Silly Cera's Bump - Gaping Crater-Hole Pics!

[mamarat]

Aww poor baby girl. Sending lots of healing vibes.

 

[jorats]

I'd say it's better news than a tooth abscess. Poor darling though... She looks miserable.
That is such a good idea, using the cozy boat in the carrier!

 

[Godmother]

Poor sweetie-pie, hope she feels better soon. Love your idea of the cozy boat in the carrier. It is a perfect solution.

 

[M0onkist]

I have to say, the Cozy Boat is now going to be my absolute-essential when it comes to traveling and vet visits and the like - I had at least a dozen moments of 'why didn't it occur to me before to use it for this?!' It's brilliant for its climate control too - they can be warm and cozy (and safe and hidden), or more adventurous and cool - and each rat can kind of choose for its own. I know I certainly felt good knowing that Cera had such a cozy thing to rest on while I was driving back - she nestled herself into a fold of the flat part so her head was cushioned and slept most of the way back, no fuss and no muss.

Well, she's still swollen like you wouldn't believe (like the photograph), but she's taken all her meds (including her metacam the second she got home), she's drunk a couple of small soy-dishes (the kind that you get in Chinatown) of Ensure, and one of Ensure/baby cereal. She's looking more bright-eyed and definitely has her coordination back (no more ratty hangover), but I can tell she's still somewhat miserable. Ducky, bless her soul, is letting her have the blue Cozy Boat all to herself, and is presently resting but watchful in the hammock that hangs under the level where Cera is.

 

[mamarat]

It's so sweet to see them take care of each other.

 

[M0onkist]

It really is sweet, and a relief - if Ducky wasn't there I think I'd be staying up all night with Cera just to watch her... but I know her sister is probably finer-tuned to all things rat-related than I could ever be (after all, I'm only a human!).

I started crying when I went down to check on her half an hour ago - I put her on my lap and was crooning in her ear about how brave and wonderful she was, and she got up on her hind legs and started licking my nose! She's such a huge nose-licker... she had no interest in my nose right after the procedure, but now she's licking again, swollen or not. And then she licked the tears on my hands, licked my nose again, ate more food, and licked my nose for good measure - then carefully washed her face. She even bruxxed a bit on my lap, so I put her back in the cage - don't want her to hurt herself more just because she's happy (and I can only assume/hope it's not pain as she's maxed out on metacam).

In terms of swelling she's the same as before, maybe a titch worse - I keep telling myself that is actually normal, which, sadly, it is: the oral surgeon warned me that swelling wouldn't max for wisdom tooth removal until a day or two after the procedure itself. She is still well able to lick food up though, and can nibble/lick her paws clean.

I think, considering it's my first rattie-abscess, I'm holding my sanity together okay... Ironically, I was always more together when I was combating my own abscesses (cellulitis some years ago) than I am with my rat's abscess.

 

[Dazzle87]

Aww poor girl. So nice Ducky is taking care of her though.

Glad she enjoyed some time with you too, how sweet.

 

[lilspaz68]

The metro is a very good one at getting into deep-inside infections and keep up the metacam for your sweet girl.

Poor licky Cera, glad she was feeling better enough to help cheer up her Mom a little.

She should be even better today, especially after the anethesia wears off.

 

[M0onkist]

She is actually looking a LOT better - the swelling has gone down (there are facial features on the puffy side!), and she's eating at an almost-normal speed. Still baby cereal/Ensure and liquid Ensure on the side (dish of water also available, but she prefers the Ensure, and at least it's liquid one way or another). She's washing herself more ably, and doesn't seem as ginger with her face.

Ducky got very pestering with her last night, and started screeching when I picked her up, so just for the overnight I put Ducky in the travel cage (I *think* Cera might have become the alpha, because Ducky was acting a bit like a subordinate who wants to lead, sidling, a bit poofy, pushing her way under and around Cera who was too groggy to push back). She's back in with her sis now though, since I can check on them hourly.

 

[M0onkist]

So here's an absolutely crude approximation of what I saw on the x-ray - so you can sort of see, the black lines of tooth are what a normal ratty tooth should be - the solid red line is the outline of her upper teeth. You can sort of see the fang part in the back - that's what Dr. Munn trimmed off.

