My boy's face became really swollen over night.

Advertise with us
Shop with us on Ebay
Fins us on Amazon
The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
C

cbrown92390

Active Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2011
Messages
39
Location
Chicago IL
My male dumbo's face, on the right side, has swollen to about the size of a small bead over night. He is still grooming himself, eating and drinking fine, and his activity level is normal. Also, he has no health problems outside of this. His cage is in my bedroom and I did not hear any fighting between him or any of my other boys last night and they usually get along really well. I have a vet appointment scheduled for tomorrow, but is there anything I can possibly do to bring the swelling down or make him more comfortable (because his face definitely seems tender) until then? I tried taking a picture to post but he was having none of that. Please let me know if you have any advice.
 
M0onkist: No its not underneath the whiskers, it literally looks like he is storing a small ball in his right cheek.
Jorats: It looks like a tumor because its just his right cheek, but I don't think its a tumor because he had absolutely no indication of swelling on his face last night before I went to bed so this swelling happened over night.
For those of you who recommended infant ibuprofen, how much would you recommend? He is about 1.5 lbs.
 
Vet asap ..... could be an abscess or abscess associated with a tumour
Nothing to fool around with when it is on the face
He likely needs meds asap
 
It was an absess and it popped about 20 minutes ago, and my first experience with one. The puss was greenish and smelled bad. We are going to the vet tomorrow morning to get some antibiotics since the absess was on his face. My poor boy! I am really freaked out.
 
MomRat said:
Make sure they check for impacted/crooked teeth!
Click to expand...
Especially the molars! They're difficult to get access to, but they have the cutest little molars lol.

Good luck, hopefully with some antibiotics this will heal quickly.
 
cbrown92390 said:
It was an absess and it popped about 20 minutes ago, and my first experience with one. The puss was greenish and smelled bad. We are going to the vet tomorrow morning to get some antibiotics since the absess was on his face. My poor boy! I am really freaked out.
Click to expand...

Don't you love that!? UGH.... talk about a REALLY good way to lose weight... :sick2:
 
Well we just came home from the vet. My poor boy has had a rough morning. The abscess did not drain all the way last night so the vet has to shave his face and lance it to get the rest out. Badger is now on antibiotics and an antinflamatory, hopefully he will get better soon though he has been loving all the extra attention he has been getting.
 
Does he have a lot of swelling post-procedure?

Turns out Cera has an abscess too (though not in quite the same spot), and she's got a fair bit of swelling post-procedure.

I hope your Badger heals fast!
 
M0onkist: I hope your Cera get well really soon, ratty abscesses are no fun. Badger has not had a lot of swelling post procedure because the vet put him on a type of anti inflamatory and pain relief medicine on top of anibiotics. The vet told me to also put a hot compress on him 3 times a day for 5 minutes but I cannot get him to cooperate for that long, especially since its a facial abscess. Does anyone know the most effective way to restrain a rat to administer a compress?
 
Yikes... I know that when abscesses are on the body (but not on the face), some people will do what I think amounts to a Sitz bath for their rats - lukewarm water, enough to submerge the abscess, and they let the rat walk around in the bathtub/sink for a few minutes.

I guess the other alternative is flushing to make sure that there's no pus underneath any healing edges of flesh?

Some rats you can scruff effectively, others will fight it like the devil - but no matter how docile they are when you scruff them, I can't see any rat holding still for even a few minutes with a warm compress against them.
 
the only abscess I had to deal with was on my hairless Girls Arabella (RIP) and she was letting me completely wrap her whole body in a warm face cloth for a few minutes at the time, I would snuggle her up to me and talk to her, so maybe that's why she did not mind it too much :)
the abscess popped and I treated with saline and it healed perfectly.

Hopefully, your does as well, healing vibes your way :)
 
It's very hard on the face. I wet a facecloth (dripping wet) give the rat a big treat and hold the cloth on the abscess for as long as he'll let me. Then repeat the process. The rat really gets to enjoy quite a few treats sometimes. lol
 
A quick update, Badger is feeling and looking much much better. The crater in his face left after the black scab was soaked off was about the size of a pea and now you can hardly see it. We still do daily warm compresses and flushing the wound with saline solution, and by the recommendation of my vet we have been sealing the wound with Neosporin (now the trick is preventing him and his cage mates from grooming it off). He is still on Metacam and antibiotics but it is such a relief to see him returning to health so quickly.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top