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

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M0onkist said:
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

Just leave it for now, its doing "something" which is what you want. It should naturally come to a head soon enough.
 
Have I given you credit before now for smelling the infection on her breath? You making me smell abscesses or infections when I'd visit really helped me to worry and get her into Dr. Munn (and push for seeing him on the last day he worked before he went out of town). :D You rock yet again!
 
Hahaha...Jo (Jorats) is the one who got me using my nose as a tool years ago, and I just pass it on. For anyone who hasn't visited, I usually have something medical I can show you amongst my crews so you can learn. LOL
 
Well, the abscess *did* open up on the outside! Three cheers to Shelagh's wisdom! And thanks for posting all those photos of Twiggy's abscess, it helped a lot to get a sense of what was going to happen.

Basically, I could tell that some of the skin on the very tip of the bump died off a couple of days ago (what I guessed would form the scab). I kept a very careful watch on it, knew there was probably a hard pus ball right underneath the scab (a lot like Twiggy's looked like from his ear). Tonight I brought the girls out to say hello to Dad, and noticed that when Cera groomed there was a titch of pus coming out the bottom.

Ran off with her to the basement, tossed Ducky into the CN. Set up on the washing machine (easily sterilized) with two layers of nappy blankets, a Ziploc tub of lukewarm water, Q-tips, a syringe, and lots of gauze. I didn't take pictures because *my* nerves were shot - more than once I really wanted to have a drink, but figured I needed to keep the whole area sterile.

Anyway, the scab is opened up along the whole bottom half - there's still hair on it, which kind of makes it hard to see inside most of the time (except right after flushing it). Her whiskers seem largely unaffected, the tissue underneath after flushing was sort of reddish and raw, but the edge looked very good. I imagine that she is happy the pressure is gone, and I know she's clean since there's a tiny bit of plasma/blood discharge, so she won't eat the yicky stuff. She is still grooming her face, albeit carefully. I'm not sure if the scab will come off on its own or if I'll have to soak it again in the morning - we'll see, but she was fed up and I'd done all I could conceivably do for tonight.

On an interesting note, not that this is news, she's a canny little bugger. She seemed to notice whenever I would flush her abscess or do things to it, I was using my right hand, and kept her still with my left. So after a few rounds, she would whirl around and face me resolutely, and refuse to wander anywhere that left her tail facing me (so I could keep flushing). I think she figured out I'm right-handed!
 
I'm glad the abscess finally drained. Disappointed there are no gross pictures to admire. LOL
And rats are super smart figuring stuff out like that!
 
LoL, I have a few now!!

Scab came off tonight - I was soaking it and gently stroking along her whiskers (otherwise she doesn't stay still) and it just came off, one nice hairy clumpy scab. >.<
[spoil:2sy1oiu0]Right after the scab came off, before the new pus was washed off:
cerascab1.jpg


Now halfway through irrigation, you can see the small hole:
Cerascab2.jpg


And here&#39;s when all is cleaned off, and the hole is there - I can only imagine the hole is linked to where the infection started near the tooth?
Cerascab3.jpg
[/spoil:2sy1oiu0]
 
I hate to say it, but it looks so good in the last picture - all cleaned out!
So what was the cause of the infection? Are they going to have to remove her tooth? If the tooth was the cause of the infection, wouldn't it stop growing?
 
it is sad to think that last picture does look good hole and all. glad it is finally clearing up.
 
I don't think it goes to the nasal cavity - before I knew that tiny hole was in the bottom, I was irrigating/flushing it, and never once did she choke or sneeze water.

I think it might be a dead-end hole - or, one that goes into her mouth somewhere. Dr. Munn did notice while he was inspecting her teeth a bit of pus come out near one of them.
 

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