Max has a big crusty lump under his chin

[maxysmummy]

Hi everyone, i havent posted here in a really long time but i have a bit of a dilemma,

last night when giving maxxy some cuddles i noticed he has this crusty lump under his chin... kind of to the left.

eating, drinking, pooing, playing all normal. his last vet visit the vet said his teeth were perfect (not malloclused or anything)

have a vets appointment booked for friday.

kind of worried for what to do in the mean time.

any suggestions?

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Could be just his scent gland. The only time we had anything like that it was a tumor. ray: Keep us posted.

 

[maxysmummy]

i only had a quick look at it last night (it was about 12pm) but i'll have a better look tonight and see if i can get a picture.

should i put some disinfectant on it or something?
check his teeth?

i feel so guilty because i have no idea how long its been there... its quite big...

 

[Maureen Las]

I would have his teeth checked again but even if his teeth are normal it could be an abscess. Probably nothing for you to do until your appt Fri, however, you do want to make sure that you have a really good vet because if it is an abscess you are going to need someone who is not afriad to use kick-a** antibiotics

 

[maxysmummy]

its in the same vet clinic as a rabbit expert but shes away for two weeks. the receptionist on the phone said we will have an appointment on friday with someone whos NOT the expert who will probably give antibiotics in the interim untill we can see the expert...

can these type of things clear up with antibiotics or will surgery be necessary?

 

[tonyshuman]

It's easier to do antibiotics but sometimes the vet will want to clean it out or do surgery if it is simple to remove (tightly encapsulated, easily accessible).

 

[maxysmummy]

hi everyone, just got back to the vet.

the vet checked out his teeth and according to the looks of things, his teeth are fine (no obvious spurs/malloclusion/anything).

when we lifted up max's head to show the vet the chin, the abscess was a LOT smaller than it had been... and

(TRIGGER WARNING - GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS)

it had all this crusty pus in his fur where it had appeared to have leaked.

the vet felt around the abscess and squeezed the rest of the pus out and said he couldn't feel the abscess's root or tail or something ? (he explained that it didnt feel like the abscess was attached to the jaw or anything)

he gave us an antibiotic and told us to come back in two weeks.

i'm kind of freaking out that the vet squeezed the abscess.... is that normal?

 

[EileenH]

I don't think it is abnormal that the vet squeezed the pus out - it is important to get the pus out, and if Max tolerated it and is acting ok now, I think you can rest easy.

I have only had to deal with one abscess (in the foot), and I had to flush out the wound each day in addition to injections of PenG. Keeping it clean and preventing further growth of bacteria are key.

Hopefully someone else with more experience in this will be by with their thoughts.

What antibiotic is he on? Is he otherwise acting normally? (Still eating/drinking, pooping, etc.) I am just thinking this could be a question that others will want to know.

 

[tonyshuman]

That is normal since it has already been opened to the environment. Vets like to get the pus out of abscesses--I think it's just a feeling that it would help "clean out" the infection, even though the body will probably just produce more pus to refill the abscess soon. In dogs and cats, the pus isn't as thick, so it is easier to allow an abscess to drain on its own. Because rabbit pus is very thick, it doesn't just drip out much, so it's often easiest for the body to just reabsorb the tissue around the abscess once a systemic antibiotic has treated it. The oral antibiotic should help. I think it's also just a human thing to want to get pus out of a wound, like popping zits.

The bit about the roots or fingers of the abscess was to explain that he doesn't think it will spread. If it had fingers going deep into the tissue, the infection could spread to the bone, which would be harder to treat.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

ray: