Lump on Young Rats Neck

Question
Hello,

Last weekend I acquired three young male rats (I think they're around eight weeks of age) from a pet shop. Two days ago I noticed that one has a lump on the underside of his neck just below the jawline. It's the size of (roughly) a large pea, hard, moveable, and lies underneath the skin. I'm not sure if it has developed within the last few days or if it was present when/before I got him.

He's acting like a typical young rat... eating fine, running around, bouncing all over the place, wrestling with his brothers, exploring, etc., but there are two issues concerning me. The first is that they are, as of yet, fairly unsocialized, and only allow a minimum of handling. The second is that I'm currently living in a miniscule, extremely rural town in northeastern Wyoming, and the vet that has treated my rats in the past is around seven hours from me now.

Do you know of any small animal/"exotics" vet(s) currently practicing in eastern Wyoming or western South Dakota? If he has to be seen, I'd like it to be someone with actual experience treating rats, particularly if the lump ends up needing to be removed. I'm tempted just to wait for a bit and if it gets much worse to make the trek to my usual vet... but it's so far away now that I'm not sure I have the time or the money to travel that distance, particularly considering the fact that, if it does require surgery, the initial examination and subsequent removal might require more than one day.

I really don't want this to be such a dilemma, but I can't help worrying about it. He's still a baby, and I honestly would have never expected to encounter a problem like this with him being so young.

I'd really appreciate any advice you may be able to give.

Answer
Sounds like an abscess. This is the prime location for one to develop.  I am sure the pups wrestle around like mad and even a playful bite can bring on an abscess.  You can help bring it to a head by holding a warm compress on it (yeah right, a skirmish baby rat!) and give it a slight squeeze from the base of it.  It should burst in a day or two anyhow though.  Once it does, clean it well with saline solution and pack any hole with antibiotic ointment.

As for them being shy, this is normal esp if they were not properly socialized.  I just bought three baby boys myself a few weeks ago who were 4 weeks old and now they are pushing 8 weeks as well.  They were very socialized because the breeder had his teenage children carry them around in their pockets or hoods of their jackets etc...and they were used to people right off, although they still dont want held, they want to run run run...

Also, having  a special play area for them that you can put them in and feel secure that they cant get out or get hurt will help with the bonding.  Read my website on making this play area out of cardboard and also check the page on trust training shy rats.

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/gettingstarted.htm

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/trainingshyorbitingrats.htm




I trained a very scared and mean wild baby rat who was 11 weeks old and we nicknamed her CHOMPS and JAWS because she bit me all the time.  I took her aside and trained her for a week and turned her into the sweetest rat ever, although she never accepted the domestic rats and wanted to fight them all the time which is pretty normal for the wild rat VS the domestic rat.

As for vets, I will have to do some deep searching but like to do it on weekdays when the vets are open so I can call and ask a few questions of my own before referring someone to you. As of now, there are no vets that are members of the Association of exotic mammal Veterinarians as I anticipated, but that doesnt mean there are no vets that see exotics at all. I will let you know what I come up with.