weird hole in skin - cyst?

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smilez_n_hugs

smilez_n_hugs

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Messages
4,290
Location
Collingwood ON
I am at a complete loss here. I was supposed to see the vet today but couldn't make it due to the weather so I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas. Hurley is about a year old and was neutered 10 days ago. Friday night I felt a lump just above his back leg, upon closer inspection he has a hole in his side about the size of a pen cap. There is no swelling, redness or smell of infection to it and all around and under it is hard and it is about the thickness of a loonie and has a rough feel to it. Inside the hole is dry I'm not sure what it is but its white with a few small black spots. Soaking it has changed nothing and I am worried if I pick at it, it will either make it worse or cause it to bleed. I have no idea what to think but after speaking to the vet who did the neuter I found that after the surgery they administered a baytril injection to his back leg.

Here are some pics....
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Anyone have any idea at all?
 
Yep, that looks like a very old abscess....what remains from it. You could try to squeeze out the dried out pus. Or it could be a very old keratin cyst.
 
I wonder if it was caused by the Baytril injection. Debbie Ducommun's Rat Health Care Guide cautions against injecting Baytril because it is so caustic; evidently rats can have a lot of damage to the skin in the area of the injection.
 
Godmother said:
I wonder if it was caused by the Baytril injection. Debbie Ducommun's Rat Health Care Guide cautions against injecting Baytril because it is so caustic; evidently rats can have a lot of damage to the skin in the area of the injection.
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That's what I was thinking but we have had so many spay/neuters done by this vet that it seems strange for Hurley to be the only one.

jorats said:
Yep, that looks like a very old abscess....what remains from it. You could try to squeeze out the dried out pus. Or it could be a very old keratin cyst.
Click to expand...

Would an old abscess leave almost like a hard shell behind? And so far I have had no luck squeezing anything out. Either way I am thinking he will need surgery to get rid of it?
 
I'd try warm compresses to get that scab off. It may need surgery, although I had two HUGE abscesses pop up a week or so after a surgery, and with compresses and baytril (at the direction of a vet, I highly suggest a vets opinion on whether an abscess needs to be lanced) it took a while but it went away completely.
 
Dazzle87 said:
I'd try warm compresses to get that scab off. It may need surgery, although I had two HUGE abscesses pop up a week or so after a surgery, and with compresses and baytril (at the direction of a vet, I highly suggest a vets opinion on whether an abscess needs to be lanced) it took a while but it went away completely.
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It's not a scab though that was the weird part.

After looking into cysts I'm almost positive that's what it is. It looks just like the one on this page (also give you a better idea of what I'm seeing in Hurley's hole since I can't explain it properly) if you scroll down to the part about cysts http://www.ratfanclub.org/abscess.html

So I would like to go to the vet prepared so for anyone with experience with cysts should I by trying to squeeze it or should I just have it surgically removed?
 
For a cyst that size, I wouldn't get it removed, I'd try to work it out or leave it alone unless it's clearly bugging him.
To squeeze those suckers out, I put my fingers completely around it, get right behind it with as little of his skin as possible and pop back up/push up in a squeeze. Hard to explain really. :?
 
Looks like the beginnings of a sebaceous cyst. If they are anything like the ones humans get you can squeeze the stuff out of them. And sometimes they will even go away on their own (this is coming from my personal experience as I get them frequently on the back of my neck).
 
My hairless boy Patrick used to get keratin cysts. If you think it could be that, I have a photo of one if you are interested.
I didn't squeeze them, I just left them alone and they eventually fell out by themselves. It leaves a little hole, and then it heals right up.
 
ratamataz said:
My hairless boy Patrick used to get keratin cysts. If you think it could be that, I have a photo of one if you are interested.
I didn't squeeze them, I just left them alone and they eventually fell out by themselves. It leaves a little hole, and then it heals right up.
Click to expand...

Have you ever had one open up like the one in the link?
 
Not like that, no, they were these hard little nubs that sort of poked out of the skin. Here, I dug up a couple of photos. Sorry they're a bit bright. I thought I had better quality pics than these. :? It's hard to see, but underneath the nub was a round lump that was quite hard. The one in the pics was quite small, he got others that were larger. I tentatively tried to squeeze one once and it wasn't going to happen. It was very hard and there wasn't any fluid or liquid or anything. They eventually fell out.
But it could be different because he was a hairless? Maybe keratin cysts react differently with furred rats, have more of a tendency to fester?

I hope these pics help somewhat, anyway, even if it helps you determine that it's not a keratin cyst. Again, sorry they're such poor quality. He wasn't a very cooperative patient, and by the looks of the second photo his brother Oliver was getting in the way.

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I've had quite of few of those on my hairless and double rexes. They usually just pop out leaving a little hole then heal. A couple though the vet had to remove surgically but they had grown quite big and they were under the neck and bothered the rat.
 
We were doing playtime/intros with Amanda's boys, and I decided to examine Hurley closely - the first chance I'd had to do so since coming home. I'm morbidly fascinated with stuff like this.

Anyways, I was poking and prodding and squeezing and he really didn't care, he sat perfectly still, so I started prying it up juuuust a little. It slipped almost all the way out. I turned to Amanda and said "So, can I pop it out?" but I didn't really wait for her to answer before I yanked the thing out :giggle:. It gave no resistance, it was so weird! I've never encountered anything like this before.

Of course I couldn't wait to pull out my camera, after poking and prodding and examining the hard lump closely.

I'll put the pictures in a spoiler, as some people might not want to see them (it's cool though, trust me! No blood or anything!)

[spoiler:3aziw3b4]Outer side:
DSC_3810.jpg

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Under side:
DSC_3807.jpg
[/spoiler:3aziw3b4]
 

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