Hey guys - I have a problem.

I just noticed a huge abscessed wound on one of my girls. She's one of my older girls and I've grown quite fond of her. I've always liked her a lot - she's very sweet. Her productivity has gone down a lot the past few months as she's well over a year old and probably not even fertile any more. She has given me a lot of nice, big litters and I had every intention to let her live out her life as normal instead of killing her or feeding her off.

Basically this is the first time i've been attached enough to a rat to have it be this painful to have to consider ending it. I would just take her to the vet but i swore to myself that this colony was "feeders, not pets" and that all issues would be dealt with here and within the collection. I think i violated that rule, unfortunately and I don't know what to do.

Have any of you experienced something similar? What would you do/have you done?

Thanks.