post surgical site has ballooned up, assume infected

[Petunia]

Tilly's surgical site from where she had her tumor removed has been healing very well- til today

she had removed 5 of the 9 staples but after that, she'd been leaving it alone and it was progressing nicely.

Sometime yesterday, though she picked at it a bit and there was a small red opening between two of the staples.
Today, the area of the incision is all puffed up and looks like there's a tumor in it again, but of course there isn't- I am assuming it's horribly infected/abscessed

I was able to get some antibiotic from another rat owner who had extra leftover from her rat's post surgical infection and have started her on those, but until I can talk to the vet (tomorrow)
is there anything else I should be doing?
warm compresses?
see if I can squeeze anything out of it?
leave it be?

darn it, she was doing so well


thanks for any advice/suggestions!

 

[victoria]

You can try a warm compress as it won't hurt even if it's not an abscess, but I would not try to squeeze anything out because it may hurt her. It could also be a leaking blood vessel Petunia, it's rare but I have had it happen. See what the vet says... I had Sophie's aspirated to see if it was an abscess but it was just serum and red blood cells. It ended up getting huge (she was dragging it when she walked) before the pressure closed the blood vessel back up and she reabsorbed the fluid. :hugs:

 

[lilspaz68]

Does the swelling feel soft and fluidy?

 

[lilspaz68]

In Chat we discovered that the swelling is hard, came up suddenly BUT there is absolutely no smell of infection and the swelling is below the incision site (on her upper thigh) where the incision looks great. Our discussion leads us to the very real possibility of a seroma. Petunia's vet is inexperienced with removals and probably left a big pocket under the skin after the tumor was removed. The body's fluids naturally will drain into this cavity. Most times the body will reabsorb the fluids, but occasionally the fluid will need to be drained by the vet.

 

[victoria]

That's exactly what happened to Sophie, except that my vet put in 3 internal sutures and it still happened. I had it drained when I first noticed it because I was worried it was an abscess but it was not infected and it took almost a month to reabsorb completely. For almost half of that time she was dragging this huge fluid bubble under her and it almost looked bruised, but she was not bothered by it and it went away on it's own. (I think I took her to the vet 3 times for it in total and they kept telling me to relax.) They did give me Metacam for her to reduce some of the swelling and I kept her on antibiotics during that time as well because she was a bit sniffly and we knew she had to go in for another procedure, but other than that there were no other concerns with her. I hope that's what it is with Tilly... it looks awful but it clears up on it's own.

 

[jorats]

Hopefully it will resolve by itself. Sending healing vibes.

 

[Petunia]

thanks all, I'll let you know what happens but there may be a slight delay, just got news that one of my nephews has died, only 30yrs old

my brother must be beside himself.

 

[victoria]

I'm so sorry Petunia.

 

I'm sorry!

 

[jorats]

Oh my... I'm so sorry Petunia.

 

[mamarat]

How sad, I'm so sorry, Petunia.