Help! Abscess, mom rat.

[lis16420]

My rat has a pink swollen lump above her eye, I think it's an abscess but i'm not so sure. I looked at rat sites about it and i'm pretty sure she has that. Is it best to take her to the vet to have it lanced? Also she has babies that are 9 days old! I don't know what to do.

 

[jorats]

How big is it? Is she a hairless or standard fur rat?

 

[lis16420]

It is the about the size of a pea, maybe slightly smaller. It is firm, and doesn't move around like a tumor would. SHe is a standard fur rat. It started right after she had the babies, I noticed her inner eyelid looked a little swollen, and I thought maybe she was just tired, but then a couple days later above her eye became swollen, and now it's round and is pinkish.

 

[Cigar]

I thought abcesses were usually free floating [moving] and tumors were fixed?

 

[lis16420]

Well the tumors my rats have had have always moved around, plus on a website that i was reading it said that, it was telling how to tell between an abscess and a tumor.

 

[lis16420]

Ok so I have some pics.
The first is from right after she had the babies, you can sort of see the inner eyelid poking out, and it looks as if there might be a sore.. Of course there was lint or something on my camera lens, so it looks a little fuzzy.

This is the lump now.

 

[Joanne]

I would take her to the vet - they may be able to lance it if they just gas her enough to put her out. You wouldn't want any type of meds in her system if the babies are still nursing. At least if it is draining, it's less pus her body has to fight. They can do a fine-needle aspirate to see if it's an abscess or not.

 

[jorats]

Ya, I agree, I'd take her to the vet along with the babies so they don't go long without her.

 

[Cigar]

Will she let you hold a warm compress to it?

 

[lis16420]

WEll it's been a month since, but one day my mom and I were holding the babies and mam, and somehow a scab had formed on her abscess. So I said why don't we pick off the scab (I read about this somewhere, someone had done this successfully three times before) My mom got a towel and held her, and I picked the scab and a giant mound of gooey green pus came out, I wiped it out. I made absolute sure that there was none left and then we put neosporin in it. Now, a month later it's completely healed, and the bacteria inside was obviously not harmful, because she hasn't gotten sick yet. It's now completely healed!

 

[jorats]

That's great news!!! And probably the only time we are ever so happy to see green yucky smelling pus. :lol: