serious help needed! open sore on rat.

[mlededee]

i found one of my breeder females with a large open sore on the side of her face. the whole side of her face is swollen. i cleaned it up with some bactine and some puss came out. while cleaning i discovered another much smaller open area farther down--this gushed a good amount of puss when gently touched. the whole thing smells like rotting flesh--the smell of a rat that has been dead for several days.

she shook her head a one point and some small drips of blood came out of her nose. i found one other small scab on her back--dried up and nothing really noteable about it other than that i have never noticed any scabs on any of my other rats. she also has a swollen and angry looking toe.

she doesn't act like the sore is painful--she was actually doing the tooth bruxing thing while i was cleaning it. does anyone have any idea what this might be or what i should do for her? of course tomorrow is a holiday and i am also going out of town until monday. flying--so i don't think taking her with me is a viable option.

[SatanicIntention]

It's an abscess(although it could be a tumor abscessing out, especially if blood came out her nose). And her toe looks either sprained or broken. I would put her by herself or with another calm female so she can rest and keep off the foot.

Was it blood or was it rust-colored stuff(porphyrin)?

She may have gotten into a scuffle and someone bit her cheek/back and she hurt her toe in the process. There's no place she could have gotten caught to make her toe like that, is there?

Just flush it out with warm chlorhexidine or saline and put some topical antibiotic ointment on it(no pain killer, in case they lick it off). Do that 1-2 times a day and it should go away within a week. If it doesn't and abscesses again, she may have a tumor and you need to put her to sleep. It would just slowly invade her jaw and brain and painfully kill her. Not a fun death..

Let's hope it's just an abscess, as they are common and easy to get rid of.

[mlededee]

thanks for the quick advice becky.

whatever came out of her nose may have been porphyrin and not blood. it was rust colored and there wasn't very much of it so hopefully that's all it was. i've never actually seen it come out of a nose in liquid form before--just assumed it was blood.

the enclosure is just a rubbermaid with the top cut and screen zip tied over it. in the tub is an igloo hide, food dish and an empty box for chewing/hiding. maybe if she hung her nail somehow in the lid she could have done that but i'm not really sure how likely that is. i guess the most likely thing is that she had a scuffle with one of her cage mates which caused everything...hopefully that's what happened anyhow.

thanks again for the help becky. now i have to try to talk my friend who is taking care of the animals while i'm out of town into getting her out and cleaning her up for me until i get back.