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I need Help with a undiagnosable skin condition

279 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  ratbusters
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Hi I’m Chrissie I hope you are all well. I’m putting up this question because my vets seem unable to fathom out what is wrong with my emotional support rat Pickle he had surgery on the 28th April to remove a huge lump on his throat that came up over just four days the removal went well and he is nearly all healed up but the day after his surgery I felt a hard flat disc like thing on just below his right side ( the opposite side to the surgery) upon looking I discovered it was a very big scab which is slightly concave I checked all over his body and couldn’t find anything else on him I contacted the vet (via zoom)and he said he thought it looked like some sort of sore and as we were due to see him the following afternoon he said to keep an eye on him and he would check it out when we went. Unfortunately the very next morning I found another one on the same side just above his hip but this one was half scab and half was what looked liked a strange bluey green swelling (I will attach some photos)? We went to the vets that afternoon but our vets seem stumped as to what is causing it as some of it doesn’t conform with sores ie exact placement isn’t quite right but he did decide to extend the antibiotics (baytril) and told us to keep an eye on it he also said that it will probably get a bit worse looking before getting better as the second one was only starting to scab up and we are due to see him on the 9th May but with the vet being unsure I thought I would reach out to see if anyone has any idea what it could be and if they do to please let me know asap 🙏🏻. I did wonder if he was allergic to either metacam or the baytril he was put on after the surgery but the vet didn’t think that was it. I did bath him the day before surgery with vetericyn foam care medicated shampoo (advised by vet) which again the vet doesn’t seem to think it is the cause. None of my four other boys have any just him. He is eating well and acting as normal as a rat can be after having a 100g growth removed from his neck/throat. I caught him licking them a couple of times but it’s not aggressive licking. He is 2 years and 7 months old he has never been ill or injured before but he does unfortunately have a lot of excess skin which our vet said it is most likely a genetic thing as both of his Brother’s were the same whereas the other four rat’s I have do not have a lot of excess skin but l got them from a different breeder. I hope you have a great day🍀. Best Wishes & Stay Safe Chrissie 😊x

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Hi I hope you are all well. Thank you so much for your reply’s. This is a update on Pickle and CorbinDallasMyMan hit the nail right on the head! My vets use a heating pad to keep small animals warm and although the Vet didn’t/won’t outright admit it was their fault we heard through a friend of my Parents who has a daughter who is a vet nurse at our vets and she said that the same week Pickle had his surgery her Daughter had come home upset because a heating pad had overheated during surgery but it wasn’t noticed until very close to the end of the surgery and the pet was sadly burnt. We don’t want her to get in trouble so we didn’t say we heard it from her we just asked our vet if the heating pad could possibly have overheated during surgery he said no not likely plus every time he spoke about it he called it a skin problem but funnily enough at the end of the appointment he informed us that we won’t need to pay for any appointments or medications related/needed to help get Pickle better plus a big giveaway away he was burnt is that one of the medications Pickle has been put on is a medicated cream for humans which we actually had to go to a normal chemist to get while waiting for the prescription to be sorted I asked the pharmacist what the cream is used to treat humans for and the pharmacist said the medicated cream is used to treat people with burns!! But the vet will probably never admit it outright as that would make them liable so instead they are trying to keep us sweet by treating him for free which if you see the attached photo is probably going to take sometime and a fair amount of appointments and medications to do. Thank you again for your replies they really helped me to get him treated. I hope you have a great day 🍀.
Best Wishes & Stay Safe
Chrissie 😊x

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