Rat Lump! (Part 2)

Wezoin

Alright, so some of you may remember my thread from before about my rat (Edgar) having a lump on his back. About a week ago it was still just a big red lump and was worried it might be cancer but also read about cysts that would burst on their own and drain. Today while cleaning their cage I notice its got a big black scab on the lump, so I'm assuming it burst. I took him up to the bathroom, put him/the lump under some warm water and got some paper towel to dry it. I squeezed it a little bit (very little pressure - he squeals when being picked up so I didn't want to hurt him or anything) to see if I could get it to rupture again so I could drain it but I decided to stop before anything happened. I dried him off and put him back in his cage.

Is there anything I should be doing? Some sites recommend I should lance it but I'm kind of paranoid about cutting/poking into part of my rat. Also, a vet really isn't an option, these rats were just brought in from the lab because they were going to kill them otherwise and I figured I'd give them a fair chance at life, I do not have money to take them to a vet right now, nor do I know of a vet who will deal with rats in my area. Since its most definitely not cancer since it burst I take it its not a life-or-death situation anyway.

Awk

how is Edgar doing?

Dunadan019

Dude....

if its not a zit, don't squeeze it as that'll just hurt the rat.
if its not an abcess, don't lance it as that'll just hurt the rat.

mammals sometimes get skin growths from various different things but most likely its just a tumor. If its malign, you'll know and theres not much you can do about it. If its benign then so long as its not hurting your rat or effecting its movement you don't have to do anything about it. pretty much the only way to remove a benign tumor is to cut it out through surgery as the lump is usually subdermal.

If the lump is bleeding or leaking you can contain it (and prevent some nasty infections from setting in) by trimming and shaving the area around the lump and bandaging it up with some antiseptics until it stops leaking.

Wezoin

I wasn't "squeezing" it hard or anything, just a bit of pressure to see if it would reopen and drain (like the websites indicated it probably would.) Is there still the possibility of it being a tumour if its quite clearly burst and scabbed over?

@Awk: He's alright, I guess. A bit lumpy but seems to be his same old self.

Dunadan019

Wezoin wrote: »

I wasn't "squeezing" it hard or anything, just a bit of pressure to see if it would reopen and drain (like the websites indicated it probably would.) Is there still the possibility of it being a tumour if its quite clearly burst and scabbed over?

@Awk: He's alright, I guess. A bit lumpy but seems to be his same old self.

yeah, my dog had a similar bleeding tumor on him a few months ago.