Rat with tumor or infection kinda graphic pics

I was going through my racks cleaning this morning and I got to a tub with a female with a really nasty looking something on her side. I didn't see it a few days ago when I had just cleaned. I've never seen a rat with a tumor but it doesn't look infection to me. I don't know perhaps it's like a giant abcess. Either way shes got a vet appt with the vet I work pretty closely with. I just wanted to see what others opinions are. Even though shes a breeder for food she still gets treated like family. So I've got them in a rack, feeding on mazuri.
Most of my rats came from a private breeder and they were just extras. I haven't had any new ones in though since before November.
Ok here's the pics be warned I think it's the yukest thing I've seen in awhile.
http://img.tapatalk.com/c6e4c3e4-1685-3377.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/c6e4c3e4-169a-6a22.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/c6e4c3e4-16ab-ac39.jpg
Yuk ya. Anyways opinions are welcome. If I need to grab better pics just let me know she's kinda a wiggle worm. And hopefully the vet can do something with it tomarrow or at least do what needs to be done for her.


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Looks nasty, i would just kill her off in case its contagious. I wouldnt want my other rats getting that too...

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Looks nasty, i would just kill her off in case its contagious. I wouldnt want my other rats getting that too...

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X2... I understand getting attached to them but it isn't worth losing everything when your relying on them to feed your snakes.

She is in a breeding group but no one else has any sign of anything like this. It looks pretty yucky but doesn't seem to be affecting her. Before killing off a good breeder I'd like to see what my vet thinks. Idk even though she's a feeder breeder I feel like if it's just some big super Gross abcess If it can be lanced and drained for next to nothing then she deserves at least the chance. If it is a tumor or something worse then yes we'll do what we have to do.


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Originally Posted by Homegrownscales

She is in a breeding group but no one else has any sign of anything like this. It looks pretty yucky but doesn't seem to be affecting her. Before killing off a good breeder I'd like to see what my vet thinks. Idk even though she's a feeder breeder I feel like if it's just some big super Gross abcess If it can be lanced and drained for next to nothing then she deserves at least the chance. If it is a tumor or something worse then yes we'll do what we have to do.


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Oh ok well thats good, i would quarantine her though at the very least. Im glad to see some people actually care for all of their animals, even if theyre just food for your snakes.

The whole 1.3 is in qt out of the rack just to be sure. While these particular ones aren't food they do breed the food so they've been around awhile. The female pumps out 15 pinks at a time and is a good mom so maybe thats why I'm reluctant to just trash her. I feel like everyone should get the benefit of the doubt though. If it was just a feeder maybe id just cull it off but.... It's just weird that I just did the racks 3 days ago and didn't see it. But perhaps it probably wasn't what it is now. Oh well we'll see what the vet days tomarrow. Hopefully it's just a nasty abcess.


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Boy, I have never seen anthing like that. But now that you have me curious, make sure you come back and tell is what the outcome is.

That's an impacted teet. It isn't contagious. It happens sometimes. I've had several instances of this over the past year and it will drain, heal up, and they can continue to breed. Keep them clean and well hydrated and it should heal up. That teet won't be be able to produce milk again but I have a mother or two in my rack that do a fantastic job with one less teet.

Regards,

B

By the way, the best way to prevent this is to be careful about weaning early. If a teet get a hard lump in it you can use a warm compress (washcloth) and carefully squeeze it. Some nasty milk/mixture stuff can come out and you will probably save the teet. When it has advanced this much the only thing you can do is let it pop, drain, and heal up.

Regards,

B

Ahh thanks so much B! I will convey this to the vet tomarrow and hopefully he will be able to help her in some way. Is there anything I can do for her tonight? Would a warm bath help?


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Originally Posted by Homegrownscales

Ahh thanks so much B! I will convey this to the vet tomarrow and hopefully he will be able to help her in some way. Is there anything I can do for her tonight? Would a warm bath help?


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You could try some diluted iodine or betadine on it but she's NOT going to like it. While it looks nasty and disgusting I haven't had a single female that experienced this get sick or die. They keep it clean themselves and it seems to heal up. I've experienced this three times total in a year. Two of the females are still great moms. One of them actually has a litter right now.

Regards,

B

Amazing. Thanks that is quite the load off of my mind. And that makes sense as well. It looks so gross though. Yuk. I hate seeing something like this on one of my animals. I'll still bring her tomarrow and maybe we can get her held down and he can knick it a bit so it will drain. I'll do a warm bath with beta too tonight. Thanks so much!


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It is either a tumor which has broken the skin (not uncommon) or mastitis. If it is soft, squishy and warm, then it is mastitis (an infection of the milk gland) if it is solid and hard then it's almost certainly cancer.

If you have the stomach to cut it open when you put the rat down, you'll be able to tell for sure. If its mastitis then it will be full of blood and pus. If it's cancer it will look like a big fleshy lump.


