Possible infection/squamous cell sarcoma

Question
My rat Lulu is probably a year and a half old. All her life she has had a
"weepy" left eye. She typically has the red serous discharge that rats get when
they are stressed/sick... but only in the left eye, never in the right. I have
been putting triple antibiotic in her eye for months and it seems to come and
go as it pleases, though the antibiotic sometimes will help.

In less than 10 hours she has developed severe swelling of the left side of her
face from her left ear down to her mouth. When I first noticed it (it has only
been about 30 hours since) I put the antibiotic in her eye, after an hour the
swelling went down. But after running out for errands and returning, the
swelling had reappeared. That side of her face is so swollen I can no longer
reach her eye to medicate it. The eye smells like it is infected. I am aware that
it could be a cancerous tumor but I was also open to the possibility if it just
being a really bad infection if she did something such as getting something
inside that bad eye. I was wondering if those cancers can develop a full blown
tumor with in a matter of say five hours, or if it is more likely that this is just
an infection.


Answer

Sounds like infection, possibly an abscess. At least I would be happier if it were that rather than it being zymbals gland involvement.

If it is her eye and its that bad, her eye can be easily removed, all of the infection drained and cleaned and she could recover without problems. She is still at a good age.  One of my favorite rats had to have his eye out and he did not even notice it was missing. He was the most active rat I have ever had.

Do you have a good vet that sees rats?  There are plenty out there that will see them but that doesnt mean they are really as knowledgeable as they should be when seeing our fuzzballs.