pyometra? now on antibiotics

Question
QUESTION: My pet rat, Sputnik, is about a year and a half old and has up until now been in absolutely perfect health. She is usually friendly, playful, and very active. Over the last two weeks, though, I have noticed a large amount of abdominal growth that I attributed to weight gain. Although she has continued to get larger, she still looks at this point like maybe she is just a chubby rat. What I am now alarmed by is the new presence of vaginal bleeding/secretions, which are thick and dark brown. She doesn't appear to "drip" on the carpet or in her cage, but when I went to give her a bath, I discovered that even a small amount of pressure on her abdomen makes a few drops worth of this liquid come out. I am pretty much in a panic at this point and will be calling my vet in the morning. I usually take my dog to her, so I don't know if she's qualified to work with rats. If she isn't, I will try to find someone suitable as quickly as possible. Until then, can you help me identify what's going on here? I'm really worried, full of questions, and out of answers.
Thank you so much.

ANSWER: Heather

Oh my. This is serious.  She probably has a mass in her uterus and needs surgery, or it could be alot of inflammation from infection, possibly pyometra, which needs treated right away. Is there an odor?
Please do not even attempt to take her to the vet that sees your dog. There is a huge chance that he or she may want to see her just to help out but she needs an exotic vet right away.  I can help you locate someone just by you telling me your location, zip code or city/state. Exotic vets are no more expensive than regular vets, and if she needs spayed, which is a high chance she does, someone skilled with surgery on rats needs to do it. Sometimes vets that are not real experienced will attempt to take on something like this and it ends in disaster, often fatal consequences.  Hang in there...but please get back to me right away. This cannot wait any longer or she may not have much a of a chance at recovery and she is still plenty young yet.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: First, I wanted to thank you for your helpful and prompt response. It helped to prepare me for what I would be dealing with at the veterinary hospital. I took Sputnik in to see a local exotic vet first thing in the morning today, and he was very helpful and encouraging. He too thinks she might have pyrometra, and we are starting her on antibiotics. She is taking .25 mg of Baytril at 6mg/oz every twelve hours. The vet also took an x-ray that I guess was inconclusive, though I'm still not clear on what we were looking for at that point -- tumors? I was told that Sputnik doesn't have any fat to distinguish a possible mass from, or something like that. I was bombarded with an awful lot of information today, so I'm trying to put it back together as best as I can. Next time I'll take notes.
Right now, the plan is to have her on the antibiotics for four days, and if she doesn't show significant improvement, the vet will sedate her and do an ultrasound (looking for the source of excess fluid, I think). I have some reservations about the sedation, but it seems at this point to be the best diagnostic tool... (?)
Either way, I'll be taking her back in four days from now to see what's going on. I'm much more hopeful now, but still scared that the antibiotics won't work and maybe we're looking at something else entirely.
Additionally, the vet was able to take a sample of Sputnik's discharge and determined that there were bacteria present. He told me what kind but I can't remember the name -- but he told me that Baytril works well on it.
What I neglected to include in my original question is that her discharge was dark brown and kind of thick -- I assumed that it was blood because of where it was coming from, until I smelled it -- it smells absolutely foul. Additionally, the discharge has been intermittent today, but always with much less fluid than last night.
I guess my question now --and thank you so much for sticking with me through this long post-- is what comes next? If it is pyometra, are we looking at spaying? Should I have had her spayed earlier in order to prevent this kind of thing? To be honest, I had never even considered it, as she is a single rat and has no risk of becoming pregnant.
Also, should I be watching for/expecting any side-effects of the antibiotics?
Again, thank you so much for your help on this. You have been a wonderful resource through this difficult situation, and I appreciate you taking time out of your day to answer my questions.

Answer
hi

I am so happy she went in today.  Pyometra is a very ugly infection of the uterus and it can be fatal if she would turn septic. Now that she is on baytril,it should work, espif the organsim causing it is Mycoplasma, which is very common.   Be sure to make her a scrambled egg or some cooked beef livers to offer her any lost protein from blood loss. Is she on pain medication?
Spaying would be the only real option to prevent this from occurring again but you would also be doing her another favor if you spay her too:
Possible prevention of future mammary tumors or pituitary tumors. When a rat reaches menopausal age, which is around 18 to 24 months of age, their menses cease. You will not know this since rats do not bleed when they go into heat, mainly because the estrus cycle is so short, there is nothing the uterus sheds to be expelled out such as the mixture of blood and mucus, and in turn they do not bleed when they are in heat which is every 5 days for around 12 hours. Anyhow, when the menses cease, estrogen levels sky rocket which in turn triggers the development of mammary tumors in the mammary tissue, which is scattered all across your rats body from under their arm pits and in the neck area, to their belly, and down even in their inner thigh area.  Once they start to grow, they usually keep coming no matter how often you have them removed. I have a distraught reader now that is beside herself because every time her vet removes  a tumor, new ones grow within a week. Also pituitary tumors can form and these are always fatal and cannot be removed since thy are found in the base of the rats brain. No matter how good the vet is, brain surgery on rats is not common thats for sure. So spaying can have major benefits in a female that lives with all female or even alone. Its suggested a rat be spayed early, around 3 to 5 months old, but any age is better than remaining intact.  Now that she has pyometra, chances of relapse are there so I would not think twice about choosing to do it now once she is stable.  However, the skill of the surgeon is very very critical at this point. I know you said the vet is an exotics vet, but many say they see exotics but are NOT exotic vets that have taken the course in college (which consists of a few more years plus state boards for specialty vets etc...)  The vet should be totally prepared and have the proper implements for this surgery. Of course, from the treatment she is on and the fact he diagnosed her like I did and took films of her etc...makes me feel better. I hate to even bring this up to people but its important they are aware of the difference between exotic vets and vets that see exotics as a special interest but are self taught.

Take a look at my website for info on mammary tumors and also about vets.  

ABOUT TUMORS
http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/allabouttumors.htm

VET INFO

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

You can even find your vet if he or she is a registered exotic vet with the Association of exotic mammal veterinarians from going to the link on my website.

Anyhow, please keep me posted. How is she today?