ratcreature | bad news

I'm just back from the vet and the odd discoloration is either a tumor or an abscess inside Krümel's eye. If it is an abscess there is some chance antibiotics might help, so I got an oral antibiotic to give once a day, and antibiotic eyedrops I need to use five times a day, and also an oral painkiller, because apparently this kind of thing is painful for him too. I need to go in again Monday for another check in their regular hours, though I ought to come in tomorrow during their emergency hours again should his condition worsen. Despite giving me antibiotics, the vet seemed to think it quite likely that they'll have to remove Krümel's left eye. :(

Of course I hope for a best case scenario, i.e. that the antibiotics simply work, but barring that I hope it's at least really confined to his eye. I mean, he can still have a long and happy life with one eye, after all, and he's in good health otherwise, only a year old (his first birthday was December 2nd), so he has good chances with the operation risks and recovery and such. It still sucks so much. :(

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Ah, hon. {{hugs}}

It sucks so much.

Give him some extra cuddles from me, if he's in the mood for it. I hope the antibiotics are effective and his eye heals without surgery.

Aw, poor little guy.

oh, no. I'll keep my fingers crossed for Krümel. Poor lil guy.

Yeah,I feel really bad for him too. I didn't even know eyeballs could get abscesses and tumors on th inside. ::shudder::

and it's not that easy to get the eyedrops into the eye rather than the fur around it either.

He sure has rotten luck. I mean, I had rats with abscesses before (really gross) and tumors too, but inside the eyeball?

Thanks, it's really horrible. I mean, inside the eye. ::shudder:: I'm so sqicked just thinking about it, and of course afraid for him too.

I hope so too. At the moment he's aa bit disgruntled with me between surrendering him to the vet earlier (he tried to hide in my clothing as soon as I took him out of the carrier in the exam room, but at least he didn't bite the vet this time) and the eyedrops and meds, but he could use extra cuddles. Normally he's really sweet and likes to be snuggled.

I'm sorry to hear that. Best wishes for the little ratster.

Thanks. It's all kinds of awful for Krümel, and I have trouble getting the eyedrops in too. I had no idea how hard it would be to pry a rat eye open and hold him with just one hand, while squeezing the dropper with the other. It's momens like these I wish for a roommate. I'm afraid a lot of that antibiotic lands in his fur, rather than in his eye. At least it doesn't seem to burn or anything, he's more annoyed than uncomfortable with the drops, but still doesn't want them in his eye. It's so hard with pets, because of course they don't get that you want to help them with this.

Aw, man. I'm so sorry to hear that.

Thanks. Before this I didn't even know something like this could happen to an eye.

eee inside de eye *shudder*
i hope it is just minor
i wish your rattie well

Me too, but I suspect it is more likely that it must be operated. I mean, regular abscesses usually need to be drained and cleaned before the antibiotics do much, so I'm not that optimistic that it will heal with just meds, even if it isn't a tumor. But yeah, this kind of thing inside an eye is my major squick right there. I mean I have eye issues anyway (because of me, not my pets).

My only consolation right now is that he still acts fairly normal, eating and coming outsideto play and destroy my furniture, so he can't feel too bad, even though the vet said that he's likely in pain from that thing inside his eye. Though I hope if he was, that the painkiller dose helped him with that.

Oh no. I'm sorry. :hugs: (Things happening to eyes always have an extra layer of freaky.)

Thanks. *hugs back*

(Things happening to eyes always have an extra layer of freaky.)

That is very true.

For myself I'm actually more afraid of eye exams than of dentist visits, even ones with a root canal. I wish it was still an option for adults not to be conscious through them, like it was when I was a small kid. (One of my earliest memories is of anesthesia preparations for eye exams when I was a toddler, but once you are a school kid or older they pretty much expect you to cooperate without fuss.) I know that when I had to be operated on my retina to get a hole fixed a while back, I picked the full anesthesia over the option with a local and a sedative without question. I'm still baffled why anyone would choose to be conscious while someone else pulls their eyeball out of its socket, and does medical procedures on the backside. Just no. It's just too freaky to be awake for, whether you feel it or not.

>I'm still baffled why anyone would choose to be conscious while someone else pulls their eyeball out of its socket, and does medical procedures on the backside.<

....ew ew ew ew ew ew ew EW!

That was exactly my thought! They talked to me about risks of full anesthesia and that there was an option to do this with a local (right after they explained the gross details of all the steps they would be doing to my eye which in my case among other stuff actually involved *sewing*), and I was like "I don't care about the anesthesia risks, I want to be really, really unconscious for all of this."

:( I hope he is okay. *Hugs you*

I'm with you on being out for the count while they mess with my eyes. When they did my cataract surgery, I insisted that I be put out enough to not know what was going on. I saw them coming at me with that thing to hold my eye open, and I freaked. Wait! I do NOT want to be awake for this. At least, my doctor did what I asked.

It's bad (and painful) enough when I have to have those fluoroscein angiograms.

I'm sorry about your little one. Hoping for the best.

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