Tumor, infection? Edit : It's an Abcess

[DarkBlade]

Hey all,

As you all know, Zumi passed away 2 weeks ago. Ever since she went away, her sister Yuki hasn't been well. The first week, she wouldn't eat anything. Now she's eating but I noticed she started having polysporin around her eyes 2 nights ago, and ALOT. Like Zumi's alot and she had very advanced Myco. Suddenly, BANG! She never had a single tiny drop of polys before. So I thought maybe she's stressed because of Cheese-Cake, the new baby female cuz she's really excited and Yuki's getting old. So I gave her some time alone to cool down. It worked perfectly. She seemed alright again. But this morning, she had a bit on the corner of her eyes and I noticed her neck and one of her cheek is like double sized of what it should be. It's hard and seems pretty well round although it goes from her cheek to under her head and spreads to mostly all her neck. Yuki pushes me away when I touch it although she doesn't go crazy about it. But you can easily see the difference between the cheek size. One is normal, the other is like double sized. And I compared her neck with Kamchie's and there's a huge different. It developped over 2 nights for sure. There was no sign of this 2 nights ago. So fast... Could it be tumor, an infection, ect..? Maybe it has something to do with her injection of ivec. but it's been 2 weeks so I don't know.

She has trouble eating solid food so I imagine it's very thight in her throat. I give her baby food and she eats alot of it. I don't want her chocking, not taking any chances with solid food.

So I don't know. Could it be that she's depressed because fo Zumi? Because she's gotten so sick since she went away.

I have a vet appointment the 25th of june and I don't really know what to do cuz she still needs treatment for lices like all my other rats except this time my vet is gonna give the treatment to me to give them orally. Still Ivec I imagine.

Oh Yuki had a beginning of Myco a couple months ago but I treated it and it never seemed to come back. Maybe it came back recently along with this.. bump on her neck and cheek.

Oh and she's still active, she runs around and seems to act normally and eats lots of baby food. I don't hear breathing trouble sounds but when i put my ear on her side, I can hear sniffing sound so I imagine her Myco came back.

Enyways, have any idea what it could be?

 

[jorats]

Sounds like her lymph nodes might be infected. Hopefully it's just part or secondary to the myco. Too bad your vet appointment is so far away.

 

[DarkBlade]

Ok it was an abcess. And it is a huge one, even my vet was impressed. It went into necro stage, busted somewhat and now it's smaller so it must be draining and Yuki's neck fur is all red and dirty every time I go see her even if I clean it.

I give her some baytril for it. 5mg/ml - 10mls Giving Yuki 0.5ml (cc) by mouth every 12 hours.

I *TRY* to put some warm water + salt for 10min on the abcess like my vet said but 10min is alot since Yuki doesn't like to be touched where her abcess is, she's very energetic and stubborn and 10 minutes is a long time. So enyways, I can barely manage 15seconds so I try to put it on her multiple times for a couple seconds until she freaks out.

Here's Yuki before going to the vet and before the abcess busted. It busted on her neck, not on her cheek so her cheek is still pretty much that size but her neck is almost normal size now but like I said, it's all red / green and it's a hole.

Her eye is clean now, it was pretty much full of polysporin just yesterday. Today it's clean so I imagine it's getting better.
http://i40.tinypic.com/2mg4j2v.jpg http://i39.tinypic.com/os527r.jpg

I noticed just 5 minutes ago that it's started to be deep, like it's a cavity. There's literally a hole starting to dig itself annd I was wondering if it's normal, should I go back to my vet or... do something special?

 

[mamarat]

Just keep the hole clean and it should heal. I use a syringe (no needle) to clean out an abcess after it drains.

 

[SQ]

As mamarat said, it needs to be flushed to keep it cleaned out and so it will heal.
It also needs to be kept open so it will heal from the inside out.

 

[DarkBlade]

Alright! So by cleaning, do I need to remove the green/red things that I can remove by kinda rubbing on it or don't touch it and just put warm water + salt on it?

 

[jorats]

When you squeeze the water into the whole with a small syringe, the pressure should dislodge some yuckiness, that stuff needs to come out. All the green stuff should come out. You don't want it trapped inside when the cavity heals shut.

