ear infection?

Question

  QUESTION: I really appreciate your help! I have two rats both about a year old and one of them had some wheezing and a funny smell near her swollen ear so I took her to the vet. The vet said ear infection and upper respitory infection and gave us amoxicillin. I gave her that and some very low dose baby motrin to help with the pain. Her breathing got a little better but a week later I took her back into the vet because her ear was even more swollen. She didn't prescribe anything new but did give me some ointment for her ear. Well today 2 days later it's even worse. And it has a black spot in the middle of theswollen part. I get the feeling that this is vet, like most vets in this small town, don't work with small animals very often. Any ideas on what does could be or what I could do to help it at home?
Thanks!
Jessica

ANSWER: Thats an abscess in there. Under that black scab is going to be loads of nasty pus. That is what you smell.  Your right about the vet, he is clueless.  You need another vet fast. Let me know where in Texas your located. Also, please see my website, sandyscrittercity.com and refer to the info about zymbals gland tumor located in the rat health section. Although the swelling seems too high to be that, you never know. At this point though I am thinking there is a large abscess that needs to be drained, which you can do yourself but strong antibiotics need to be used and if the vet is good with rats, which I plan to help locate one that is, the vet will know what needs done.  This needs attention fast though because the infection could spread to the brain.

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QUESTION: Ok thank you so much. I'm in the stephenville and hico Texas area and the vet was called ark animal hospital. Ill go check out your site now too! You're the best.

ANSWER: The vet you saw has NO certified small companion mammal vets there. It may say they see exotics but not one of them has the proper credentials to claim they are exotic vets. If they do, this is fraud to the fullest extent!!!

As for vets, please see this site

http://www.aemv.org/vetlist.cfm

let me know if there is anyone near you on the list for Texas and if not, I will do more searching.

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  QUESTION: Well this morning MJ's poor little ear looked so painful I decided to take her to a different vet in town to lance her abscess, which worked out great (hopefully)! Mj is acting a lot more relaxed now. This vet drained her ear and gave her a subQ shot of baytril and a steroid. Then starting tomorrow she'll get oral baytril about 1.08 mg twice daily. She weighs 0.54 lbs. Does that sound about right?? The vet also wants to follow up in a week to see how her ear heals.
And thank you for that site! I found an exotic vet in San Antonio, which is four hours away, but I have family there so if MJ's not better we can take a little trip :) I'd better start saving my money lol!
I appreciate your help so much and I'll keep you posted. If you want to use MJ's pics and story for your site you're welcome to :)

Answer
So I was right to assume it was an abscess. As soon as you said there was a black scab I knew that under that scab was alot of gunk, which I am sure the vet drained out just fine for him. I believe he will be ok after this. Fingers crossed.  It seems the vet you went to worked out well,which is good to know, too! To think that other vet just gave you some ointment to use! Thats just crazy!! No way was that going to touch that rats abscess!! I would call that vet up and let them know they totally wasted your money and caused unnecessary suffering for your little rat. Dont let that vet get away with this. If you dont speak up they will continue to treat rats and not help them recover. There are more vets that see rats and should keep their hands off them than there are vets that know what to do for them!!

Keep me posted if you need me be sure write again!