 

[crumbilina]

Glad to hear that she is doing better

:hugs: to you and lots of scritches to her!

 

[Joanne]

Hmmm, I can see how the tooth being thick could make it wear abnormally like that. But why would cause an infection?
I'm glad she's doing better!

 

[M0onkist]

I'm not sure if even Dr. Munn was able to figure out why it got infected - there were no obvious wound signs (like a nip in the wrong place letting bacteria in), and the pus pocket wasn't in the normal place for a tooth infection (normally it's in the root, in this case it looks to be in the gum or cheek-pouch lining). My *guess* (such as it is) is that the fang-like part might have scratched the cheek in some way, and just made it easier for bacteria to get in. I know it takes very little for infection sometimes - about five or six years ago I had six bouts with cellulitis in one year. Before we figured out that the residence bed had been used by a carrier of staphyllococcus aureus, most of my infections would be on my legs - and looking back, they almost always started right after I shaved. So even just scraping the skin to shave it is enough in some cases, if the immune system is compromised.

She is looking a LOT better now - besides the same localized bump on her cheek that she'd had before the vet trip, her face is back to its usual beautiful self. She gave me heart palpitations last night too when she decided to move the whole stash of lab blocks from the bottom level of the cage to the suspended Cozy Boat - she had no interest in listening to me voice concern about her teeth and her mouth! She was rearranging paper bags too (again, heart palpitations!), and she's back to licking Ensure at normal speed. Her breath is also back to normal, which is a big relief. And she's as OCD about licking my nose as before.

 

[M0onkist]

AUGH!

Cera went from being an ideal angel of a patient to being a little demonspawn. She does all the tricks - turns up her nose at strawberry Ensure meant to mask the flavor, holds meds in her mouth until she basically drools them out, then rubs her face into the liner until I can only imagine a few molecules get in.

Her bump appears to have localized, but it hasn't gotten any bigger - I just fear for her not getting her full dose. She'll hold it in her mouth and fight me too - I've got a trick that works for maybe 0.02cc (out of the 0.1x3 she's getting twice a day), which is to put her on her back and stroke her throat until she bruxxes to the third degree - this usually prompts swallowing, which then provokes an even more frantic struggle to get away from me and smear it all out of her mouth.

Tips? Tricks? A spare straightjacket for me or for Cera?

 

[hopefloats]

I usually hold my face rubbers till i see them start to swallow. I have a few that would rub their meds all over. Since I put their meds in nesquick strawberry syrup, they dont dare waste it on the ground. In fact they fight over the syringe. I bribed with the syringe and the syrup they learn fast that it is good after that it smooth sailing lol

 

[lilspaz68]

You will need to put the syringe deeper into her throat, past that flap of tissue behind the incisors...she will seem like she's gagging, but she'll be just fine once you get the sryinge out. Just some glares for foiling her LOL

 

[M0onkist]

Glares I can live with, because I might as well feel like an axe-murderer while succeeding, rather than failing!

And I did succeed! I practiced first with the Metacam and Baytril (flunked the first, got half in the second), and then got the metro in without a hitch! And as you predicted, murderous glares and piteous 'why do you have to do this to ME?!' looks, LoL

 

[M0onkist]

I am still a successful axe-murderer - but Cera is getting her metro 100% now, instead of probably drooling/smearing parts of it out.

Now, the bump has centered, and it looks like it might be coming to a head - I can't figure out which side it might drain on though, out near her whiskers or into her mouth somewhere. Despite the bump coming to a head though, she's chipper, cheerful, insane about licking my nose... and she's eating lab blocks, which shows really well that she's not in any pain inside her mouth.

So, without further ado, wonderful photos of my sweet angel:

 

[lilspaz68]

To me, it looks like it will open up externally. Such a sweet little gal :heart:

 

[M0onkist]

Should I be doing hot compresses, do you think? As much as she'll tolerate, I mean.

She really is a sweet angel - she does like some time alone after the meds though. Or she climbs up to my shoulder and then tries to smear as much as she can (which at that point isn't much) onto my neck and into my ear... lol