#abcessess

Hey guys, so I wanted to give you an update on Pickle.

So Pickle had her 3rd vet visit today (3 in 2 weeks, poor girl ), and the news isn’t great. I haven’t updated since her first vet visit, but after her second visit the vet was optimistic that we had been wrong, and that she simply had an abscess instead of an abscess + zymbal’s gland tumor. The first time he had diagnosed her off symptoms alone, as a biopsy here wouldn’t do much other than tell us if its a tumor + abscess, or just an abscess, and since the tumor is not removable and the abscess placement makes removing it surgically very risky, the biopsy wouldn’t change out treatment plan at all regardless of results.

So after the 2nd visit when the abscess opened up on its own, he was able to remove a lot of cheesy pus and then the facial lump seemed a lot smaller. This is why he changed his diagnosis, because she seemed to be healing nicely and not developing other symptoms.

I wasn’t 100% convinced though, which is why I’ve held off updating. Pickle had lost almost 10% of her body weight in the 9 days between vet visits 1 and 2, plus her jaw misalignment had worsened. So I felt something was off despite her acting normal, and sadly my feeling was right. In the next few days post vet visit 2, Pickles incisors continued to become more misaligned, and she was no longer able to keep them properly trimmed. She also wasn’t gaining weight despite me putting her on a high calorie diet with mainly soft food - it’s slowed the weight loss, but she’s still gradually losing weight

Fast forward to this Tuesday (2 days back), and suddenly things took a turn for the worse. I went to give Pickle her meds, and when I called the rats out for treats, she came out super wobbly and with a clear head tilt. She was very off balance, freaking out if held on her back, trembling as she walked, and I even noticed her eyes moving rapidly, as if she had vertigo. She also couldn’t look down - every time she tried, her head would reflexively jerk up, and she clearly couldn’t control it.

I immediately made another vet appointment, and the soonest they could get me in was Thursday morning (this morning). In the meantime I kept giving Pickle her meds, kept flushing the abscess, and started hand feeding her. I noticed Pickles left ear canal had become completely blocked with pus - this is likely what caused the neurological symptoms. As my vet explained today, the vestibular nerve that controls balance is located there, so being blocked up like this is what caused these symptoms.

Now Pickle actually has improved some since Tuesday - she has pretty much stopped trembling as she walks, can climb up and down without issue, and her head tilt seems to be a bit less prominent. She also regained her appetite, something she lost most of Tuesday. She is still a bit off balance, but her ability to manage it (other than when looking down) seemed to be vastly improved.

Unfortunately it’s these symptoms that made the vet suspect that his first diagnosis of a zymbal’s gland tumor + abscess is actually true. Abscesses tend to stay encapsulated and while they will exert pressure and can grow as they fill with puss, they shouldn’t invade other areas as we are seeing now. So it seems like Pickle has both a deep rooted tumor and an abscess, neither which can be dealt with surgically. So all I can do is keep opening her abscess site (poor girl hates this, but the top skin heals too quickly and I need to remove the scab to flush the inside), flushing it, giving her antibiotics in both oral and drop form, and giving her metacam.

So that brings up the question of quality of life, because now we are seeing some diminishes in it for Pickle. Being off-balance, even if you can deal with it, isn’t fun, and with no end in sight it’s hard know if its worth continuing to treat, especially since we don’t know if the symptoms will resolve even if we manage to get rid of the abscess (if there is a tumor, which is looking extremely likely, then it’ll continue to grow and continue to create more neurological issues). On top of that she has the whole malocclusion thing, and while I’m getting her teeth burred (filed) by the vet on Monday, we don’t know how she’ll tolerate the sedation.

But this is still a stressful procedure, and Pickle is hating all the trips to the vet (they are great with her, but she’s always been more sensitive to new things than her sisters, plus she doesn’t feel great). So now the question is on me - how long is it ethical for me to prolong Pickle’s life, given that she likely will continue to get worse. I’m of 2 minds here - on one hand Pickle is getting around well for now, has a good appetite, and still enjoys free-range and cuddling with her cagemates, so I don’t feel she’s doing too bad currently. But on the other hand her symptoms have progressed rapidly, and she is at least somewhat uncomfortable due to being off-balance and having all that puss in her ear (I’ve seen her shaking her head more recently, which is a sign of discomfort in that area).

It’s such a hard decision, but now that Pickle is starting to go downhill I think I’ll be having her pts sooner than not. I hate it, I was so pleased with last week’s news and was hopeful despite my suspicions, but it looks like we didn’t get that lucky. I will continue to do the best I can for Pickle, but I feel like the end is near.

(Video shows Pickle trying to eat by lowering her head - she only does this when lowering her head (not when walking or lying down), but you can see how difficult this make eating for her)