waiting is hard

I couldn't sleep at all last night because I'd been worrying about Linus. Then I brought him to the vet so that I was on their doorstep right at opening time at 8 a.m. Turns out the huge, putrid smelling wound above his groin is an abscess that opened, and actually the vet says he has a second abscess still in its capsule next to that. So Linus had to stay with the vet to get the open abscess cleaned and the closed removed in an operation under anesthesia. If all goes well I will be able to get him back late this afternoon. And then he'll need antibiotics, and of course wound checks over the holidays.

I feel horrible and guilty that I didn't even notice any swelling earlier. The only explanation I can come up with is that they must have been somewhat hidden with his ample belly fat so that I didn't notice when I was just petting him -- Linus is unfortunately a truly fat rat, weighing over 700g, and more so now that Leo is loosing his appetite and the not-so-little glutton can get his paws on more of their rat chow, and it's not like I can easily ration Linus' available food, while Leo is need to keep up his weight -- and I haven't done a really careful check where you palpate for tumors and such recently. I mean, in Noah I noticed his pimple blocked gland just from petting and holding when it was less than pea sized and the vet could barely find it without me pointing it out, so I can't explain how I missed two such big abscesses, except that maybe stroking and scritching was insufficient in that location and I would have needed to poke him in the belly or something.

Though he would have needed an operation even if I had noticed earlier, but it might have been smaller. Well, nothing to be done now but hope for the best. But I'd be grateful if you could spare Linus some good thoughts and wish him luck, so that he'll get through the operation and anesthesia okay.

Also, it seems that vet costs will somewhat tax my finances right now, between one rat being chronically ill with twice weekly vet visits (not that I'm not glad that Leo's holding on, but it's not cheap to bring your rat to the vet all the time, even though they don't charge that much for just the injection), and another now needing an operation plus wound aftercare visits during the holidays, which have the more expensive emergency rates.

Sigh. I hope at some point I'll find the energy to post about something besides my rats' health problems again. :/

Linus update

Linus is home, but the abscesses were even larger than they seemed and extended very close to his penis and surrounded it (there was even pus under his foreskin the vet says, though not in his penis), so they weren't easy to excise well. Also the vet said that due to the location and size of the wound Linus is in a lot of pain, though he was injected with pain meds.

Right now he seems groggy and miserable, and has a huge incision across his shaved lower belly, above his groin. So far at least he hasn't tried to pull out the stitches, but I suspect that is mostly because he's still so listless that he barely grooms. Tomorrow morning he's due for a wound check and more antibiotic and pain med injections, but if things go well oral meds could suffice after.

So now I just hope he'll leave his stitches alone, and that the wound won't become infected, and then he'll have a decent chance to recover. But the vet said he was allowed to be back with my other two right away, as long as they don't seem to bully him or bother his wound, so I hope the familiar surroundings and their company will help.