Oreo's Inguinal Tumor- Open and Infected?

[Joanne]

Congratulations on a battle hard-fought and won!
:bananas:

 

[dspch911]

I will post some picture for Oreo later tonight on Clark's thread - poor Clark :no:

 

[dspch911]

The pictures are posted

 

[Carol Weekes]

Has she confirmed malignancy through any testing (such as fine needle aspiration to look at cells)? Usually malignant tumors are solid and can wrap around organs, etc; whereas benign tend to be more 'moveable' beneath the skin. I've also found, just from my own experience, that malignant tumors tend to be not only more solid in appearance, but often a darker color, almost a dark red/purple and often very venous. Yes, mammary tumors can and often do grow back, and yes, there is always some risk with anesthesia. It's a tough call. With any open wound, there's always some risk for infection, short of keeping her on very clean surfaces (newspaper, clean fleece, etc. changed daily) and an antibiotic to counter any infections (like amoxicillin or your bactrim). Maybe this is a 'keep an eye on things over the next week or two) to see how things go. If you can keep the area clean and bacteria-free to some extent, then perhaps she can go with it 'as is', but if things worsen 'as is' then the surgery may be the only other option. My heart is with you; very hard situation because all you want is for your little one to be okay. Sending many healing wishes your way; please keep us updated.

 

[Aida]

Ha ha Carol you are a few weeks too late!
Oreo had the tumor successfully removed, and after a bunch of complications, she is finally 100% healed and happy. <3

We didn't do any testing on the tumor, because it would cost a couple hundred dollars, and we were removing it either way as it became too infected to control.

 

[Aida]

Oreo has a raised bump nearby where the wound was. It is raised pretty high(NOT a crater like the ruptured tumor), and appears to be darker/black in color. From the very slight investigation it didn't look scabbed or open. I'm going to check her out a bit more and do a warm compress.


Dear lord, if this isn't an abscess, I don't know if I can handle this anymore.

 

[Joanne]

Well it sounds like it may be an abscess, so fingers crossed for some stinky pus!

 

[Aida]

Well, I don't think the compresses worked much, I couldn't do them that long with a squirmy rat. I'll keep trying through the night.

The bump is perfectly round and completely raised(as in, all of it is "up", none of it is underneath it seems). It is also rather squishy, with a black speck on the top. It is located on the underside of her leg, where the leg starts, so not exactly on her incision-- maybe where the furthermost stitch was?

I drew a picture of where it appears to be on a random rat i found on google images, I tried and tried and tried to take a picture but my phone is so annoyingly slow and she is so fast.
I tried to make the circle on this random rat about the size of the bump on her, and you can see where her incision was from past photos.

 

[lilspaz68]

You can stop compressing and start using a sitz bath instead. YOu just need to fill up the bathroom sink with warm (more then body temp as rats run hotter than us) water, and let her sit in it for a few minutes...wear long sleeves, have a towel nearby and use your hands to either be a roof over her head and move them quick when she tries to get out, she'll hit the roof when tryign to jump, or if she's really worried, hold around her torso and your touch should reassure her that you aren't trying to kill her with a new torture. Sitz baths work pretty fast. Its possible its a retained stitch, I had that with Bronwen...small abscess and gone.

 

[Aida]

Today it is a bit more swollen, the skin looks like it'll open soon, and the sitz bath helped some-- though it didn't pop yet. I'm scared that it's another tumor, though so different than the one before. I managed to take a picture from the side, today it is a bit more solid/less squishy, too...

 

[Aida]

just checked on it before bed. It either popped and drained and scabbed over in that time I didn't see her after posting the picture and now, or she reabsorbed it.

 

[lilspaz68]

I would flush it now Aida, it was an abscess probably from a retained dissolvable suture that didn't get absorbed properly, it looked just like Bronny's

 

[Aida]

YAY!
It is closed off, should I just flush the skin covering it?
I'm so relieved. :cry5:

 

[lilspaz68]

YAY!
It is closed off, should I just flush the skin covering it?
I'm so relieved. :cry5:

Is there a scab? If so I would, as the flushing would soften the scab so that you can flush the little cavity.

 

[Aida]

Is there a scab? If so I would, as the flushing would soften the scab so that you can flush the little cavity.

Will do.

 

[dspch911]

Will do.

Poor Oreo, hope this will be the last issue you two have! :hugs:

 

[Aida]

Me too!
It is gone today too, just that little black spot. She is walking a bit weird though, maybe it still hurts some?
Maybe I'm paranoid.