Smidgen: Not sure this is a hernia, see last post pg3

[Petunia]

my chubby girl Smidgen has a er, I'd say she's got a fat butt but that would be rude -

she is swollen on one side of her anus, and the other side seems a bit swollen too

I let them play in the bathroom the other night and the first thing I thought was maybe she got something on her that irritated her bottom, so I sat her in a bowl of warm water (she was less than thrilled but tolerated it)


and then I thought, maybe she's constipated? would that make her anus bulge? so I gave her some applesauce.
I don't know if she's pooped since then, but basically nothing has changed.

the area does not look irritated or red, but it's bulging and swollen.

what could this be?
what should I do?
and will she need a vet asap or can I try home measures first?

she is looking fine, acting fine, does NOT seem bothered by it at all, thankfully.



Photos,
this is actually two views of the same photo:


Smidgen swollen by catnapt, on Flickr



Smidgen swelling near anus her left side by catnapt, on Flickr

 

[SQ]

Possibly an abscess .... if so antibiotics would be a good idea.
You could also try compressing.

How fast did it occur?
Pictures?

 

[lilspaz68]

give it a feel Althea...if its hard its likely to be a tumor.

 

[Petunia]

I'll try to get photos but she wiggles an awful lot, so getting her to hold still on her back will not be easy

not sure you can see it that well if I lift up her tail but I'll try that angle too

she's always looked lumpy in the belly area, like she ate a football and it was lodged in her tummy sideways, but I figured that was just her "build", short and squat.

Truthfully, this doesn't look like an abscess to me, not that I have nearly as much experience as either of you guys

Once I've gotten the single CN cleaned I'm going to put her and a buddy in there and watch to see what her stool is like, and make sure that she's still able to pass them.

Last night I thought I could see some stool in there, which is why I thought maybe constipated, so I soaked her butt and gave her the applesauce
This morning I don't see what I did last night, no dark spot that looks like feces, but she's still swollen, more on one side than the other.

OK off to find the camera and see if this little lady will let me humiliate her for her own good



ETA: I'm not sure how fast this came up, because I've just moved and haven't been as attentive as usual, I could have missed it

Usually I give them a full body check once a day, but I do that with my hands, rub the belly and rub them all over to feel for lumps and bumps, more so than doing a visual inspection, so this could have come on slowly. I don't know.

 

[Petunia]

update, added photos to the first post

just gave her a slice of banana, she nibbled some and then pushed the rest away

I'm worried she's constipated, she's not one to refuse food

what can I do for that?

 

[Petunia]

OK I think it's good news, the vet and I both think she's constipated.

The vet she saw is not an exotics specialist but doesn't mind seeing rats, usually sees them for resp issues though, not much else.

She was very gentle and felt her all over, and Smidgen didn't mind this at all. She was able to squeeze some hard dry poop out and then a bit more, and that seemed to have given my girl some relief. (the vet didn't think the stool was abnormal, I had to tell her it wasn't normal for a rat, too hard and dry= for a cat it would have been fine, and maybe for a rabbit?)

The vet apologized numerous times for not knowing if she was feeling impacted stool or not, saying that she usually does this on cats, where it's a lot easier to tell. She said she couldn't feel any masses or anything that seemed out of the ordinary.


So we are going with the "probably constipated" and treating that for now.

The swollen area is not only very soft but also NOT at all tender to the touch, not even when it was being squeezed!! so we don't think it's an abscess cuz those are usually tender, right?
No redness or other signs of irritation that either of us could see.



She put a few ccs of KY jelly into her rectum to see if that helps things get thru better, and then she was able to get a few more raisins out that were closer to normal.

so it's watch and wait, increase fluids, give her watery fruits but NOT a lot of fiber, go with more water than fiber (the one thing she ate recently that they never had before was a bit of a rice cake with flax seed and millet in it- I hadn't noticed when I got the rice cakes that it said "multi grain" on it and not just rice cakes, my bad)

and if she doesn't get better by Monday I'll get her in to the exotics vet.

She does look more comfortable now but I'm pretty sure she's got a lot more poop in there, so I"m getting the single CN set up for her and a buddy or two and will watch to see if she gets things moving on out!

