Hi there everyone. I'm back. And per usual, I have a rattie health dilemma! I really do need to start making some HAPPY posts on here, darnit. But for now, the urgent issue...
We rescued a female rat from a pet store. They were unsure of her exact age but we believe her current age to be around 7-8 months old. I went in to get dog food and overheard one of the workers and the weekly vet that comes in discussing a rat that the vet was bringing back. After asking them some questions, I found out that she was removed from the pet store by the vet and was given a month of care at a clinic because her left eye was badly infected and her right eye was somewhat infected but didn't have nearly the amount of issues the left did. Ultimately, the left apparently "fell out" on its own. It wasn't super clear exactly what occurred with that but suffice it to say that she indeed does NOT have a left eye...that much we're sure of, lol. I went in the back room where they put her and found out that for the past month, she'd been kept all alone in 24/7 light (the facility turned out to be the science department of a college....yeah...) and her container was one of those critter containers that are great for transporting rats but NOT for the to live in. It was solid plastic except for the lid which was plastic with slits in it and a small door. It was TINY...probably about 5"x8"...and she had nothing to hide in or anything. Needless to say, she was not friendly! In fact, even though it broke my heart, I left without her. We had Matilda, our first female, and she was also a rescue with a really bad abscess that we were dealing with. We wanted her to have a female companion to ease some of her emotional stress but the idea of sticking her with this biting, anxious, pissed off rat (who it turns out may be her mom) wasn't in the cards, I thought.
Two days later I went back and got her. Couldn't stop thinking about her lol.
So, we actually had to wear gloves the first two weeks when we handled her. She was a biter and she bit HARD. She drew blood on both Andy and I more than once and Andy has a scar from one of those bites. But, slowly but surely, with lots of patience, we turned her behavior around and she's now a really big sweetie. Her ('Mama), Matilda and the other female we got (Lil Girl) all get on great with each other. As for her eye and "non-eye" (as Andy has gotten me calling the left one, haha), it's been an ongoing battle. We have pretty much every kind of medicated eye creams and drops you could imagine due to other pets with eye issues and my own issues with having had a few eye ulcers. The inflammation/infection in her right eye has 100% cleared up and we haven't seen any problems with it for months. Her non-eye, though, refuses to give up the good fight and just HEAL already! We keep hoping that with her occasional scratching of it, it'll cause it to end up healing shut, if that makes sense? I've done a ton of reading about it and it looks like that's the best thing to have happen...to have it heal closed so that there's not an open socket. Any ideas for home-remedies?? We do a nightly saline flush and if there's any scratches, we use Hydrogen Peroxide (which she actually loves! I gently blow on it after I apply it and she just calmly sits there and relaxes for me). We've applied creams and drops (all rx's, as stated). We keep her nails trimmed and even Peroxide the foot she uses to scratch at it, sometimes. All to no avail :/
The other MAIN issue and the main reason for this post is a new growth she's developed on her left groin area. We feel like we would've noticed if it had been there for awhile so we're assuming that it developed quite recent to when we discovered it, which was a week ago. It's pretty hard but not dark colored (which I've read is something to be worried about...apparently most malignant mammary tumors are dark colored?). It is in the nipple area. The weird thing is that it seems to have moved slightly in the past day or so, almost more towards her side. It also seems like there's two "parts" to it...like...hmm. I'm trying to figure out how to describe it or what I could compare it to. I guess the best comparison would be to that of a pear. The largest (and hardest) part is the lower part and the smaller, less solid feeling part is the upper part. But, unlike a pear, the two "parts" are more defined whereas a pear is one solid form. They are definitely attached but not smoothly, if that makes any sense at all. As for the wound on it (as you can see in the photos), we believe that it's something that occurred after the fact. We think she scratched at the lumps(s) BUT we could be wrong about that! Grr. It's so aggravating how quickly illnesses and the like develop in rats!!
She seems to have her usual amount of energy, thirst and appetite. She doesn't seem to be sleeping any more than normal and her weight has stayed the same. She also doesn't appear to be in any pain although I will say that she isn't crazy about us trying to palpate the lump(s) but it's hard to tell if that's just her being her usual stubborn, independent self or if it's actually because it hurts to be messed around with.
Does anyone have any ideas? Any tips on things we could try at home to perhaps get a better idea of what we are (or aren't!) working with here? If it's perhaps just an abscess that hasn't done it's thing yet, a vet appointment probably won't be necessary but if it's a mammary tumor or something else, we obviously need to get in. We NEED to get antibiotics badly for our other rat who's getting somewhat stuffy and sneezy but I was hoping to talk MY, *blush*...ob-gyn....doctor in to perhaps writing me a Rx for Doxy or something if I explained to her our financial issues...I thought maybe she'd take pity on me, haha. As I've said before, we can't seem to find a good rat vet around here (our last one had never even heard of Zymbal's!!!!) and it really sucks to pay out (our last visit to said vet costed multiple hundred dollars...that's money we DON'T have right now) oodles of money to someone who isn't even competent or knowledgeable about what I would consider to be some of the basic things regarding rats. I also know this is the internet and from previously working at a vet clinic, ya can't diagnose something without seeing it in person. But any advice or tips...anything...would truly be appreciated. It's been one thing after another. Rough couple of months with all of our pets...just hasn't been good :/
One other thing I'd like to add...the photos are a few days old and they don't really show all that well the actual size of it/them. The lump(s) are actually really quite swollen but in the photos it/they look to be flat/thin. I will say, however, that they only seem to be a tiny bit attached to skin but at the same time, only a tiny bit attached to something internal. I know that's confusing but that's what's up!
