Injured Young Rat

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Joanne said:
Is it possible the bump is an abscess and not a tumour?
Click to expand...

I'm not understand the differences? But I'm going to bet on tumor. It would just be her luck and if her immune system is bad like the vet suggested, she's probably more vulnerable to this happening.

The question is how much more to put her though. She's barely 70 grams and had trouble coming out of just a being temporarily gassed for the tooth trimming and mouth exam.
 
I guess I might have to have her put down. She is starting to smell that sickly smell today. Her wound on her neck that was like a white scab last week is just a gaping open sore. The lump, and she's skinny as ever barely active. Does eat and drink, but is rejecting most of the higher fat or liquid/soft food i give her. Things aren't looking good and I guess people here probably have figured that out.
 
sonnyvincent said:
I guess I might have to have her put down. She is starting to smell that sickly smell today. Her wound on her neck that was like a white scab last week is just a gaping open sore. The lump, and she's skinny as ever barely active. Does eat and drink, but is rejecting most of the higher fat or liquid/soft food i give her. Things aren't looking good and I guess people here probably have figured that out.
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I am so very sorry, but in this case, I don't see a sick rat that might get better...the poor little love has waaaay too much going against her and may never be normal. Your supporting cast of vets have been sadly lacking as well (no fault of your own!), especially with something as extreme as this.

Give her a kiss from all of us and send that little beauty on her way. ((hugs))
 
She does seem so pathetic in that video. If your vets can't (won't) help her recover, then she needs to be PTS. It's not fair to her to keep going. Make sure they gas her back down before giving her the injection so she doesn't feel any pain.
It's been such a hard road for you - I'm sorry this happened. We know you did not mean for it to happen. Give your sweet brave little baby kisses for me.
:hugs:
 
OK I got a scale and if she hasn't gained weight by Monday I'll take her in to put her to sleep. In researching I'm thinking the mass is probably a cyst after all, but according to the scale I got she has lost 4 more grams since Monday. It could just be a difference in scales but from here on out I'll weigh her daily to see if there's any improvement. The sores seem worse and she needs antibiotics and I'm going to call the vet to see if I can get some, otherwise I found a way to mix my own which I dont know if that is frowned upon but I just want to see if it helps. The good news is no squeaking at all today and I did handle her quite a bit, so she's 24 + hours without needing ibuprofen. She's been awake the last couple of hours eating and drinking. Anyway we'll just see. I won't let her go more than a few more days. If she weren't eating or drinking and were still showing signs of pain I'd take her to the emergency vet right now. But she's a fighter and I'm just going to give her a few more days. Thanks for all your support here, I wish this hadn't ever have happened.
 
If you are going to keep trying to save her, you HAVE to call the vet's and INSIST she get some antibiotics (Clavamox) and pain killers (Metacam). She cannot speak for herself - you need to be her voice and fight for her. She will die a slow and painful death if the infection is not treated. Make a scene at the vet's if you have to. If you can't, get a friend to make a scene. Your baby CANNOT go on like this, it is inhumane.
She seems to be drinking OK. I would put a non-tippable water bowl in her cage too, so that she can drink the easiest way possible for her.
Can you take another video and show us the hole under her chin? Another thing the vet should have done if she didn't, was to shave the area around the hole so it can be kept clean more easily. How is the smell today? Does food/water come out the hole when she eats? Do her front teeth come together?
 
I'm in Iowa.
This is the best she'd let me do. You can see it at 2 seconds

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMfgHzjDCuA[/ame]

The mass on her shoulder is sticky today.
She smells funny so has infection in one of these places.
I've called that vet I wasn't sure of, because I don't really have many other options and don't know what else to do.

I should just be calling asking their euthanasia process and how much it would cost.
 
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Oh dear yes that looks terrible. I would still say the above suggestion to get antibiotics and pain meds is what you should do first. That vet should never have let you walk out without them. :(
 
I reviewed the video looking at stills. It doesn't look like it is associated with her mouth. It looks like it is in her neck, and it is big and deep and filled with crud. I highly doubt that she will be able to recover from this injury.
What did the sketchy vet say? Do you have an appt with them?
 
she referred me to a different vet who can't get me in until monday (which she could have just done by calling me so I would've been able to possibly get into the other vet sooner, instead I had to wait until my late afternoon appointment with her just to be told I should try somewhere else 30 miles away), and said they might be able to put her under and give the wounds a good cleaning. we'll see how she does this weekend and i'll know by monday if she will get more treatment or put to sleep :( if she doesn't lose more weight and is still eating and drinking i'm going to keep trying. The thing is, her neck was NOT that bad Monday. She really should've put her on antibiotics Monday. Or I should've just given her the Baytril that I had from the first vet. I'm giving her amoxicillin now we'll see if that does anything but I'm not really hopeful.
 
