Patrick neuter abscess - vet update :( (pg.5)

[Argent]

Congrats on a successful op! I bet you're feeling so much better now you've got him home XD

 

[jorats]

It will probably take him the day to recoup. Yay for a good outcome. :joy:

 

[ryelle]

He's been home for 4 hours now and he still seems really spaced out. He just keeps going to the front of the cage, poking his nose out and staring. making a noise and trying to get his attention does not work. He is also eating his cat litter, i've just sat and watched him and he is crawling around picking up pieces, eating half of it then finding another piece. I still havent seen him drink, but he has eaten a little bit of baby food. He goes to his water bottle, and kind of sniffs it and then moves away again. His cage is still covered over with a cloth and im looking in on him every half hour to an hour. he is just laid there.. not really doing anything.. just that wierd stare like he doesnt know who anyone or anything is. i will check for poops in a few hours after hes had some rest (i moved him into my bedroom because it is silent.. damn parrot wont shut up downstairs)


Say if they gave him an injectable anaesthetic, would it stay in his system longer than gas would? even if they use one of those injections that reverses it?

 

[jorats]

Most clinics give a 24 hour shot of metacam. He'll come around, just give him some time. Do you have any soy milk at home? That's what we give ours after surgery.

 

[ryelle]

He is as crazy as ever O.O Me and my mum have just had him out on the couch. She sat at one end and i sat at the other, and we both had a leg up on the couch to stop him jumping off the side. I think hes really peeved about being in the small cage in my room.

He is eating ok (he has had blocks and baby food - no cat litter today though ) and he had Complan for breakfast because he hadnt drank all night. He did start drinking again before i went out to work today though

I was going to get a pic but my STUPID BOYFRIEND has taken all the batteries out of my camera to use in his xbox controller ARGH! He is all shrivelled today, although around his penis and just below is one big swollen round ball. Yesterday he was that swolen he looked like he hadnt even been done, now today he looks like they have moved upwards haha.

He has been doing a lot of stretching and pressing his sides against the bottom of the cage the past hour

 

[jorats]

He's probably ready to go back to his regular cage then. :thumbup:

 

[ryelle]

I think he is he will have to wait till tomorrow though lol. I have had the craziest day of my life (been looking after 15 dogs pretty much on my own for 7 hours which i was NOT prepared for), my feet are swollen and im totally exhausted. It will take ages to scrub both cages down so i can swap the boys over again and im planning on having a bath, a bottle of beer, and then dying i think.

Ill let him out for an hour or so before i collapse. ill have to try stop him getting off my bed because i dont want him getting lost or under my bed for hours where i cant watch him.

 

[ryelle]

He is as crazy as he ever was LOL. He is healing nicely though - all shrivelled up. Im not sure if he is still swollen or not (still struggling to get a pic -.- my mother can not even press a stupid button on my phone to take a pic). He had a vet appointment today that i didnt make it to. I didnt finish work till 5pm and im mentally and physically exhausted (even having nightmares about dogs now). Im going to ring tomorrow morning before i head off to work again and try get him in for Saturday. He has been bombing about my room for the past 45mins. Ive had to put him back in the cage because he is chewing something under my bed and im worried its actually THE bed. Ill be sat here one day and one of the legs will snap lmao.

He is NOT happy about being in a cage. He is trashing the place as i type. Pulling up fleece (he pulls... looks at me... pulls.. looks at me... attention seeking little...). I think he is redecorating. He is pulling the litter tray to the opposite corner, picking up his toys and moving them to the other side of the cage. I think he may be peeved because i wouldnt let him take a ginger biscuit under the bed...

I had to bath Sid because its a week after the vet visit and his tail was really bad :? I had him on a towel on my bed while i brushed him and drying him off. Patrick started going mental and huffing and puffing and pressing himself at the side of the cage.

Do intro's seem too out of reach between Patrick and Sid? I would wait of course. Do you think it may be worth doing fleece swaps for a couple of weeks until i can actually do neutral intro's again... if they are still a good idea...

 

[ryelle]

He's just been out running about my bed, and he started grooming. he bent over and started grooming his nether-regions, and then started pulling on something. I grabbed him up and there is a piece of blue thread coming out of him and hes trying to pull it out of his body!!!
The nurse said they had done internal stitches using disolvable suture material, but of course you cant finish a stitch in the body...
You can see a thread about 7mm's long hanging out of the left scrotum that he is tugging on, and on the right side there is a 1mm blue dot, which he will inevitably start pulling on aswell. On the right side there is a lump, that looks more purple today.
He got checked on Saturday and i asked the nurse about the lump, and she said it was probably the suture material, and she took him through to see a vet and he said it was all fine.

Well what do i do about this stitch?? He looks all healed up on the outside, and its been exactly a week since his surgery. Do i let him rip it out of his body or do i do something about it like a vet visit or trim it myself with nail clippers???

ARGH i am SO DAMN PEEVED that i cant take pictures!!! I want to hit my boyfriend in the head.


