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burst abscess - benny update

vick

Alpha Buck
Some of you may remember that Benny developed a jaw abscess in September which was surgically removed. Everything was fine for a while and then we noticed that a new lump was forming.

We took him to see a rabbit specialist a fortnight ago, who had a feel of it and thought the lump was the antibiotic beads that had been implanted during his surgery and possibly a bit of swelling too. He told us to keep an eye on it. However, in the last few days the lump seems to have grown again.

Today Benny's lump came to a head and burst. It keeps bursting, oozing a bit and then drying up. Every time I look at it it has changed in appearance. I have tried to remove as much of the pus that is oozing out as I can without distressing him too much. Obviously we're taking him back to the specialist but is there anything I can do in the meantime? How should I clean it up? Is it better that it has burst??

Thanks again in advance

Vickie
 
Bursting is good - that means you can hopefully clean it out without needing an op :)

Use water that have been boiled and left to cool and add a pinch of salt - clean the wound with that and cotton wool or similar.

With abccesses they need to heal from the inside out so it's best it doesn't scab over yet so don't worry that it keeps leaking.

Tam
 
the vet that I go to also sed to put honey in absesses as it brings all the **** out and helps it to heal. I did this with one of my bunnies and they got better very quickly
 
Its doing what an abccess does and thats travel, when there on the jaw they can go into the bones, im sorry to say that clearing this one will not guarente that it wont come up again in a different place. The best result ive had was a year untill reacurance, im not one to prolong the enevitable and had my poor rabbit pts. Do ask when you see your vet as to the long term prognocis. Sorry i cannot be optamistic but ive never had any long lasting cures for this. val :(
 
Abcesses aren't always 'uncurable'. I had a rat with about 20 abcesses (her cagemate had gone a bit pyscho on her!), and the prognosis wasn't looking good, especially as a lot of them began to solidify.
However, with twice/three times daily flushing, and one lancing under anaesthetic (followed with the flushing routine afterwards), every single one cleared up (including the couple she had on her face - actually these healed without the lancing), and none reoccured. She went on to die of old age.
Yes, if they travel to the bone then it's much more serious, but this doesn't always occur and if it's coming to a head at the skin surface then that would indicate that it's travelling upwards not downwards.
I just had to keep picking the scabs off of the abcesses and syringing diluted Hibiscrub to flush it out.
 
Hi Vickie - as Tamsin says, it's definitely better that it's burst, as that lets all the toxins out of the buns body, and lets it heal from the inside out. Humbug's leaked for weeks, off and on, before it started to get better, so don't panic - just keep it as clean as poss and keep us posted as to what your vet says.

Nose rubs to Bennie-bun!
xxx
 
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