I brought Teddy with us and he was so sweet, he was laying over Smidgen's shoulder and licking her and he kinda gave me this glare when I had to take her out of the carrier again cuz the vet wanted to take "one last look at her before we left"
LOL
Teddy is very protective of his ladies.

Smidgen was great, no stress at all so no fear poops from her or Teddy either- I have the most laid back rats, nothing really bothers them LOL


I'm thinking I"m gonna do a warm bath later, if it doesn't relax her, it may get her to fear poop instead, either way, I"m hoping she'll poop.

Vet said I could give her a 1/8 tablet of senecot if things don't move along on their own with the increase in fluids and fruits.

 

[lilspaz68]

Good news, let us know how she goes

 

[Petunia]

:thumbup:

 

[mamarat]

Good luck, hope she poops for you.

 

[Petunia]

thanks mamarat!

i'm finding that just like a watched cat, a watched rat never poos LOL

she's sleeping now anyway, but in a little while they all should all be up. :nod:

then we shall have some fun times together.
she is looking a lot more comfortable, she was just grooming her sister and her sister was boggling like crazy
:heart:

 

[Petunia]

OK I was starting to get worried, she still hadn't passed any stool on her own, although I was able to squeeze out the poop with the KY jelly around it, and then, nothing

so I put her in the sink full of warm water with Owen, my swimmer......and he pooped but only because I dropped something that made a loud noise, he loves the water, and was sticking his head under the faucet with the water running all over his head, silly guy LOL

Smidgen just stood in the water, on her back legs, about chest deep in the water, and buried her head in my nightgown and I just stroked her and she looked like this might be helping her somehow, so we just stood there and I stroked her and talked to her
and then came the loud noise, and Owen jumped out of the water and pooped on the counter, and Smidgen looked a bit worried....but not scared, really.

I felt around behind her bum and decided to give one more gentle squeeze, and a tiny dry poop came out, and then, with a little bit of help from me but I think mostly on her own/it's own, a large stool came out and she squeaked cuz that had to hurt, and then we were ALL very relieved!

I dried her off some and put her in the cage, and now I"m setting up the single CN to put her and a buddy in for over night to be sure she can poop on her own and to watch that swelling, which is about the same as before

here's the glorious wonderful raisin, I mean the big bad big hard raisin that stopped everything up, at least, that's what I'm hoping,
that it's the culprit and therefore it's arrival is glorious, even if it's an evil evil poopie!
:lol:

I included Owen's poops for comparison; Smidgen's first small hard poop got lost down the drain, though


poop by catnapt, on Flickr

 

[Roo]

:holysheep:

 

[TheRatQueen]

Lets hope this continues!

 

[mamarat]

:joy: for poop.

 

[jorats]

...and the poop is looking healthy too.

 

[Petunia]

well we're not out of the woods yet,
she did not poop again last night or today yet and she has that swollen area next to her anus still, in fact it may be a bit more swollen now

I am doing warm compresses/soaks and praying it's an abscess.

 

[Petunia]

my little chubby girl is not wanting to be held any more, she wants to be in the cage and hiding.

I've seen her do this thing where she splays her back legs very VERY wide and sits there like that, with her back legs about as far apart as they will go, and her belly low to the floor but not touching.
(she will lay down sometimes with her belly flat on the ground but she looks comfortable when she does that)

I am trying to imagine why she would do that super wide stance, if there's pain somewhere, or....??

she's able to pee just fine, but I'm pretty sure she hasn't pooped again. The swelling on the left side of her anus is still pretty much the same, possibly a tiny bit bigger

I'm getting a bad feeling that there's something going on inside that is causing the swelling and obstructing the passage of stool

 

[lilspaz68]

Oh dear

http://ratguide.com/health/figures/mega ... ure_4a.php

http://ratguide.com/health/figures/mega ... ure_4b.php

 

[Petunia]

we got two tiny rock hard poops that she passed on her own.

so, do you think I should try the Woody diet, or......?




is there any acceptable substitute for KY jelly or does it have to be that?

 

[lilspaz68]

I think you should look into the senekote

and I wouldn't try the Woody's Diet as that is for MC rats