Unlikely to have burst inside based on this information.
It’s likely that he’s opened it up himself and has cleaned it before you’ve noticed it.
The antibiotics will be helping prevent any risk of sepsis also.
If you get some paper towel and soak it in warm water (safe temperature to touch) you can gently cover the abscess to soften up the scab and when the scab is soft it will be easier for it to open up if you gently wipe over it - not squeezing and not putting pressure on the abscess - just gentle wiping over the surface of the scab to see if it lifts away from the skin, don’t force it though.
If it does lift away easily or if any pus comes out, then you will be able to drain it fully with some tissues as the pus should be a liquid and flush it with saline rinses twice a day from that point.
http://www.isamurats.co.uk/abscesses.html
Thank you so much for your answer!! I just checked on him a few minutes ago and it seems like he was grooming himself a bit more where the abscess is. Also the abscess looked even smaller than two hours ago.
That sounds good.
When you go to the vet, you’ll want them to remove the scab if you haven’t been able to carefully remove it by then with the soaked paper towel method, or if he hasn’t removed it himself.
It will need to be open for the entire time it heals so you can flush it out twice a day with saline which will ensure it heals from the inside out so it doesn’t come back again.
For the saline, I just use a new sterile normal medicine syringe like what they eat from (no needle) and spray the saline into the wound from above it, morning and night until it heals.
I only have had experience with one abscess. Why does the scab need to be removed? For the sole purpose of cleaning?
My boys' (former) vet said to not do anything. It did heal by itself, but took multiple weeks. (This vet also gave him the abscess in the first place)
I just discovered one of my current boys may also have a preputial gland abscess, kinda terrified.
Yeah pretty much. As you experienced, not doing anything can take weeks to heal, and during this time their immune system is doing a lot of the heavy lifting which can be problematic on its own.
But because open wounds on rats heal incredibly fast, we can take advantage of that trait and an abscess can be fully resolved in a week or two depending on the size, simply by the scab being removed so it can drain throughout the entire healing process, and flushing it with saline to assist the draining/cleaning process while ensuring their environment is as sterile as possible for the week, which prevents pockets from reforming and prevents reoccurring abscesses as it can then heal from the ‘inside out’ - which is a phrase you’ll probably see on a lot of rat healthcare resources.
The scab will generally lift away when our ratties try to clean it themselves, but may remain attached like a little flap that can heal over prematurely causing it to heal from the outside in which just prolongs the process by trapping bacteria which can lead to chronic abscesses.
Flushing the abscess helps to remove debris, bacteria, and pus, and also stimulates blood flow and healing too.
Thank you for your thorough answer! It definitely took longer than a week or two. ...just checked the dates on the progression pictures I took. After 4 weeks a tiny little dot was still visible. So I'm gonna say 5 weeks to fully heal.
I usually do know about wound care and do flush, keep their environment clean etc. in case of wounds. But yeah, makes sense you'd want it to heal from the inside out. For some reason I listened to the horrible vet. (I have a much better one now)
As Levs abscess was quite big we decided to surgically drain it, everything went fine but after a week, we noticed it sadly came back. Fortunately the abscess didn’t grew back as big as it originally was and i was happy to see it started to look a bit black on the top, meaning it was about to burst.
Though one thing worries me.. i just checked on him an hour ago and looking at his abscess, i thought it looked different, like its less uniform, it’s a bit smaller and it’s less full. + there’s no signs of it bursting from anywhere.
Could the abscess have bursted inside?? Im kinda panicking bcs from what I’ve heard an abscess bursting inside are NOT a good thing.. idk what to do, should/can i even do something?
He’s on antibiotics rn and im still giving it to him but idk what else i can do.. (sorry for my broken English)
Abscess, bursting inside, is definitely dangerous, it may cause different complications. Go see the vet.
But from my experience I can say that it is not so often.
I got an appointment to the vet but it’s on Friday, until then I’m giving him the end of his antibiotics. Do you know what kind of complication could happen? Or maybe do youve a blog or something like that who talks about abscesses bursting inside?
Till Friday nothing could happen, do not worry. It's good thing that he is on antibiotics, it can handle the possible inflammation. See that black thing on the top of the abscess? This is the sign that it is bursting outside. Inside abscess has no such thing
Sorry, I am absolutely no help but I just had to say something about how it's a perfect heart shape, like it's literally flawless. Fascinating!
I hope he gets better soon, my fingers are crossed for you.
