to start antibiotics?

Question
About 2 months ago a hard dark lump came up on my 2.5 yr old male, near his urinary bits, which my vet said was cancerous, the hard dark part being dead cells and it would be difficult to remove due to where it is. We gave him a short round of antibiotics incase of infection. The lump has remained as it was when it appeared, and there has been no weight loss or change in appetite, he appears happy, active and healthy. Last night most of the hard black part came off, leaving a small wound, that bled some initially but now looks clean, with only a little pus secreting at times. My vet said this would happen, and I was going to take him in to make sure it was all ok, but my vet is sick today and I don't trust seeing the replacement. I'm not sure my rat really needs to go. I have plenty of antibiotics here, is it worth starting him on a round to ensure the wound does not get infected?

Answer

Sounds like an abscess, not a tumor. Keep it clean using saline solution and pack the wound with antibiotic ointment.  He should to just fine.


However......here goes....

Vets make mistakes, they are not human.  However, some vets just do NOT study rat health and are not up to par on their care.

Rats RARELY have cancerous tumors and if they do, they can easily be removed as long as the rat is healthy.  


Not long ago, someone wrote to me about her rat with a huge abscess that kept returning each time the vet would dig at it and clean it out. It never cleared up, the rat was in agony and the infection was out of control.  I asked for a photo of it and the second I looked at the photo I KNEW it was NOT an abscess, but instead, it was a mammary tumor that had abscessed.  The vet was killing this rat, sending poison into her blood stream by digging at this tumor thinking it was an abscess. He not once did a biopsy or tried to remove it, just dug at it. It was disgusting.  I gave her the name of a good vet that had plenty of exotic experience under his belt (he was a board certified avian/exotic vet) and he said that whoever sent the rat to him saved her life.  This was indeed a mammary tumor that had abscessed.  He removed the tumor and the rat recovered.  Had she not written to me, this rat would have died from sepsis.

I have seen so many rats with tumors that are abscessed or abscesses that are tumors and the vet doesnt know which end is which.

The dark spot on the lump was indeed necrotic tissue, but it was DEAD tissue from the fact abscesses do not have a blood supply. If it were a tumor, it would not have pus in it like that.  
Also, the area that it was in is a prime area for tumors and abscesses to develop and are simple to remove.  

All I can say is I am happy he did not try to talk you into putting the rat to sleep.  I have seen this happen as well.  Once, someone wrote about her rat that had head tilt and was walking in circles. Her vet said it was a brain tumor and she put the rat to sleep. She still had the body in the refrigerator because the weather was too bad to bury her so I suggested a vet to take her to for a necropsy. Sadly, the rat had what I suspected, a simple inner ear infection that could have been cured with medication. No signs of a tumor in the brain anywhere. This rat was put to sleep for nothing all due to a vet that THOUGHT he knew it all but did not want to take the time to do a little bit of research.  I can go on and on.....

One more thing.....if the tumor was cancerous and it was 2 months ago it came about, your rat would have been very very sick by now, losing weight, tumor would be spreading internally, blah blah blah.


its an abscess that opened up. It took this long because of the hard black scab type covering, known again as necrotic tissue.  

I hope he lives another year or more!  If you need anything else, please feel free to ask.