have been on their neuters lol so that area kinda drags the ground.
They might have tips about using a syringe I know shelagh has the coolest one ever, but For the areas I have had to work with a bowl of water is best for us.

 

[Petunia]

ok but how much salt per how much water? just shake some in or what?

 

[hopefloats]

I do that with the Epsom salt, about a tablespoon, i use a big bowl though.

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

If you are sure it is from a bite or a scratch then soaking it and flushing it with saline once it opens should be okay. But if you aren't sure of the cause then I would recommend seeing a vet to get abs. It also depends how deep it is, if you can't feel the entire capsule then seeing a vet is probably a good idea. I'm very weary of abscesses ever since one of my boys had one that started to leak into the surrounding tissues (not a common occurrence but it has made me very aware of how dangerous abscesses can get.

I have learned to not run them to the vet for abscesses. The ones I did take only came back. The ones I treated at home, havent showed back up. The vet usually will open it a bit, but It is generally closed by the time you get home. or they will use the needle and antibiotics.

Your vet should open the abscess wide enough to properly clean it out and then leave it open so it can keep draining and so you can flush it along with providing abs. That's what my vet has always done for me in the past.

 

[lilspaz68]

I use the saline flush packets in warm water too Althea.

The saline should help soften and break up the nasty cheesy stuff inside the cavity

 

[Petunia]

oops sorry missed your post Shelagh

I got the pkgs (a box of "refills" for a neti pot) and it doesn't say how many pkgs per how much water

can you tell me how much water to use per pkg?

thanks!

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

I use preloaded saline solution syringes and they are only 0.9% sodium chloride. Sorry I'm not more help, I'm just lucky enough to have a sister who has access to it.

 

[Petunia]

If you are sure it is from a bite or a scratch then soaking it and flushing it with saline once it opens should be okay. But if you aren't sure of the cause then I would recommend seeing a vet to get abs. It also depends how deep it is, if you can't feel the entire capsule then seeing a vet is probably a good idea.

I can feel the entire capsule and I'm just about 100% sure it's from a bite wound. it's right along her spine is wider than it is deep, it's not very deep at all. more like a disc shape than a globe shape, you know? like a frisbee shape?

she's only 3 mos old so I'm thinking she'll heal fast.

 

[Petunia]

I use preloaded saline solution syringes and they are only 0.9% sodium chloride. Sorry I'm not more help, I'm just lucky enough to have a sister who has access to it.

cool!
do this syringes have needles on them? I am assuming they don't and have just a blunt end

I used to have a neat oral syringe with a curve in it, was nice for flushing things out, can't seem to find it.

probably would want a new clean one anyway

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

I think you will know very quickly if she will need to see a vet or not. As gross as it is you should take a good sniff of the abscess (although I imagine you have already smelled it) so you have an idea what the infection smells like. This way you should be able to smell when the infection is gone.

The syringes she gets me are needle-less and I know the syringe you mean, I had one when I had my wisdom teeth taken out.

 

[Petunia]

I think you will know very quickly if she will need to see a vet or not. As gross as it is you should take a good sniff of the abscess (although I imagine you have already smelled it) so you have an idea what the infection smells like. This way you should be able to smell when the infection is gone.

The syringes she gets me are needle-less and I know the syringe you mean, I had one when I had my wisdom teeth taken out.

I can't smell a thing, actually- but that's probably because of my allergies :lol: I put her up near my nose and sniffed and couldn't smell anything at all.

my nose isn't stuffed up but this time of year, it just gets to the point where I can't smell or taste anything even if it's not stuffed up. It might be from the nasal spray I use, I don't know

But I will keep it flushed out, I just changed all the bedding so everything is nice and clean.


does the color of the pus mean anything? I mean is green worse than yellow? it's yellow now, the only part that was green was just under the scab, and that was more liquid than what's left inside, which is, as was mentioned, kinda cheesie looking (ew, I may never eat cheese again :lol: )

I just remembered this ISN"T my first abscess, Tilly had some little ones on her tail- they had black scabs and green crap inside and never had a capsule full of cheese like this sucker, though lol
they were more like zits. this thing is pretty gross looking.

and she's too pretty a girl to have this ugly thing on her! harumph

thanks for all your help everyone!

 

[Petunia]

oh it's a good thing I write everything that happens with these girls, my memory is so bad


I found this in a post about the intro's going in reverse, posted on Thursday:
"she did break the skin on Smidge, not really bad but bad enough that she's got a scab on her back"

so that's when it happened!

I gotta go check her again and do another flush, I'll keep you updated, and that way, I"ll also have a record to refer back to, when I can't remember what happened when to whom and why :roll: :lol:

 

[Katzedecimal]

The water for making saline for washing wounds should absolutely be boiled then cooled. If the water isn't boiled, the solution is not sterile and will introduce other bacteria into the wound. The other alternative is to use sterile distilled water bought at the pharmacy.

Wound saline is very easy to make. This recipe is for humans but should work on other mammals as well, as we all have similar salt content in our body fluids. I used this recipe to make saline for my husband's head wound.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2056079_make-saline-solution-clean-wound.html