EDIT - If you're going to try and save her, it will only work if it's mastitis, and not cancer. So find out first. You can knick it with a scalpel or probe it with a needle and if you get pus, then you can proceed to drain and clean it, if you get only blood then again, it's probably cancer.

Thanks Rhas!
That's why we're still keeping the appt tomarrow. I understand that folks can only do so much over the Internet. Its not solid that's for sure pretty squishy. So I guess that's a good thing. But I just really don't want to be the one knicking it. I have a stomach but..., I'm not the best with things like this. I'll leave that for the vet. I'll update the thread tomarrow after the appt.


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Yeah if it's squishy and warm it's almost guaranteed to be an infection.
Let us know what happens at the vet. That thing is going to need a lot lot lot of cleaning if it gets drained. At least 2 times a day with salt water washes and betadine to clean it up. Definitely ask the vet for some liquid baytril, it's much better than neosporin, it's more liquidy and will get into all the areas it needs to, before the rats clean it all off.

I had a female breeder that had the same issue a few months ago. She had it a lot worse and was definitely mastitis but she had it from front to back legs. She did heal up ok but was useless as a breeder female and very aggressive. x.x Don't think I'll pull all rat pups again until I'm either sure they're weaned or leave a few behind to help prevent this again.

Ugh that was a yucky vet trip. My vet agreed that the female had a mastitis. We knicked it open and drained it. Ugh super yucky stuff came out with that one. We will be doing the salt washes and he agreed that baytril would be good to use and gave us a vial. So.... We've got her in her own clean 10 gallon with shredded newspaper and a towel in the corner to help catch the drainage. Ugh yuck.


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Originally Posted by Homegrownscales

Ugh that was a yucky vet trip. My vet agreed that the female had a mastitis. We knicked it open and drained it. Ugh super yucky stuff came out with that one. We will be doing the salt washes and he agreed that baytril would be good to use and gave us a vial. So.... We've got her in her own clean 10 gallon with shredded newspaper and a towel in the corner to help catch the drainage. Ugh yuck.


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MMMMM YUMMMMMMMYYYY!!!

lol glad to hear shes doing better. Ive never heard of that before. Can it affect any mammal?

I would guess that it can affect any lactating mammal. It was most likely when I gave her babies to a larger female whom had a smaller litter. Then I just put her back in rotation. Whoops I guess I won't be doing that again. Either way well see how this goes.


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A trick I've figured out to help prevent this (knock on wood I haven't had an issue in awhile) is that if I feed off young rats I put the mom with another mom to help out. This usually relieves the pressue and lets their body slow production. So far this has worked well and it has been awhile since I've had an issue like this. The few cases I've had were almost always when I was feeding whole litters of pups or younger off.

Regards,

B

Interesting stuff. If a women chooses not to breastfeed doesnt the milk just dry up? Or would this not affect humans...?

Definitely effects humans. I was nursing my daughter and my nephew and then he stopped nursing and whammo, mastitis. VERY painful. When a baby is first born and NEVER nurses, it helps to slow down the production of milk, in fact in the beginning it is not milk at all, but colostrum in all mammals. It gives them needed antibodies. Most likely the baby rats, unless pulled as delivered, did nurse some, got the colostrum, then it kick started the mom into making milk. I always pull my litters down to 12, then if I need more only take five more, then another five, then the rest, with a few days in between. Vigorous nursers can also increase the milk production in a female.
*Fila*

Ouch! I don't have kids but imagine that to be extreamly painful! I was removing whole litters after they got to a certain size. I guess now that I know this can happen I'll be removing just a few at a time from a couple of different litters. Even though there's a little extra work involved I'm glad I gave her the chance to stay around. It's a good learning experience though. Learn something new every day.


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Yes, a pretty nasty abscess probably looked alot like the one your rat had but bigger and without the hair :) I tried not to look at it and had hubby keep it cleaned and irrigated. UGH!
*Fila*

Glad to hear it went well, no matter how yucky. :P

Just make sure to clean out all the gook you can on a daily basis. And pick off any scabs that form. If a scab forms, it just seals in the infection, and it starts all over again. You have to keep the wound open for it to heal properly. :)

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Originally Posted by Fila

Definitely effects humans. I was nursing my daughter and my nephew and then he stopped nursing and whammo, mastitis. VERY painful. When a baby is first born and NEVER nurses, it helps to slow down the production of milk, in fact in the beginning it is not milk at all, but colostrum in all mammals. It gives them needed antibodies. Most likely the baby rats, unless pulled as delivered, did nurse some, got the colostrum, then it kick started the mom into making milk. I always pull my litters down to 12, then if I need more only take five more, then another five, then the rest, with a few days in between. Vigorous nursers can also increase the milk production in a female.
*Fila*

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Wow can you say ouch! Sorry you had to go through that.

Hopefully your rat makes a full recovery. I dont really like rodents or vermin but as an animal i still respect them. I guess im gunna have to learn to like them if i wanna breed them someday for my snakes lol!

I know cattle can get it to. Every once in a while we would get a dairy cow get mastitis and have to go through the process of getting her back into rotation.