STRESSING OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ryelle]

Got a pic... i still want to hit my boyfriend in the head though :redhot:

Its the worst pic in the world, and there wasnt enough battery power to take any more, and its officially 6minutes past my bedtime.

You can see the blue/purple thread on the left hand side of the pic (patricks right side), the other small blue thread is on the opposite side in the same place though (i think, you cant see it in the pic).. but you can see the lump that has me :? lately (its just above the fur patch on the right side of the pic, maybe easier to see at a distance)

Im re-charging batteries overnight so i will *try* and get better ones tomorrow.

 

[Lise]

Looks like it is healing beautifully!! I can't even really see the incisions, so if they are indeed in that picture -- wow they are beautiful.

The lump is probably a bit of a suture reaction (rats seem to be SO! prone for some reason) -- sometimes these turn into abscesses but often it is just a hard lump that will slowly go away over time. That doesn't look bad at all right now. Regardless there is nothing you can do for it other than wait it out, unfortunately.

As for the suture hanging out -- cut it off as close to the skin as you can. If you are not comfortable and the vet is close by, I'm sure you could swing by to get them to trim it.

 

[ryelle]

I will try and get clearer pics this afternoon. I was SO tired last night i was getting angry at everything (like always lol). This afternoon (i gota leave for work in 5 minutes), I will get the nail scissors and try cut that suture thats hanging out. I just have images of it healing beautifully, and then Paddy coming along and irritating it by pulling on that little string, and then awful stuff happening.


Ill keep an eye on the little lump

Thanks for the help ^^

 

[jorats]

My vet always tells me... the sutures are dissolvable or removed by rattie, one or the other is fine. :giggle:
I've had several rats go around with a string on their stomach or on their gonads. lol eventually it disappears. One of my girls, it took a couple of months.

 

[ryelle]

Ive just had to trim the SECOND stitch because he has pulled that too. He has pulled it out a fair bit compared to the other one aswell O.O

That lump is still there too and i think it is larger than before. He wont let me touch it. Waiting to see if it will shrink or abscess.

I have a feeling it will abscess. When he came back from the vets (2 weeks ago now) i noticed a really hard, spikey scab on his side. Yesterday the wound was still wet, but today it is drying up. He doesnt like me going near it either. I thought it was the pea-sized cyst he has on his side that had burst but its too far up the body and i can still feel the lump.
Going to start saline soaking the wound on his side to see if it will heal at all seeing as though it hasnt made any attempt to heal yet.
Do you think i should saline soak the lump near his incision site? See if i can draw anything out or get it to do something?


Anyways, time for pics. My boyfriend holds Patrick better than my mother does (think she is scared of hurting him haha)

Another quick question: How long does it take for the shaved patches of hair to grow back? haha

ETA: There is actually 2 lumps, one is just above and to the right of the penis (on the picture). They are both the same size, and feel the same. Its like someone lost a string of beads in there haha

 

[jorats]

It seems that neuter abscesses are very common, although, never had to deal with any myself. Hopefully it will clean up with your compresses.

 

[Joanne]

The healing looks great. Some of my ratties took over a month for their fur to grow back, and a couple you could still see the difference several months later!
If the bump is an abscess, it will probablly be painful, vs. an overgrowth of tissue from a foreign body reaction.
It's not only rats that get neuter abscesses - my dog had one too. It was a reaction to the suture material. We put him on antibiotics and he had to wear an Elizabethan collar for a week. Good thing you don't put those collars on ratties!!! (Although it would look really cute)

 

[Debbie]

I didn't read all the threads and just catching up on this one...so please forgive me if I ask a couple of questions that are already being answered.

Do you have him on antibiotics? Do you think you are seeing abscesses forming? Or could it be the "fat pad" left behind after the neuter? Infection post neuter is VERY serious. So hopefully you can rule that out. But if there is the slightest doubt, I would get him back to the vet and on antibitiocs immediately.

Form the pics, it appears he's healing up very nicely...especially where the incision is. So hopefully you are just feeling the "fat pad".

 

[ryelle]

he isn't on any medication at all, i didnt even get any pain meds for when he got home. I dont quite know what a left behind fat pad would look like. There isnt a scab forming or anything, so i have no idea.
I can tell you one thing though - these stitches are doing my head in!!!
Ive just had to trim them again, although he has pulled out a knot or something and there is no way i can trim it.


19 days after surgery:

(we have to hold him with two hands, he is not a very good dangler, bless..he also gets hamster cheeks hehe)

 

[ryelle]

Sorry if i seem a little bit happy, lol, but atleast i know now. The lump that has been visible in most photo's now has a tiny scab developing on it. So, finally, we know its an abscess and hopefully will get it out the way quickly. I will get my mum to help me with compresses.

Am i supposed to be doing them twice a day or more? And how much salt in the water? When ive cleaned piercings and stuff its been half a teaspoon of rock salt into boiling water and left to cool.

I hope that the second lump wont get a scab on it until weve gotten this one out of the way.. that will be a nightmare O.O

 

[jorats]

That formula sounds good. I never exactly measured.
Yay for scabs!!