Placid again!!

[Lina]

Well he been back to the vet again. He has never really got over the abscess but it was growing again and he had a sore leg over the last couple of days and has lost a bit of weight.

The vet thinks it may be broken :shock: but not 100% sure, we could have had a xray done but the treatment wouldn't have changed no matter what the xray told them, its his left front leg and there is a hard lump around about his elbow. She thinks it is already healing so we have some pain meds and antiflammory for him for that.
He had a shoulder injury (other leg) back in January which he recovered fully from so I hope he recovers from this one fully.

She is leaving the abscess alone but has given me another antibiotic for him, Stomorgyl. If that doesn't help she found a treatment for horses where they pack the abscess with these antibiotic beads so she is going to look into whether they can get the beads small enough for a rat.

And she told Placid in no uncertain terms that he is now a old rat and has to retire from the position of boss rat and take life easy now!!

 

[Godmother]

Poor sweetie! Hope he makes a good recovery. Fat chance he'll take it easy, though. It might not be in his nature.... but you can hope!

 

[user 78]

If he keeps causing himself injury like this, you might want to think about moving him into a different type of cage. Something long and low so he's still got room to run around, but can't get so high that he hurts himself.

What all have you done for the abscess so far? Did it open, heal, then come back? Did it never really go away? What were you flushing with? What meds was he on previously? There is a particular treatment for very stubborn and/or recurring abscesses which involves packing the opened abscess with sugar. It may be more of an option than hoping to find antibiotic beads that would work for him.

 

[jorats]

Poor sweetie!
I remember a member here with a rat that had a persistent abscess, what finally got rid of it was packing it in sugar.

 

[mamarat]

Poor Placid. Hope he gets better soon. :hugs:

 

[Lina]

If he keeps causing himself injury like this, you might want to think about moving him into a different type of cage. Something long and low so he's still got room to run around, but can't get so high that he hurts himself.

What all have you done for the abscess so far? Did it open, heal, then come back? Did it never really go away? What were you flushing with? What meds was he on previously? There is a particular treatment for very stubborn and/or recurring abscesses which involves packing the opened abscess with sugar. It may be more of an option than hoping to find antibiotic beads that would work for him.

I do have another smaller cage I could put him in if he keeps on hurting himself. I could put Cole in with him as he is older than Placid and slowing down a bit also. That would leave the four young ones in the big cage.

The abscesses heal and then he gets another in a different place but in the groin area, this would be his third one, he also has had a cyst like thing removed from the same area inbetween the first two abbscess. The first one was at the start of April so that makes 4 mths since this has started. We have used doxy and baytril. this time we have Stomorgyl for 12 days.

 

[user 78]

If the abscesses keep coming back, but in different areas, then it's not a recurring abscess. The beads and sugar wouldn't really help him any, since he's able to heal them just fine. It's just that another shows up. When this newest abscess opens, it may be worth your way to get a sensitivity test done, so you can see what antibiotics it will respond to. With that information, you could possibly just put him on a 2 week course, and the problem could be solved from there.

 

[jorats]

Have you tried Bactrim/Septra/Novotrimel? it's an excellent antibiotics for abscesses. A while back, on another forum, a member was having the same issues. She finally asked for this med and it treated her little guy completely. Like you her rat kept having abscesses pop up in different places.

 

[Lina]

Thank you I will write that down for next time if this AB that he is on now doesn't help.

The vet did also mention that he may have something beginning with t (which I can't even remember how to say) growing inside him which is causing the injections and abbscess.