We posted about our rat Kenzie about 2 months ago and what could be a possible abscess on the side of her head. Since then we have been giving her daily treatments of Baytril, cleaning with different medications and have even tried CBD salves. It continues to grow and has messed up one ear and now looks to be growing towards her eye. She has remained active and eats all the time. Her quality of life does not really seem to be impacted, but with the growth now moving towards her eye we are wondering at what point should we give up and have her laid to rest? She is around 2 years and six months. Thoughts or opinions of what to do? See pics below.
Quality of Life Decision
- Thread starter Randall
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- abscess quality of life tumors
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Coffee Babies
Active Member
Have you brought her to a vet?
Not recently because the last time she went to the vet they said they could do nothing else. So basically the next time we take her back would be and end of life decision. We just don't know when to make that decision since she is still eating and acting normal.
Coffee Babies
Active Member
This is what I found on abscess if you think that's what it is: Health Guide: Abscess
Big Schpog
Well-Known Member
I'd bring her to a different vet. That looks horrible.
I would try calling around to all the exotic vets and asking for the Dr's email address. Send a detailed message, and ask what your options are. This may help you weed out the ones who are unskilled in rat treatments, or the ones who only care about billing for unnecessary tests. Don't ask to speak to them when you call however because they are probably busy seeing patients and they will just say make an appointment.
A local exotic vet in my area for example- "MD Avian & Exotics"- is taking advantage of Covid to gouge the hell out of all their patients. They have stopped scheduling visits all together and only see people for same day "emergency visits", regardless of whether or not is is an actual emergency, and somehow this justifies charging $150 just to get in the door. In the area the going rate for a vet visit is ~$50. Clearly they just want to weed out the poor people who cannot afford a battery of up-sells, unnecessary x-rays, etc.
Unless you are very lucky you will probably have to drive a ways to find a good rat vet- even those who claim to be exotics vets are rarely rat experts IME.
A local exotic vet in my area for example- "MD Avian & Exotics"- is taking advantage of Covid to gouge the hell out of all their patients. They have stopped scheduling visits all together and only see people for same day "emergency visits", regardless of whether or not is is an actual emergency, and somehow this justifies charging $150 just to get in the door. In the area the going rate for a vet visit is ~$50. Clearly they just want to weed out the poor people who cannot afford a battery of up-sells, unnecessary x-rays, etc.
Unless you are very lucky you will probably have to drive a ways to find a good rat vet- even those who claim to be exotics vets are rarely rat experts IME.
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Big Schpog
Well-Known Member
We have an ER vet here who for emergencies charged $165 just to walk in the door. I had a rat that had problems breathing so of course I spared no expense but yeah, that's insane.
