Rat with tomour?

A rat of mine had some sort of injury last weekend, I thought is was because of a fight so I just put some alcohol and left her alone. I hadnt checked the ratties as I only go and change watter and put food, but this weekend I checked and she has a real big nasty something. It's soft and I think it has pus (sp?)
Could u guys tell me what is it!? I cant pay for a vet, so the options if not easily healed are feed off or euthanize. Would it be safe to feed a boa with that rat?
Pics for you guys to guide:

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f7...eirdrat002.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f7...eirdrat005.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f7...eirdrat010.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f7...eirdrat001.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f7...eirdrat011.jpg

Is it soft and squishy or firm? If soft like a sac of liquid and a bit warm compared to her body temp, it might be an abcess. If firm and you can move it around a bit, it's more likely a tumor.

Might as well euthanize if you dont have money to treat it. CO2 her...

Question... are you housing them in a plastic drawer set up using bowls for water? .... How's the ventilation it that?

It's soft and squishy like a sac of liquid and a bit warm compared to her body temp. Can I feed her of?
They are in a plastic drawer with water bottles, they somehow ate the freakin bottle thru the cloth, so they have a bowl temporarily. And for ventilation, the sides were cut off and replaced with hardware cloth. They live in an open (no walls) garage, so they get constant winds. and temps in Costa Rica are always between 17 and 26ºC (can go as low as 15 and as high as 32 sometime, but only exceptional days in the year)

sorry for double posting but couldnt find the editing button, in the picture they are on a drawer that has no holes because i'm repairing the one they ate thru till the water bottle, so they are housed there temporarily

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dcommander

It's soft and squishy like a sac of liquid and a bit warm compared to her body temp. Can I feed her of?

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I suppose if you wanted to... I like to gas the large rats before feeding, just my little bit of sympathy.

Well to be honest, I'm not that sad about her going to begone, she was the worse mom EVER, her first breeding was when she was 4.5 month old and 262 grams. That litter was of 5 pups, all eaten. Next litter was 9 pups, she ate 3 and the rest were burrowed and left alone, found them all dead in the morning. She's pregnant atm, so I'm waiting for her to enlight (do u say it like that in english) to put the small one to a foster and feed her off. I will gas her, even thou I dont really like her, she is one of God's creatures and deserves a humane death.
Thx a lot for your help connie :)

Why feed a sick and bacteria ridden rat off?

Be kind, just put her out of her misery and move on if you are not going to treat her.

Bruce

if it were a tumor, I'd say go ahead and feed her. But she has an abcess. That's an infection, with bacteria. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to feed her to one of your snakes. If you can't take her to the vet, perhaps a humane death, and a burial or other form of disposal would be the best thing for her.

My vet only charged me $25 to surgically remove a tumor in that same location. It wouldn't hurt to contact yours to see if they wouldn't do something similar - or at least humanely euthanize for you.

I would think since it started off as a wound that it may just be as simple as an absess cause by infection that can be drained and treated with a round of anitbiotics and the rat be good as gold.

OK, I'll contact my vet and ask him, but she probably will be fed of anyways, she's kinda the worse mom ever... i'll let you guys know, and thx a lot for your help and info :)