(Possibly Emergency?) Bump/Cyst on my rats tail

Question
I recently noticed a dark brown/reddish scab on my rat's tail on top of a large bump/welt, he has no other wounds on his tail so this was somewhat alarming. Upon reading a bit on the site I came across some posts regarding this type of injury and the possibility of it coming to a head and being lanced. He did not seem to be in any distress so I squeezed the bump and it quickly popped, resulting in a brown/white discharge. After cleaning the discharge I removed a white glob resembling pus from the large-ish wound (about 1/4 the size of a dime) and cleaned it with warm water, followed by polysporin.

Should I be worried about this bump? If it were simply a cut I wouldn't be worried, as my friends have pet rats and their little ones have several cuts on the tails as a result of living with a cat, however this did not seem to be simply a cut because of the discharge.

Also, my little fella is 2 years old, is this something that could be a result of aging?

Thank you so much for any/all advice!  

Answer

Sounds like an abscess.  Can you post a photo? You can post it on your follow up simply by clicking the ATTACH PHOTO button.  It does sound like an infection though, nothing to worry about.

Continue doing what your doing, clean it several times a day, but you can use saline solution or very very diluted peroxide and water mixed and apply the antibiotic ointment.  If by chance and this is a big "IF"  it should spread larger and not start to heal within a few days, he may need to be seen by the vet and need oral antibiotics, but abscesses on the tail are very common.  Also keep his cage super clean.  Is he trained to use a litter pan or is there litter all over the entire bottom of his cage?

I would not consider this an emergency so dont worry.  If I thought his life was at risk I would not hesitate to suggest a vet rather than having you tend to the wound yourself.  Rats are very prone to local infection, esp an abscess due to the high levels of strep they carry on their skin, just like humans do.  Since they cannot wash with soap and water when they get cut, they tend to develop these infections easier but they are usually very easy to resolve without a Vets intervention.  

Some rat owners are unlucky enough to have a vet that is not really up to par on rat care and they think that either everything is either a tumor or everything is an abscess, which can prove both costly and dangerous.  One Vet, who had NO BUSINESS treating rats in the first place, kept digging and picking and even operating on this poor rat to clean out what he thought was an abscess.  The rat was getting sicker by the minute as the bacteria begin to enter her blood stream. Finally the owner wrote to me and I took one look at the photo and almost died. It was NOT an abscess at all, but instead, it was a tumor that had abscessed.  The tumor needed removed totally but this quack kept digging and picking at it but not removing it.  The new vet said the rat nearly died and if the owner did not write to me and she did not get her to the new vet within a few days, she would have died.  I also know of a vet that kept treating what he said was a tumor and one day it just disappeared and it was an abscess rather than a tumor. He said it was a MIRACLE.   LOL !   So yes, beware of quacks too, there are plenty out there!