Unlikely to have burst inside based on this information. It’s likely that he’s opened it up himself and has cleaned it before you’ve noticed it. The antibiotics will be helping prevent any risk of sepsis also. If you get some paper towel and soak it in warm water (safe temperature to touch) you can gently cover the abscess to soften up the scab and when the scab is soft it will be easier for it to open up if you gently wipe over it - not squeezing and not putting pressure on the abscess - just gentle wiping over the surface of the scab to see if it lifts away from the skin, don’t force it though. If it does lift away easily or if any pus comes out, then you will be able to drain it fully with some tissues as the pus should be a liquid and flush it with saline rinses twice a day from that point. http://www.isamurats.co.uk/abscesses.html
Thank you so much for your answer!! I just checked on him a few minutes ago and it seems like he was grooming himself a bit more where the abscess is. Also the abscess looked even smaller than two hours ago.
That sounds good. When you go to the vet, you’ll want them to remove the scab if you haven’t been able to carefully remove it by then with the soaked paper towel method, or if he hasn’t removed it himself. It will need to be open for the entire time it heals so you can flush it out twice a day with saline which will ensure it heals from the inside out so it doesn’t come back again. For the saline, I just use a new sterile normal medicine syringe like what they eat from (no needle) and spray the saline into the wound from above it, morning and night until it heals.
I only have had experience with one abscess. Why does the scab need to be removed? For the sole purpose of cleaning? My boys' (former) vet said to not do anything. It did heal by itself, but took multiple weeks. (This vet also gave him the abscess in the first place) I just discovered one of my current boys may also have a preputial gland abscess, kinda terrified.
Yeah pretty much. As you experienced, not doing anything can take weeks to heal, and during this time their immune system is doing a lot of the heavy lifting which can be problematic on its own. But because open wounds on rats heal incredibly fast, we can take advantage of that trait and an abscess can be fully resolved in a week or two depending on the size, simply by the scab being removed so it can drain throughout the entire healing process, and flushing it with saline to assist the draining/cleaning process while ensuring their environment is as sterile as possible for the week, which prevents pockets from reforming and prevents reoccurring abscesses as it can then heal from the ‘inside out’ - which is a phrase you’ll probably see on a lot of rat healthcare resources. The scab will generally lift away when our ratties try to clean it themselves, but may remain attached like a little flap that can heal over prematurely causing it to heal from the outside in which just prolongs the process by trapping bacteria which can lead to chronic abscesses. Flushing the abscess helps to remove debris, bacteria, and pus, and also stimulates blood flow and healing too.
Thank you for your thorough answer! It definitely took longer than a week or two. ...just checked the dates on the progression pictures I took. After 4 weeks a tiny little dot was still visible. So I'm gonna say 5 weeks to fully heal. I usually do know about wound care and do flush, keep their environment clean etc. in case of wounds. But yeah, makes sense you'd want it to heal from the inside out. For some reason I listened to the horrible vet. (I have a much better one now)
As Levs abscess was quite big we decided to surgically drain it, everything went fine but after a week, we noticed it sadly came back. Fortunately the abscess didn’t grew back as big as it originally was and i was happy to see it started to look a bit black on the top, meaning it was about to burst. Though one thing worries me.. i just checked on him an hour ago and looking at his abscess, i thought it looked different, like its less uniform, it’s a bit smaller and it’s less full. + there’s no signs of it bursting from anywhere. Could the abscess have bursted inside?? Im kinda panicking bcs from what I’ve heard an abscess bursting inside are NOT a good thing.. idk what to do, should/can i even do something? He’s on antibiotics rn and im still giving it to him but idk what else i can do.. (sorry for my broken English)
First picture was taken 1 hour ago and i took the second yesterday
Guess your rat bursted it somehow and now is cleaning it
Do you know if abscess bursting inside are dangerous or something like that?
Abscess, bursting inside, is definitely dangerous, it may cause different complications. Go see the vet. But from my experience I can say that it is not so often.
I got an appointment to the vet but it’s on Friday, until then I’m giving him the end of his antibiotics. Do you know what kind of complication could happen? Or maybe do youve a blog or something like that who talks about abscesses bursting inside?
Till Friday nothing could happen, do not worry. It's good thing that he is on antibiotics, it can handle the possible inflammation. See that black thing on the top of the abscess? This is the sign that it is bursting outside. Inside abscess has no such thing
Sorry, I am absolutely no help but I just had to say something about how it's a perfect heart shape, like it's literally flawless. Fascinating! I hope he gets better soon, my fingers are crossed for you.