Possible abcess on the face?

[lindsayfawn]

wow the abcess filled up again! We got some more liquidy type stuff out this time and the bump came down a little. I tried to get a few pictures but I'm still figuring out how to make this camera focus right.

She was all cuddled up with Mischa and Elizabeth and Ginger. You can see the little hole from the abcess on her face though it isn't a bump anymore unless you feel her face there's a small hard thing in there.

The abcess is in the middle of her tummy...no idea how she would have gotten this. This was before it was poped again.

And after we got the scab off. the bump came down a little bit. At least it's not as big as it was yesterday!

 

[PiedPiper]

Good job, girls! Keeping flushing and draining it! So ... you're pretty sure it's just an abscess on her belly? No tumour?

 

[lindsayfawn]

She was pretty wiggly and didn't really want us to check out her tummy. But I don't think I could feel what I had felt before. I'll check again in a bit. She's kinda stressed out right now and cuddlin with the girls. She for sure has some type of lump on her jawline neck area where the first abcess was.
She's still has some issues though. She has never been able to itch her ears 'n stuff. She'll have to sit down and litterally hold her back foot with her hands to even be able to clean them. I think her face is still bothering her becuase she'll do the sideways head turn as if she wants to itch it but she can't becuase her legs don't work that way or she can't make them work that way. *sighs* I feel really bad for her

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

aww poor girl :heart:

 

[PiedPiper]

Poor Willow. :hugs:

 

[lindsayfawn]

Wow we got lots more out of the abcess. More of the thick grey stuff :sick2: So nasty. poor girl. The abcess is still kinda big and there are two holes to it. One on the top and one on the side. We flushed it with the Saline stuff and soaked her a bit. So I hope this will help clear it out...it's pretty nasty. I'm thinking that the lumps we felt was this abcess starting and not a tumor becuase I couldn't really feel any more lumps in her tummy.
Just have to keep an eye on her I guess, she sure is a fighter.

 

[Godmother]

Poor sweetie. I hope that those nasty abscesses clear up soon.

 

[dubchick]

me too!!! poor willow....

 

[lindsayfawn]

How long does it take for an abcess to clear up? This tummy one seems more trouble then her jaw one. I think Dr.Dunnett must have gotten most of it out on her visit because we only needed to pop it once. This tummy one we've had to pop already 4 times or so and still getting stuff.
This morning there wasn't as much stuff but it's still quite a little lump. Will it eventually go down?

 

[jorats]

A big one could take a week to two weeks.
Is she on Baytril still? She'll need to be on it for a while.

 

[lindsayfawn]

Yup she's still on the baytril twice a day. I hope no more pop up on her poor girl.

 

[Fidget]

Aw baby baby baby Wilow... Good thing she's in loving and caring hands, a kid could have died from that without help.

The way I think of abscesses is I think of the body in layers and an absess as a ball of nasty stuff in there. As layers heal from the inside out under it it gets pushed to the surface, but if a layer heals above it before the ones under heal and push it to the surface it get trapped in between layers. And you have to open an exit for it. If you can get it all out - good, but that's not easy and if there's any left it multiplies. So maybe you have to open and flush a few times til all the inside layers are healed and it has nowhere to go but out. So it could be short-term or long term depending on how many layers have to heal under it. A tummy goes pretty deep, a jaw doesn't.
It'll heal, the inner healing is walling it off and pushing it to the surface. Just keep letting and getting it out at the surface.

 

[lindsayfawn]

We've been getting stuff out of it two times a day and flushing it with saline. THere's two holes in the abcess. There's a bigger one in the center and then a small one on the side so when we flush it the saline comes out the smaller hole. It's gone down a lot but it's still the size of a penny I'd say.
I'm thinking what we had felt before was the abcess and not tumors becuase I can't feel any tumors....so hopefully she has known. Poor thing has been through enough.

 

[jorats]

That would be really great if all it was were abscesses.
You're doing a good job with her. :thumbup:

 

[PiedPiper]

You two are awesome rattie Mums! She's already much, much better then she was. Fidget posted a very good description of how an abscess works. Just keep doing everything you're doing until that nasty thing is completely healed. :thumbup:

 

[lindsayfawn]

Well the abcess seems to only be about the size of a large pea! So it's come down quite a lot because it was huge before. We're going to try and drain it again today and see if we can get anything out of it. Abcess are sure a pain in the butt!

 

[Fidget]

Abscesses are miserable! the only good thing you can say about them is that they are not tumors, and they usually hurt us more than they hurt the kids. :roll:
So happy to hear things are looking better there!

 

[PiedPiper]

Abscesses are miserable! the only good thing you can say about them is that they are not tumors, and they usually hurt us more than they hurt the kids. :roll:

:nod:

 

[lindsayfawn]

There didn't seem to be anything in the abcess yesterday when we got the scabs off. It looks like it's healing because when you can see in the hole it doesn't look like a huge crater in there anymore. Man rats heal fast! So amazing.

 

[mamarat]

:joy: