Cleaning an abscess

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ArmyWife

Well-known member
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Sep 13, 2011
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345
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I'm looking for some advice on cleaning my male chin's abscess. It formed on the right side of his scrotum about a week after he was neutered. I brought him in last night and they drained it and stitched him up. I ended up having to bring him in again tonight because I was worried at how much swelling was occurring. He ended up chewing out some of his stitches... OY! So they drained the abscess again and cleaned it up. He's been active, eating and pooping since the abscess was formed and continues to stay that way. It doesn't look like he's in any pain at all. He's currently on metacam, baytril and SMZ-TMP. How many times a day should I be cleaning the abscess and should I be using saline or hydrogen peroxide?
 
NO peroxide! Saline is fine, or a betadine would work if you want the germ killing. Peroxide kills healthy tissue as well as bad tissue.

Do you have an e-collar for him? If not you might want to make him one before he chews it up again.

Make sure he's on a probiotic, 4 hours between meds if you can, and it wouldn't hurt to do some simethicone as well.

Without seeing it I would say clean it once or twice a day and I would have him up off of shavings. Use fleece if possible for bedding until it's healing if you're not already. I personally would love to see a photo if you could get it. I have a collection of medical issue photos on my site and am always looking for new pics.
 
Riven said:
NO peroxide! Saline is fine, or a betadine would work if you want the germ killing. Peroxide kills healthy tissue as well as bad tissue.

Do you have an e-collar for him? If not you might want to make him one before he chews it up again.

Make sure he's on a probiotic, 4 hours between meds if you can, and it wouldn't hurt to do some simethicone as well.

Without seeing it I would say clean it once or twice a day and I would have him up off of shavings. Use fleece if possible for bedding until it's healing if you're not already. I personally would love to see a photo if you could get it. I have a collection of medical issue photos on my site and am always looking for new pics.
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I'm glad I asked! Saline it is! I do not have an e-collar for him, how can I make one? I've been sprinkling probiotics on his pellets since I started the baytril. Can I buy simethicone over the counter or do I need the vet to prescribe it? The only difference I've noticed so far with his droppings was that they were a little smaller but there was still a ton scattered all around the cage. He has fleece liners that were washed yesterday so I have that covered. I can try to take a photo when I clean it tomorrow. My vet recommended that I try and massage it some tomorrow to get some more of the pus out. Even though he's active, eating and pooping I still have a TON of anxiety about it healing. Is it normal for the pus to build up again? Once the opening heals, will the body just absorb it?
 
I've used Epsom salt compresses to clean out wounds with great success. A couple times a day should be enough. Compresses can help with loosening up some of the puss and getting the abscess to drain more...and the epsom salts can aid in healing the wound. Chinchillas have a tremendous ability to heal up from these abscesses. If the infection is under control, the wound will heal very quickly.
 
AZChins said:
I've used Epsom salt compresses to clean out wounds with great success. A couple times a day should be enough. Compresses can help with loosening up some of the puss and getting the abscess to drain more...and the epsom salts can aid in healing the wound. Chinchillas have a tremendous ability to heal up from these abscesses. If the infection is under control, the wound will heal very quickly.
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So just take wash cloth and dip it in warm water with epsom salt dissovled in it and then just gently press it against the abscess? Should I then try and massage the pus out? When they cut it open yesterday to drain it, it literally healed within 24 hours! My vet was pretty shocked at how fast it healed shut.
 
That's about it. You can drip the water into abscess to help loosen up the puss. Apply pressure with the compress but don't squeeze too hard.

Is it completely sealed up still? The vet may need to reopen it if it is still really full of puss or if the puss isn't very liquid. My vet has recommended cleaning out bad abscesses with betadine - we will use a syringe to squirt it into the abscess. Abscesses can seal up on their own in a short time.

Has the abscess gotten smaller or is it about the same?
 
AZChins said:
That's about it. You can drip the water into abscess to help loosen up the puss. Apply pressure with the compress but don't squeeze too hard.

Is it completely sealed up still? The vet may need to reopen it if it is still really full of puss or if the puss isn't very liquid. My vet has recommended cleaning out bad abscesses with betadine - we will use a syringe to squirt it into the abscess. Abscesses can seal up on their own in a short time.

Has the abscess gotten smaller or is it about the same?
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I gently pushed on it this morning with an Epsom salt compress. It looks much better than yesterday. The wound completely healed overnight Saturday night so that's why I brought him in last night so they could re-open and drain it. He's still very active, eating and pooping. I gave him his metacam this morning and will give him his antibiotics tonight. I also sprinkled more Probiotics in his pellets. I'm going to buy saline tonight to help clean it
 
I agree with Susan about the compress and that you really don't want it sealed shut, it needs to drain. You said it is stitched? If so then start with the warm compress and see if that helps keep it open, the warm helps improve circulation too!

Simethicone you can get at the store, it's baby gas drops, chins usually like them and take them easily. They will help prevent bloat, I'd give maybe 1/2 dropper twice a day if you can as a preventative, and if he seems bloaty then up it to a full dropper every 4 hours.

You can make an e collar out of cardboard, if you do a search there should be a couple threads on how to make one I'd imagine.

Keep up the good work and this will all be over in no time!
 
Riven said:
I agree with Susan about the compress and that you really don't want it sealed shut, it needs to drain. You said it is stitched? If so then start with the warm compress and see if that helps keep it open, the warm helps improve circulation too!

