Young Rat with Abscesses

Question
QUESTION: We adopted a young rat in June from a reputable exotic animal shop.  Granted she was in the feeder bin, but she is the sweetest thing ever!  Two weeks after we purchased her she got a lump on her neck. It ruptured, we cleaned it and figured she maybe got bitten before we got her and it healed.  Then another large one popped up below that one.  My 9 year old son (who she belongs to)paid the vet $140.00 to lance and drain that one and started antibiotics.  Then more have popped up all in the neck and shoulder area on the same side.  He is quite upset at spending his money and it is still happening.  Have had her on 4 two week courses of antibiotics.  The first course was a pencillian derivitive.  The last 3 have been Baytril.  She has had I believe 9 abscesses to date.  They have all ruptured and drained, they have all had cleaning and antibiotics applied to them until healed.  Yesterday one popped up on her shoulder on the other side of her from all of the others.  Is she doomed to having these forever?  The vet is just recommending more antibiotics because he at a lost.  I have called multiple exotic vets and they are all of the same opinion.  I want her to be better so we can play with her more.  I had read that the infection in commonly a form of staph and would like us to not get it so we have minimized handling when the wounds are open.  Any suggestions?

ANSWER: You can clean them yourself. I handle rats with nasty draining abscesses all the time. Its not even as bad as handling raw chicken. Exercise common sense of course when you clean them but you can do this yourself and save tons of money.
Does she live alone?  

What to do when they come up is to hold warm compresses on them, pick of the scab, press the base of the abscess until it starts to drain and continue to do this till it is done. Clean with saline solution or hibicleanse diluted with water. After that, pack the crater that is left with neosporin. Do this several times a day. If you take care of them yourself these will stop coming.  By not cleaning them at home they are spreading and coming back because they have time to grow between vet visits.  If they get worse of course go back to the vets but it seems that by not cleaning them at home this is making them return again and again.   You do not need to worry about getting any type of nasty staph from her. Staph is a normal flora on our own skin. Just wear latex gloves if you want and wash up afterwards.  
You said you have called multiple exotic vets. Beware that there are less than 200 certified exotic vets in the United States. This means about 12 certified exotic vets per state if the state is large, and sometimes there are only 3 or 4 in other states.  California has the highest percent of exotic vets (45 exotic vets) while states like Idaho have just 1, Kansas has just 3, and where I am located we have just 14 in the entire state. Sometimes people think they are dealing with real exotic vets but they are simply general vets that have possibly taken a special interest in exotics and have gone the extra mile to learn a few extra things about them more than the traditional vet that sees dogs and cats has done.  Just a heads up so you know that although you think your taking the advice of someone board certified, chances are they are no more educated about rat care than your next door neighbor.
I hate to say these things but I am really peeved now after a write wrote in about losing his pet rats back to back after having a mammary tumor removed.  Chances are this vet has fooled this rat owner into thinking he or she is a bonified exotic vet and I am ready to bet my left arm he hasnt even taken one formal course in exotics.


Anyhow, let me know if you have done anything for her at home as far as cleaning the wounds out and if so, what did you use?
Also, the best medication to use that will actually penetrate through abscessed tissue is bactrim, not baytril.

I must say that I am impressed at the care you and your little boy are giving the rat and very impressed your son was willing to spend his own money on a vet bill. I wish I could send it back to him :( as I feel alot of money could have been saved. There was no real need for the vet to do any type of surgery on the rat (I hope I misunderstood and he did not really put the rat under anesthesia and remove this abscess?)

Let me know.....and also if you want another vet, check this link. It is to the AEMV. Perhaps there is a vet found there that is in your area and maybe even someone you know about is there.

Here is the URL

http://www.aemv.org/vetlist.cfm

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

QUESTION: I have been cleaning all of these at home with peroxide (watered down) and packed with topical antibiotics from the vet.  

He did put her under light anesthesia but the pain seemed to be too much for her so that was his decision. She was so young and not too tough. The abscess was almost the size of her head and had not ruptured like the previous one so we were worried about it breaking inside.  I have cared for all of the ones following but they have all ruptured on their own.  We are worried about getting scratched up and the staph getting into the wounds that way!  We had a family member in the hospital last fall with staph infection and it was a nasty and dangerous time!

She did have a cage mate that we purchased a couple weeks after her, that was just weened from the mom.  Unfortunately she died just a few weeks ago.  She was only a few months old but it looked like she had blood coming out of her mouth and it was quick.  She had been playing no more than 3 hours before we had found her.

We have been so proud of him with the responsibility he has shown that we ended up splitting the bill with him.  We just want her better!  I am tired of the cleaning and medicine and she is still the biggest sweetheart even after all of the medicine and poking and squeezing!  Thank you so much for your suggestions.  I am going to our vet to see about getting some Bactrim for her and get her current weight.  She looks like she might be actually gaining some weight and growing some.  If all else fails, there is a vet on the link you gave me in our area and we will go see them.

Answer
Hi again

I know someone that had MRSA, which is a nasty staph infection that can get out of control and she had rats. She was scared she was going to pass it to them so she had to find someone else to care for them. This went on for months and she was super sick. However, there are so many strains of staphs and streps and even though these abscesses are nasty, if she had something like MRSA she would probably die. Maybe the vet can check the contents of the abscess, do a biopsy perhaps? I think it would be a good idea to pinpoint exactly what type of organism it is she has. If this has been done, ignore me. I have been getting swamped with questions and may be forgetting everything written which is bad on my part so forgive me for that. I do remember you are the one with the generous little boy that wanted to use his own money to pay for his rats medical care.
Also, I wasnt sure if you were using anything at home on the abscesses when you said you were leary of handling her due to her wounds. Its so hard to understand sometimes exactly what another person means on the net so forgive me also for misunderstanding you there too, now that I see your using medications at home and cleaning the wounds out too.

Sounds like the little girls cagemate died of possibly a brain aneurysm. Often death is sudden and there is blood seen in the rats mouth when they die. Oddly enough, it happens when they are young too since often they are born with a congenital defect and there are usually no signs or symptoms before anything like this.