Milton Has a Problem Under His Chin

What's going on here? Does it need vet treatment?

What is it? My initial impression was a bite. Normally when a rat has an injury, I will trim/clip the hair off around the area so the injury can be properly visualized, assessed and monitored.

Joanne said:

What is it? My initial impression was a bite. Normally when a rat has an injury, I will trim/clip the hair off around the area so the injury can be properly visualized, assessed and monitored.

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He is alone, working on intros with him, but no bites and it seems it showed up very suddenly. I've heard things about protein related scabs on the chin but he is on Oxbow and veggies..
I do not believe mites because he isn't any more itchy than usual. I might bring him to the vet when my rabbit Norman goes for his check up...

I tried to get a picture for almost 10 minutes and he would not cooperate. There is one big black/purplish scab on one side, and multiple smaller red and black/purple ones on the other side. It doesn't go past his chin.

Were you watching very closely the entire time for intros so you are sure it's not a bite? There were no tussles?
Check him very carefully for other scabs - is this the only area?

Joanne said:

Were you watching very closely the entire time for intros so you are sure it's not a bite? There were no tussles?
Check him very carefully for other scabs - is this the only area?

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There were absolutely no tussles or aggression last time we intro'd. The chin is the only spot with any

Odd...
Where it is spread over an area, it doesn't seem like it would be an internal issue like an abscess. So that means it is probably external.
Could it be something as simple as dried on food? Have you tried washing the area to see if anything comes off or what colour the water is?
See if you can get a helper and clip back the hair and get a good picture of it.

That looks a lot like that stubborn jaw abscess that Throttle had. Does it move at all? Not to scare you, but they originally thought his was bone cancer. I refer to it as stubborn because flagyl was the only thing that would keep it away, but as soon as we stopped the med it would come back in 2-3 days. Vet couldn't get it to drain either, but she could get one on the side of his jaw to drain. He was on tramadol and metacam since it made using his jaw very painful. We had to pretty much keep him on a soft food diet.

Hope your rattie feel better and you figure it out.

It's very hard to scruff him so I can't really keep him still to trim or take a photo. There's one big one, smaller ones all around his chin, one behind his ear, one between his ear, and one small one on his neck.

Your vet may need to gas him down to have a really good look. It is sounding very odd. Perhaps pyoderma?

Joanne said:

Your vet may need to gas him down to have a really good look. It is sounding very odd. Perhaps pyoderma?

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It is really weird. Because with mites and such it wasn't only in one area....I guess I'll have to call my vet. They kind of look like the pic I attached, but only some of them

So he has them still, but they are only on his head and neck! If they don't clear up soon he will be going to the vet with Norman, my rabbit. He seems perfectly healthy otherwise, he doesn't even really scratch them. I just don't know what to do. Ugh!

That pic you posted looks like classic mites, I would just treat him with Revolution to rule it out.

Revolution as Lilspaz68 said.
You will want to treat all your rats, clean the cages, freeze anything wooden etc

good luck

Milton has the vet Monday at 11:50a.m. The scabs went away and came back but they are staying on his head/neck. I want to get to the bottom of this! Will update. I am expecting a skin scrape

Sound likes mites. I would try revolution before spending money on skin scrapings

I will definitely see what the vet thinks. I don't think it's mites now because the scabs don't look like that anymore. My vet tries to save me as much money as possible because I'm always in there so I'm not too worried :crazy3:

So vet said no lice/mites/fleas. He thinks a Staph(spelling) infection is possible, so he is on antibiotics for that. I will take him back in a week if there is no improvement. He said we'll start simple and then do the necessary testing, if necessary.

Hope it's not MRSA!

Unless your vet thinks it would be a problem, I would try treating all the rats with revolution to see if that makes a difference,
before putting him through testing