Thank you all very much!
We rescued a female rat from a pet store. They were unsure of her exact age but we believe her current age to be around 7-8 months old. I went in to get dog food and overheard one of the workers and the weekly vet that comes in discussing a rat that the vet was bringing back. After asking them some questions, I found out that she was removed from the pet store by the vet and was given a month of care at a clinic because her left eye was badly infected and her right eye was somewhat infected but didn't have nearly the amount of issues the left did. Ultimately, the left apparently "fell out" on its own. It wasn't super clear exactly what occurred with that but suffice it to say that she indeed does NOT have a left eye...that much we're sure of, lol. I went in the back room where they put her and found out that for the past month, she'd been kept all alone in 24/7 light (the facility turned out to be the science department of a college....yeah...) and her container was one of those critter containers that are great for transporting rats but NOT for the to live in. It was solid plastic except for the lid which was plastic with slits in it and a small door. It was TINY...probably about 5"x8"...and she had nothing to hide in or anything. Needless to say, she was not friendly! In fact, even though it broke my heart, I left without her. We had Matilda, our first female, and she was also a rescue with a really bad abscess that we were dealing with. We wanted her to have a female companion to ease some of her emotional stress but the idea of sticking her with this biting, anxious, pissed off rat (who it turns out may be her mom) wasn't in the cards, I thought.
Two days later I went back and got her. Couldn't stop thinking about her lol.
So, we actually had to wear gloves the first two weeks when we handled her. She was a biter and she bit HARD. She drew blood on both Andy and I more than once and Andy has a scar from one of those bites. But, slowly but surely, with lots of patience, we turned her behavior around and she's now a really big sweetie. Her ('Mama), Matilda and the other female we got (Lil Girl) all get on great with each other. As for her eye and "non-eye" (as Andy has gotten me calling the left one, haha), it's been an ongoing battle. We have pretty much every kind of medicated eye creams and drops you could imagine due to other pets with eye issues and my own issues with having had a few eye ulcers. The inflammation/infection in her right eye has 100% cleared up and we haven't seen any problems with it for months. Her non-eye, though, refuses to give up the good fight and just HEAL already! We keep hoping that with her occasional scratching of it, it'll cause it to end up healing shut, if that makes sense? I've done a ton of reading about it and it looks like that's the best thing to have happen...to have it heal closed so that there's not an open socket. Any ideas for home-remedies?? We do a nightly saline flush and if there's any scratches, we use Hydrogen Peroxide (which she actually loves! I gently blow on it after I apply it and she just calmly sits there and relaxes for me). We've applied creams and drops (all rx's, as stated). We keep her nails trimmed and even Peroxide the foot she uses to scratch at it, sometimes. All to no avail :/
The other MAIN issue and the main reason for this post is a new growth she's developed on her left groin area. We feel like we would've noticed if it had been there for awhile so we're assuming that it developed quite recent to when we discovered it, which was a week ago. It's pretty hard but not dark colored (which I've read is something to be worried about...apparently most malignant mammary tumors are dark colored?). It is in the nipple area. The weird thing is that it seems to have moved slightly in the past day or so, almost more towards her side. It also seems like there's two "parts" to it...like...hmm. I'm trying to figure out how to describe it or what I could compare it to. I guess the best comparison would be to that of a pear. The largest (and hardest) part is the lower part and the smaller, less solid feeling part is the upper part. But, unlike a pear, the two "parts" are more defined whereas a pear is one solid form. They are definitely attached but not smoothly, if that makes any sense at all. As for the wound on it (as you can see in the photos), we believe that it's something that occurred after the fact. We think she scratched at the lumps(s) BUT we could be wrong about that! Grr. It's so aggravating how quickly illnesses and the like develop in rats!!
She seems to have her usual amount of energy, thirst and appetite. She doesn't seem to be sleeping any more than normal and her weight has stayed the same. She also doesn't appear to be in any pain although I will say that she isn't crazy about us trying to palpate the lump(s) but it's hard to tell if that's just her being her usual stubborn, independent self or if it's actually because it hurts to be messed around with.
Does anyone have any ideas? Any tips on things we could try at home to perhaps get a better idea of what we are (or aren't!) working with here? If it's perhaps just an abscess that hasn't done it's thing yet, a vet appointment probably won't be necessary but if it's a mammary tumor or something else, we obviously need to get in. We NEED to get antibiotics badly for our other rat who's getting somewhat stuffy and sneezy but I was hoping to talk MY, *blush*...ob-gyn....doctor in to perhaps writing me a Rx for Doxy or something if I explained to her our financial issues...I thought maybe she'd take pity on me, haha. As I've said before, we can't seem to find a good rat vet around here (our last one had never even heard of Zymbal's!!!!) and it really sucks to pay out (our last visit to said vet costed multiple hundred dollars...that's money we DON'T have right now) oodles of money to someone who isn't even competent or knowledgeable about what I would consider to be some of the basic things regarding rats. I also know this is the internet and from previously working at a vet clinic, ya can't diagnose something without seeing it in person. But any advice or tips...anything...would truly be appreciated. It's been one thing after another. Rough couple of months with all of our pets...just hasn't been good :/
One other thing I'd like to add...the photos are a few days old and they don't really show all that well the actual size of it/them. The lump(s) are actually really quite swollen but in the photos it/they look to be flat/thin. I will say, however, that they only seem to be a tiny bit attached to skin but at the same time, only a tiny bit attached to something internal. I know that's confusing but that's what's up!
Thank you all very much!
