Are the vets leaving my rat to die?

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TheFatRatGirl

Active Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2019
Messages
29
Location
Bristol, England
Hiya, my rat recently had dental for which she was put to sleep (which is a first for tooth trim but oh well!). Two days later an enormousness abscess had formed on her throat. I tried to go back to the vet but they didn't come out for the appointment for an hour and half and I had to leave before they saw me. I then took her to an emergency vet (££££) who did basically nothing but injected her with one dose of antibiotics and told me to go back to my usual vet asap... So, i did...and they prescribed Baytril which apparently is awful for penetrating pussy infections. I tried to respectfully say this to the vet and ask if maybe she could prescribe another antibiotic and she looked pretty angry and told me Baytril was fine. The abcess is right next to bone and I'm so stressed that I'm just watching my rat slowly die. It smells so bad and there's puss and blood and it looks so painful. She's on the baytril and also inflacam for pain but she's lost so much weight and flaps her little hands over and over every time she tried to eat, which I've never seen her do before. I'm feeding her baby food and mixing her medicine into malt paste. I'm feeding her mostly smooth baby porridge and smooth baby rice with bits of veg puree too. She's eating, which is a plus, but her inability to eat solid food means that her mallocluded jaw (the need for dental in the first place) is getting worse every day and it cost £130 ($170) to get her teeth trimmed the first time. That was only five days ago and they're already long again.

TLDR: Rat has abscess near to bone. Vet prescribed Baytril which is ineffective. Will my rat die?
 
Get pics or a video and post it.
Give us more history...why was she getting a tooth trim? Does she have malloclusion where the teeth grow crooked? How was she after the trim, any swelling ?

As mentioned above, for a mallocluded jaw. And swelling in the form of the abscess. Took her to a third vet practice the same night I posted my initial query. They put her to sleep. Sorry for not addressing that before you took the time to respond; it's been a horrendous week as anyone who had lost a pet can probably imagine.

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Penny (on the left) was the rat in question. She was a real character.
 
Last edited:
Get pics or a video and post it.
Give us more history...why was she getting a tooth trim? Does she have malloclusion where the teeth grow crooked? How was she after the trim, any swelling ?
Did that sound like a pituitary tumour to you Lil Spaz? The description of losing weight could be due to teeth but the swimmy arms made me think otherwise.
 
Did that sound like a pituitary tumour to you Lil Spaz? The description of losing weight could be due to teeth but the swimmy arms made me think otherwise.

She started putting weight back on in the final three or four days before she was euthanized. She just didn't want to eat solid food which was the cause of the initial weight loss (as well as the couple of days it took me to notice her teeth were overgrown since she had never had that problem before.)

The first vet told me it was a reaction to the pressure of the dental burr. The second one told me it was an infection (possibly because she was nicked during the dental), and the final vet said it was an underlying problem in the bone of her jaw which would recurr from that point on. The abscess opened up and drained shortly after i posted the first post and left a hole behind. No visible growth or left over swelling, just residual puss. Many years ago I had a rat with a tumour on her face that a vet mistook for an abscess. He had me clean it out with hibiscrub until I got a second opinion and found out it had been a tumour all along. That look alot fleshier inside (if that makes sense), where as this was hollow save for the puss and blood.
 
She started putting weight back on in the final three or four days before she was euthanized. She just didn't want to eat solid food which was the cause of the initial weight loss (as well as the couple of days it took me to notice her teeth were overgrown since she had never had that problem before.)

The first vet told me it was a reaction to the pressure of the dental burr. The second one told me it was an infection (possibly because she was nicked during the dental), and the final vet said it was an underlying problem in the bone of her jaw which would recurr from that point on. The abscess opened up and drained shortly after i posted the first post and left a hole behind. No visible growth or left over swelling, just residual puss. Many years ago I had a rat with a tumour on her face that a vet mistook for an abscess. He had me clean it out with hibiscrub until I got a second opinion and found out it had been a tumour all along. That look alot fleshier inside (if that makes sense), where as this was hollow save for the puss and blood.
I see. Thanks for explaining this to us. Every bit of knowledge helps. I know of someone who also had a rat with teeth problems and he passed away.
 
I'm SO sorry for what you & Penny went thru, and her loss, 😢 it hurts me to know how painful this was for you.
It sounds like you didn't have the effort from the vets that you both needed (for what it's worth now, I've had good results from Chlor-Palm with mouth issues).
I think the best thing you can do in her honor now is to find a better vet than that first one (their response was inexcuseable) for your remaining girls, they are So cute, as Penny was.
My heart goes out to you. Having had some very wrong losses myself I know this will be painful for you to think of forever, and could easily be the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of her. But she deserves better, I hope you can put your mind to looking at pictures like the one you posted, focusing on the good & happy times, and what made Penny such a very very special individual, til those come First to your mind when you think of her. You did Everything (and more) that you could, Penny knows that, and would want you to think of her with a smile, and your heart swelling in that spot she will live forever. Hugs.
 
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