 

[DarkBlade]

Got some clear pics of it just now. It bled twice this morning, bad enough but not for long. There's still a hard bump in the cheek and still covered by fur so there's a part of the abcess there that won't bust. Enyways, this is really getting me worried. I tried my best to put some warm water + salt on it. I simply gave her a treat to distract her and pushed the water on the wound. I did that about 4 times for a full syringe. There's alot of green yuk stuff but it says on the net not to push on it so I didint touch it. Nothing came out this morning except blood. Most of it come off when I'm not there in the cage.

Warning for sensibles hearts : These are pretty growse pictures.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2151sk.jpg http://i43.tinypic.com/2ia304w.jpg

 

[lindsayfawn]

abcess are not fun. If you put a warm compress on the abcess that will help to lossen up the puss inside then keep flushing it with the saline (water+salt). Just have to keep at it till it goes away. poor kid.

 

[ryelle]

Ugh abscesses all look the same dont they
*touch wood* i havent had to deal with one yet

 

[jorats]

Mmm... that does not look like a typical abscess. Looks more like a tumour that got infected. I would probably bring her back to the vet to get another look at it.

 

[DarkBlade]

Would an infected tumour do the same thing as an abcess? Like become all black, bust up and greeney stuff coming out?

I'm having lots of trouble getting that green stuff out right now. :sad3: I put lots of warm water + salt and it doesnt come off much and if I try to get it off gently, it starts bleeding the hell out. And it smells very awful. All the signs look like an abcess, just a huge one. But you might be right too, Jo.

I think I'm gonna do like you said and get back at the vet to check it out cuz honestly, I don't know what to do anymore. I can't get that green stuff out and it's pretty big and one time it might bleed too much and I could lose Yuki.

EDIT : OMG! There's this white line. I think it's a bone. I hope not. *screams n runs in circle* anic:

 

[jorats]

Could it be the teeth line? On my sister's rat, a tooth abscess created a hole in her chin right into the mouth.
I think it's best to see the vet. She might need antibiotics put right into the hole.

 

[DarkBlade]

She's on baytril by oral but to put right in the hole you mean put the antibiotic right in that hole instead of in her mouth?

 

[jorats]

The vet will need to prescribe something... I've heard of some abs that go directly into the wound when it won't heal. Not the same as the oral meds.

 

[lilspaz68]

That could be a necrotic tumour or a bad tooth abscess...you need to take her back to the vet ASAP.

She is on pain meds as well right? Like metacam? Helps with pain and swelling.

 

[DarkBlade]

Vet appointment on the way and no, she didin't gave me any pain meds but that poor baby must suffer as hell. I touched the white thing and it's hard and it certainly feels like a teeth. Do you think Dr Gallon can do something about it? Like keep her there and I don't know, operate her, drain the green stuff or something? Cuz the warm water + salt doesn't do much at all. I can't do anything except give her her meds. She looks like she needs stiches and a drain or something.

And, it's starting to close!! The skin is closing!! anic: And there's a bunch of green stuff left in there!! Vet, vet!! *runs*

Oh and there's still a hard ball in her cheek that never busted or anything. That could be a tumour.

I'll gi ve you an update when I come back from the vet see what Dr Gallon decided to do.

 

[DarkBlade]

Oh well, I tried emergency call last nighr cuz I arrived hrom the shopping mall and Yuki was bleeding pretty bad I don't know what caused it. So I switched her to a smaller cage on her own for now. Safer cage.

Enyways the emergency call was 110 bucks for paging the vet + whatever they we're gonna charge me for on Yuki so it was pretty expensive and I'm a student so I said no even if I wanted to go.

So the appointment is thursday at 11 am. =/ I was hoping for a quicker date, what can I do for Yuki in the mean time beside continuing giving her Baytril + warm water + salt even though that doesn't do much.

 

[mamarat]

This is just me but I would stop the flushing at this point. When Hawk's tumor started to bleed I had to bring him in to be PTS. The vet said he would bleed out. I'm sorry you're going through this.

 

[DarkBlade]

Yeah well I'm considering that as well. For the moment, I can only help her out and wait to see the vet. I'll talk to her about it cuz it's pretty bad and I know it must hurt and it's probably impossible to fix at this point.