My pet rat keeps getting lumps and they pop open.

Question
Hello I have a question concerning my pet rat Rouge. A few months ago she started to get a lump on the side of her face right up under her ear. A couple weeks went by and it popped and healed and everything. Well it came back and did the same thing 2 different times. Now she has a rather large lump that is popped and has a little bit a blood on it and kinda stinks. She started leaning to one side when this bump first appeared. She still eats and drinks and moves around (except for the leaning) great, just this bump is much much worse than the others. I haven't taken her to the vet but am wondering if this will stop and heal or does the poor little thing not have a change and is she suffering? If you could please email me and let me know I will be forever thankful!

Holly

Answer
Hi Holly

Sounds like Rouge has a problem with abscesses forming and they are stemming from the ear, possibly from an ongoing ear infection which explains why she is leaning. When rats have inner ear infections this causes them to be off balance thus in turn they tend to lean or tilt their head to one side permanently. However, medication will help clear this up so she absolutely has a chance to make a full recovery so don't worry about that.  
What you should do now is take some cotton and saturate it in warm water and squeeze it out onto the area where the abscess is. The odor is coming from bacteria that has formed under the skin in a pocket of pus which is what makes the abscess. When it fills up, it gets to the point where it will burst but it is coming back because it is being caused by possibly another source, which is the ear.  What happens is after so many times of relapsing of the abscess, it finally ended up draining the bacteria into the ear this last time around and caused the ear to become infected as well which again is why your seeing the leaning/tilting.

Anyhow, after you irrigate the abscess with water, fill the hole best you can with neosporin as well.

Do you have a vet that cares for rats? If not let me know and I can help you find one.

I believe that with oral antibiotics and steroids for the inflammation he will have a full recovery and be himself again in no time!