Pica’s Abscess

Posted on December 16th, 2008 in by Cassi

Poor Pica. On Saturday I noticed a lump on his jaw line. The past couple days before that he was acting a little sluggish and not eating as much. So I thought I would take him to the vet anyways, but when I saw the lump I knew he had to get into the vet ASAP. I watched him try to pick up food to eat it, and he was having a hard time picking up and holding onto the food.

The vet checked him out and said it’s an abscess. Fortunately it wasn’t some kind of tumor. So she opened the abscess up and drained it out and cleaned up the area really well. He has to take Baytril once a day and have the area flushed out with Chlorhexadine then packed w/ Silvadene cream once or twice a day. He’s doing really well with the flushing and taking his antibiotics. He’s never been sick or had to take medicine before, so I’m very happy with how well he’s taking it. I was a little worried when I brought him home from the vet last night and he wasn’t wanting to eat much or move around. But I think he was probably just in a little pain. Today he’s moving around the cage, eating well, and drinking from the water bottle.

I expect a full recovery very soon. I hope we don’t have to go through this again, as it’s pretty gross! (Which is why I didn’t take any pictures…)