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Rat Injury Anonymous
I'm not one to normally consult /an/ for help, but maybe someone can give some beneficial feedback.
I have a pet rat with a large abscess that is rapidly growing. I took it to my vet and the vet said the only option was to remove it surgically which would be risky due to anesthesia and as much as I love my rat I'm not sure that I can afford a 300-400 dollar surgery. My main issue is that it's recently started picking at it - making it an open wound and she's constantly chewing and licking at it.

I want to put some form of ointment on it, to at least keep it from getting infected etc but i'm afraid that anything i use the rat would lick off.

I talked to my vet and they didn't give much help, suggested bitter orange, which would keep the rat from picking at it, but wouldn't necessarily heal it.

any ideas?

I imagine that if the lump is cancer or tumorous to being with that it doesn't have much life left anyway. however my rat's behavior is still normal.

image not my rat

TL:DR - rat has open wound need help fixing it. already took it to the vet.
>> KZN
Pay for the surgery; the lump, whatever it is, is most likely bothering her.

The standard response to your problem is "If you can't afford the treatment, you shouldn't have the pet."

I'm not trying to be rude or mean, but it's the truth. Even if it's hard on your wallet for awhile, potentially saving your rat's life is worth it.
>> Anonymous
feed your rat to a snake
>> KZN
>>215039
All right, I understand what you mean. But you should always be prepared to have the money to pay for expensive treatments when buying any pet.

Anyways, getting the wound treated and researching about it is a good idea, but you should still get whatever that lump is removed, as it could be cancerous.
>> Anonymous
the lesson here is that no matter how cheap the pet is, vet bills are always expensive.
>> Anonymous
You seems very dedicated to your animal. Personally, I don't think I could consider it. I would think that the animal has a limited lifespan already and that it isn't wrong to accept a natural death. That amount of money could do more good than fix a rat.
>> Anonymous
>>215067
natural death as in.. letting the rat suffer with this problem?

i sure hope thats not what you're saying.
>> Anonymous
>>215072
Yes, that's what I'm saying.

If it doesn't seems to be hurting the animal, like the OP has said, then I don't consider it as a disease. I consider it as a sign that its life will end. The sign itself might not do anything at all in the end, if it's similar to what I saw. My sister had a miniature hamster with an abscess, except in the ear. Nothing happened with it, it eventually dried up like a punctured balloon (but still silly looking). Then one day, several weeks later, it couldn't walk, couldn't see, was already one foot in the grave. Natural death. The abscess was only a warning.

Trying to do your best to forget a warning and getting the same result in the end could leave someone bitter.
>> KZN
>>215083
That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to save your pet. OP's rat could have cancer, now let's examine this.

If your mother, father, or grandparent developed cancer in their old age, would you help pay for treatment, or sit there and let them die, as their "time" seems to be coming soon?

I know what you're saying, but it's worth the cash to give the animal extra time, even if it's only a month or so. Seeing a the rat is biting at her lump, it probably DOES hurt her, and the animal shouldn't be made to suffer like this when something can be done about it.
>> Anonymous
>>215088
We can't know how much life the rat has left here. The lack of information is the biggest problem. My default stance in that case is that if physical anomalies are appearing then things aren't looking good.

For a human, we have much better knowledge available. We have a vague idea of how much more time a person has in his body. Because of this, we can know if it's worth it to have chimio or not. If it's not worth it, your mother or father or grandparent will probably ask THEMSELVE to not have the treatment.
>> KZN
>>215100
That is true, there's more information available for humans, and we are able to understand their opinions...

And yes, we don't know how long the rat has left, but that goes for all living things, when it comes down to it. Any one of us could die tomorrow. I'm just saying, if OP loves his rat, he should do the best he can to save it and give it as much time as possible.
>> Anonymous
>>215102
We'll have to disagree on that last point, I guess. I just don't feel it waranted to put so much ressources on the line when there's not enough information. For all we know, trying to "fix" the illness could just end up with the rat having a longer agony. There are better ways to use 300~400$ in order to do good, especially without relying so much on luck.

I do wish that his rat gets better, since it seems I somehow got one now as well.
>> Anonymous
>>215083
Uh, hello.
You knowing that your pet is suffering and not doing anything to help it, especially if you can PREVENT it, is animal abuse.

If OP can't afford the surgery, he/she should find another owner who will be willing to help the poor thing, or have the animal put down.
Thats a horrible thing to do to let your pet suffer like that and you might as well make its death as painless as possible.

Though rats are to small for the needle to hit their veins and instead the vet would inject it into its heart or stomach. Its a horrible, horrible death for small critters and is very inhumane.

OP, if you don't want to pay for surgery, I suggest putting your rat down. This has more information on how you can put her down without that injection.
http://www.rmca.org/Articles/euthanasia.htm
>> Anonymous
An abscess is a ball of pus...it is not cancer. The only way to treat an abscess is surgical drainage. No ointment will treat this. Although this is not cancer, it is still threatening to the pet's life.

I am a couple of years from becoming a surgeon myself, so I'm not just giving you uninformed opinion.
>> rat injury anon
was said rat exposed to cigarette smoke? I had the same problem with my rat which was kept inside in the loungeroom- my dad smokes so it was prettymuch exposed to it for its whole life (it only lived 1 and a bit years)it eventually died because of its tumors. So does anyone know if cigarette smoke can cause cancer in rats that easily?
>> MiMi
>>215123
speaks truth.

... The thing I like to point out to folks is proportional size of abscess (or injury in general on small pets) to body size.

If the abscess is about the size of a Skittle on a rat, it would be more or less the size of what, a grapefruit? on one of us. That's not going to go away with ointment. Sorry.

Find someone to help you in paying a vet to do it. Or, possibly, look for another vet who will do it for cheaper.
... seriously for the love of anything holy, do not attempt draining an abscess yourself. Ever.
>> MiMi
>>215035

Just reread OP's message. Retail mind taking over.

Bitter Apple, Bitter End, or Bitter Yuck will usually deter a pet from licking or chewing on an injury. Usually. But no, they have no antibacterial properties whatsoever.

Try Biocaine, if what you're after is to deter chewing/licking AND heal basic infection due to said chewing.

But this will not help the real problem, as mentioned. Please try to get your rat the vet care it needs.