Spider bite?

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rednekgurl80

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I'm new to this forum, so I hope I posted this in the right place. I have a hairless rat (Scarlett) who is about 9 months old. She has 3 female cage mates. They have their little squabbles, but no one has ever gotten hurt. Today while I was cleaning out their cage, I let them run loose in the bathroom. When I got done, I noticed Scarlett had a large boil looking thing on her neck. I didn't notice it before I put them in the bathroom. I think I would have if it had been there, but who knows. I know we have brown recluse spiders in our house... I found one in the bathroom just the other day. Does this look like a spider bite or is it something else?
 
if she was bit by a brown recluse then you definitely need to take action right away as their venom can cause some pretty serious wounds...I am not sure how you would treat it in a rat..Hopefully the venom won't affect her badly but with her being so small I imagine it might turn bad...
 
It looks like a keratinous cyst. Very common in nakies. The bump is usually filled with thick, chunky white stuff, so it can't pop and drain like an abscess. If it won't squeeze out, then an incision has to be made to make the hole big enough to pop the gunk out.
 
rednekgurl80 said:
I'm new to this forum, so I hope I posted this in the right place. I have a hairless rat (Scarlett) who is about 9 months old. She has 3 female cage mates. They have their little squabbles, but no one has ever gotten hurt. Today while I was cleaning out their cage, I let them run loose in the bathroom. When I got done, I noticed Scarlett had a large boil looking thing on her neck. I didn't notice it before I put them in the bathroom. I think I would have if it had been there, but who knows. I know we have brown recluse spiders in our house... I found one in the bathroom just the other day. Does this look like a spider bite or is it something else?
Click to expand...

My nakie has the same thing. He has had it for about 3 weeks now & it looks worse than on your girl. Probably becuz I have been messing w/ it too much.
I have had him on antibiotic for about 1 1/2 weeks now w/o improvement. We are going to the vet on the 30th. I have been kinda soaking him & running warm water over it...don't really know if it helps - I was just hoping it would make it open up.
 
Thank you so much for all of your help! I'm sorry I haven't posted any updates or anything. Work has been crazy! Even though I haven't responded, I have been reading the comments. :) I took Scarlett to the vet today. It turned out to be a keratin cyst. The vet lanced it and squeezed a bunch of nasty gunk out of it. I have her separated from the rest of the rats. Don't know if they would pick at the wound or not, but didn't want to take the chance. I'm so glad it wasn't anything too serious. She's an ornery little thing (just ask her cage mates... lol), but she's still my baby. :) I hope this doesn't happen again, but if it does, I think I can handle it at home now that I've seen it done. One more question... should I put something on it? Antibiotic ointment or anything?
 
No, don't put anything on it - it has to heal from the inside out and she will just lick it off and ingest it. Watch it closely to make sure it doesn't close up and form an abscess. Glad she's doing better and hopefully its a one time occurrence.
 
WOW -- Did they sedate her before lancing? I am afraid my boy will need that done.
 
There is no need to separate her from the other ratties. She will be happier with her family. I have never had a rat mess with another rat's surgical incision or injury. I'm glad it was something easy!
 
Since its an open cavity I would advise flushing it with saline, at least once a day. Keeps it clean, and encourages it to dry up and heal. No ointments. She should be just fine soon. :)
 
Thanks again, everyone. No, they didn't sedate her. I was afraid she was gonna bite the vet, but she did pretty well considering. I live in a small town. We have 3 vets here, but none of them really work with rats. So I guess I was lucky they took her.
 

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