is this ringtail? updated- It's an abscess :P

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Petunia

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My 2 yr old girl Clair has 3 tumors, one is inguinal, I guess? down near her bottom,

SHe's been doing ok pooping and peeing, she gets lots of veggies, I hope that helps


but today I noticed on the underside of her tail, near the base, there's a round swollen area, like a mini bulls eye

there's a black dot in the middle, a pink/light red inflamed circle around that and then just the swollen area, the same color as the rest of the tail

i'll try to get photos of it, it won't be easy, it's off to one side but it's on the bottom of the tail

what should I do?

I have been using an electric space heater in the rat room off and on because it gets so cold in there, but now I am worried I've dried out the air too much so I stopped using it

I've got pans of water to raise the humidity.

what else can i do til i figure out what it is?



here are the photos, thanks to Jorats for the album!!

NOTE: these are over exposed, everything is actually darker than shown in photos, spot on tail is black

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two of her tumors
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still bright eyed and happy, even with the 3 tumors, she gets around pretty well, she drags her feet a lot but she can move pretty fast if there's food around
image.php
 
It looks a lot like what Dominic has been dealing with. See viewtopic.php?f=20&t=22171 Is it just a surface injury, or is it swollen/abscessed looking?

I'd turn on a humidifier, soak it in warm salt water, express any pus(and get ABS if there is pus), and use neosporin(try to prevent licking).
 
well several ppl noticed/commented on the swelling and that it looked like a pimple so I screwed up my courage and squeezed it (on the sides of it)
and it popped, just like a zit
ew
green pus inside, and then there was a tiny bit of blood.

I am so proud of my girl, this couldn't have been pleasant but she didn't squirm too much and only let out the faintest squeak when I pressed on the sides of it the 3rd time, trying to be sure it was all emptied out of the pus.

I washed it as best I could but I am guessing maybe it needs to be soaked? in warm water?

is that what you do?

I put some triple antibiotic ointment on it and she's trying to clean it off, but the poor girl has a lot of trouble keeping that area clean because of her tumors.

probably why it got infected in the first place, although I change the fleece bedding in her cage daily, and the hammocks ever other day.

so that's why I thought ring tail, plus the dry air, so I did increase the humidity in here. which is good anyway because winter air is so dry


so will she need oral antibiotics? I might have a little bactrim left over (SMZ TMP i think is another name for it)

thanks guys!
 
thanks! she was just on my lap for about an hour, chowed down on some puffed wheats and took a nap.
she seems to be feeling just fine!

I :heart: her sooo much.
 

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