Simethicone you can get at the store, it's baby gas drops, chins usually like them and take them easily. They will help prevent bloat, I'd give maybe 1/2 dropper twice a day if you can as a preventative, and if he seems bloaty then up it to a full dropper every 4 hours.

You can make an e collar out of cardboard, if you do a search there should be a couple threads on how to make one I'd imagine.

Keep up the good work and this will all be over in no time!
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My vet ended up keeping it open since he heals so fast. I was really nervous about keeping it open but I trust my vet. The swelling decreased a ton last night and looks so much better already. I didn't see much pus when massaging it this morning. I'm going to buy the gas drops and saline tonight.
 
If you have an ecollar and can keep him away from the area it may help to actually pack the wound with strip of gauze soaked 1/2 strength betadine(not full strength as it is too hard on tissue).This will serve a double purpose-clean the abcess and keep the wound open so that the puss can drain and let the healing occur from inside out. Sounds like the outter wound is sealing shut before all the puss can drain.You may even need to take a small pair of forceps(boil in water before and after use) to gently open the wound once a day.As always,check with your vet first and get his opinion. As a nurse and having a few post op abcesses of my own the packing and removal once a day worked best.You will need extra hands if your doc approves packing as it can be tricky doing it on squirmy little critters.Oops forgot to tell you another of my tricks-after the epsom soaks,take a q-tip and place the tip of it on where the wound has healed.Then twist it back and forth in your fingers and apply enough pressure to reopen the area.Then you can rinse the wound with 1/2 strength betadine.Others with more chin experience please feel free to correct me on any of this if not good for chins.I've used these methods on humans,dogs,cats,horses,donkey, and goats but blessedly have never had to use it on a chin!
 
mercynursie said:
If you have an ecollar and can keep him away from the area it may help to actually pack the wound with strip of gauze soaked 1/2 strength betadine(not full strength as it is too hard on tissue).This will serve a double purpose-clean the abcess and keep the wound open so that the puss can drain and let the healing occur from inside out. Sounds like the outter wound is sealing shut before all the puss can drain.You may even need to take a small pair of forceps(boil in water before and after use) to gently open the wound once a day.As always,check with your vet first and get his opinion. As a nurse and having a few post op abcesses of my own the packing and removal once a day worked best.You will need extra hands if your doc approves packing as it can be tricky doing it on squirmy little critters.Oops forgot to tell you another of my tricks-after the epsom soaks,take a q-tip and place the tip of it on where the wound has healed.Then twist it back and forth in your fingers and apply enough pressure to reopen the area.Then you can rinse the wound with 1/2 strength betadine.Others with more chin experience please feel free to correct me on any of this if not good for chins.I've used these methods on humans,dogs,cats,horses,donkey, and goats but blessedly have never had to use it on a chin!
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Thank you for the advice. I'm a little wary about packing the wound as I don't want to agitate it much since it looks like the swelling has gone down considerably. This morning, the wound was definitely open and didn't appear to be healing shut yet. How many days should I be trying to keep the wound open to drain it before allowing it to actually heal?
 
My husband just checked him and apparently his wound is practically healed up already. I literally checked him early this morning and the wound was very open. My vet purposely didn't stitch it up because we wanted it to drain. We're going to try and work it open some tonight and clean it and try to get some pus out. My husband said the swelling isn't nearly as bad as last night when we brought him to the vet to have it opened and drained.
 
It looks like the wound has healed shut with scar tissue... very dark tissue with some slim (pus?). My husband held him while I gently massaged it was epsom salt and warm water. I got a little discharge out but not much. Should I try and re-open it? How exactly do I go about doing that? It's still swollen some (which I'm sure is expected) and looks like it's filled up some with fluid but not nearly as bad as yesterday. It wasn't red at all and actually flesh color. He's still stable, active, eating and pooping. I gave him his baytril, metacam and smz-tmp and sprinkled more pro-biotics on his pellets. Of course he rubs his face and head in the pellets thinking it's dust. Poor guy hasn't had a real dust bath in over two weeks because of being neutered and then getting the infection. I tried wiping some on his fur but he ran away lol.
 
I personally believe in debriding, but some other's don't. The best way to heal something like this is from the inside out, you want the tissue to look red and "beefy" which is a sign of healing.
 
Riven said:
I personally believe in debriding, but some other's don't. The best way to heal something like this is from the inside out, you want the tissue to look red and "beefy" which is a sign of healing.
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As in remove the tissue where the wound closed over? The closed wound is a little red around the edges and is very dark brown/red but the whole abscess is flesh color now. It used to all look very red and swollen but the swelling has gone down a lot and there's actually some saggy skin now at the bottom of his abscess. I'm doing a warm epsom compress twice a day to keep the circulation going.
 
addictedtochins said:
Can you post pics?
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I'll post one tonight when my husband helps me while I give him his compress. I feel kind of weird taking a picture of it but I know it'll be helpful for others to see what an abscess looks like plus it'll help all of you help me treat it.
 
So I thought we were in the clear with this but that's not the case anymore. We checked him tonight and either the abscess ruptured or he chewed his scab off. There was a good amount of pus inside his tube and on his tail. I squeezed some of the pus out and cleaned with a gauze and epsom salt/warm water. It's no longer swollen as it was, probably because the pus drained but the wound just looks a little gruesome. I didn't see much blood though, just tissue and pus. I'm going to try and bring him to the vet tomorrow just so they can look at it. I feel like it might actually be a good thing because it allowed a lot of the pus to drain that must have been filling up. I just hope this isn't a nasty cycle.

I know I keep saying I'll post pictures but I promise I'll do it tomorrow.
 
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