Abscess and Umbilical Tape.

[AZChins]

About a week and a half ago I took in a rescue from someone in Phoenix. The chinchilla had been to the vet for an abscess on her chin that was just under her skin (not in the jaw or tooth related.) Her nose and face started to swell up pretty bad yesterday so we went to the vet this morning.

The vet was a little concerned about it right away. He thought it could have something to do with a salivary gland sort of emptying into the tissue! That was pretty horrifying to hear...but it was a possibility since she had gone to the vet and had the abscess drained a couple weeks ago so something could have gone wrong. It really was full of puss and fluid and it was very liquidy because she had been on antibiotics until last Friday.

My vet decided to put in something called Umbilical Tape (forgive me if I got that completely wrong) to hold the abscess open and keep it draining. It's basically a loop of string with the ends tied in a knot. I have to flush it with betadine twice a day and move the string to get the puss and fluid out. She's also on Baytril for a couple weeks. I was instructed to cut the string and pull it out on Saturday.

I want to get a picture of this soon so everyone can see. I'm hoping that we have success with getting this to close up and heal. Keep her in your thoughts!

If anyone has any other ideas, let me know. I don't think I have ever had anything like this happen before...it's not a normal everyday abscess.

 

[caiti]

You should get a picture; I have no idea what you're talking about! I've seen those small cones that are put in a draining wound so the fluid can get out but I don't think I've seen what you are describing.

Hope she gets better for you!

 

[AZChins]

I probably didn't describe it well enough...I'm exhausted!

It's basically two incisions with this string going through both of them to hold them open so that it can drain. This was a lot of fluid in a huge area on her head.

Hopefully the picture shows it! The string is stained from the betadine and she's wet from me cleaning her up. Poor thing... This was a really big deal for her. I'm glad that she came here because I am pretty sure that her previous owners wouldn't have gone this far in helping her out...they were talking about putting her down.

(I just looked at the pictures...I need to go clean her up again! She has icky stuff on her chin again.)

 

[Brittany]

Poor baby. How would a chin get an abscess like this? Is it just a cut that gets infected? I'm so glad she found you Susan, please keep us updated!

 

[AZChins]

I don't know what caused it. I'm guessing she got a cut...but I don't know. It looks better this morning and the girl is bouncing around the cage like a normal chin.

 

[Claire D]

Has the chin had an x-ray Susan? I'd be extremely concerned about bony infection with an abscess of that size.

 

[AZChins]

She goes back next week for an exam. I don't know if they xrayed her this time or if they wanted to wait.

 

[Siany]

Poor Chinnie, i hope she gets better and a good job shes got someone willing to care for her

 

[caiti]

That's crazy! Her abscess looks huge (I wouldn't know where to begin to describe that either, by the way). The abscess is so big, maybe fluid might still accumulate on one side of it--I wonder if that's why the vet went with umbilical tape and that whole contraption. Just to drain the entire thing properly...who knows? I'm just talking out of my butt to try and make sense of it!

I agree with Claire--abscess spread and it seems this one has likely had time to spread, seeing how it went untreated. I would just talk to the vet about it and see what he thinks.

 

[ticklechin]

Is the tape impregnated with antibiotics or were antibiotic beads used? Extraoral abscesses that are originated from the oral cavity use that techinique once the abscess and sac are removed surgically.

 

[AZChins]

I don't know if it has antibiotics in the tape or not. I left her at the vet and picked her up later after she was feeling better. It was a big ordeal apparently and a lot of very liquidy puss came out in the process...I am glad that I wasn't there for that!

This morning I flushed it out and it was actually pretty clean in there. I was instructed by the vet that I must take her off of shavings though...so I guess that I am going to have to go put in some fleece or a towel for her. I hope this works!

 

[Sycamore Chins]

That looks awesome (sorry). I wonder if the vet is doing a culture on the fluid? Looks almost like what we just learned about in BacT this morning, a bacterial infection caused by Actinomyces. Super interesting stuff!

Hope she heals up well for you! Most times being aggressive is better than not.