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Update:
Well, I'm still not sure. I said if she kept losing weight I'd probably have her pts tomorrow. She has not lost weight, but she hasn't gained any from last Monday either. She's still at 67 grams. She had lost 4 grams from Monday to Thursday then gained that back by yesterday. The scab on her cheek when comparing pictures has gotten a tiny bit smaller but the wound on her neck is the same size. Her abscess definitely needs drained & cleaned, she has smelled since it started leaking. So if I do have her treated, they'll have to clean out the neck on her wound and the abscess on her shoulder. She's had a good appetite and drinking and is awake at night. I guess I'll just see how she does between tonight and tomorrow's appointment.
 
Took her in Monday to the new (3rd) vet. She seemed a lot more knowledgeable. She was able to actually clean out the wound on the neck and the abscess on Olivia's shoulder without sedating her (to avoid the risks of sedating her since it took her awhile to come back when the other vet trimmed her teeth). She was also able to trim her teeth more without sedating her. The picture is what she got out of the neck wound. They were big, I don't even know how they fit in her neck but they were bigger than they look.

Since then she's lost a couple of grams but she's eating, drinking, and still the same activity-wise. Her wounds look different, I won't say better, but different (will try to get a picture to attach later but right now she's eating so I don't want to disturb her). She needs a bath which I might do. She no longer smells the "infected" smell like she did before.

The vet prescribed clavamox. She gave me two bottles, one mixed and one not mixed (because it lasts 10 days while mixed and she wants her on meds for 20 days minimum). Being the idiot I am on the third day I forgot to refrigerate the meds overnight so I thought they were spoiled. So I mixed the second bottle, which means she'll end up being a week short so I'll have to buy some more. Just kicking myself for that, plus someone told me it probably wasn't spoiled it just wouldn't taste as good, so I didn't really have to mix the second bottle yet :/

We have a follow up Monday. The vet explained there's a lot of gunk in the wounds and she can only get so much at a time without it being extremely uncomfortable for Olivia and traumatic so she'll try to get more Monday. She also did some sort of laser treatment that she says has been shown to help aid in healing of wounds. It's not too expensive so who knows whether it works or not but I told her to do it. Hoping it'll help.

Anyway, here's the pic of what they dug out. Icky :(

oliviagunk.jpg
 
OK so this is Olivia tonight. Her abscess looks open, and she's itching at it so I know I can't put anything on it as she can reach it. The wound on her neck looks like it did only not gaping. It's still there just not "open" if that makes sense. You don't see it in the video.

Question, there is some "gunk" on her arm (you can see inbetween her cheek and her abscess on the shoulder), I'm not sure where that came from. She was just bathed. Could it have leaked from either her cheek or her abscess? Just curious if anyone recognizes it. Again, she doesn't have the "infection" smell that she had, which I think is good, but I don't know what that greenish gunk is :/

Note She looks particularly scrawny (more than usual) because I bathed her not too long ago and she's not all the way dry.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnMV0AmQXtc[/ame]
 
Eew that is still gross bless her heart lol. It is looking so much better though! I wouldn't know specifically what that junk is but it looks like infection. It is probably just leftover junk that is still draining out. Since she doesn't stink it is probably leftovers and not as active of an infection.
 
I just bathed her yesterday and she's soaking again today in whatever is leaking out of whatever wound (still haven't figured that out). But it doesn't smell so I guess I won't panic. She has an appointment Monday night to be seen again. Please see post I'm about to make about another of my rats who is suddenly not well. Uploading video now.
 
OMG you guys I am freaking out. I have a rat who I think isn't going to make it through the night and I just happened to catch a peak of Olivia's neck and stomach and I don't know what's happening to her! I knew something was leaking but it's absolutely horrendous. I don't know what happened. This started after the vet treated her, this was not happening before. She is eating and drinking and pretty active, but just LOOK at this. OMG... what is this??? Sorry I am totally freaking and I know nobody is out there right now but I don't know if I have it in me to keep this up. My favorite rat had an aneursym and died out of nowhere 2.5 weeks ago, I basically have sentenced Olivia to death and I have a rat in my arms right now who can't breathe. I can't do this :'(

Can someone help me? What is this? I seriously need a Xanax after seeing this. :( The weird thing is she does NOT smell. How is this NOT infection???

I had it on low quality setting I'll try to get a better video but as you can see it's horrible. And I just bathed her yesterday.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjsOy996bFo[/ame]
 

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