My Rat

Hi Jackie,

In all honesty it is difficult to say what this lump could be. Pet rats are prone to tumours but they more usually occur on the body and become quite large quite quickly The best thing to do is to monitor it closely over the next few days and see what happens. If it gets larger, or starts to bother him then the best thing would be to pop him down to your vet and see what they say.

Cat

Hi, thank you for your reply. I tred to feel it earlier but as it´s on his ear it´s quite awkward to get to feel whilst holding, I did manage to touch it but not for long enough. It also has a dark circular dot in the centre of it, almost like a head on a spot. I showed it to my mum earlier and she said she thinks it looks like a cyst. I´d say it looks white/cream like rat skin coloured. I think i´m a bit afraid to attempt to squeeze it. Prob best I take him to the vet, I do hope he´ll be ok!

i would think it was an abscess. rats are quite prone to these and they are usually caused by a small injury from a scratch or similar, becoming infected. is it kind of yellowy? mine had one on his nose and i simply, gently scratched the top of it at which point it burst, just like a spot would. obviously caused him no pain, so i wiped away the pus, put some salt water on it with a cotton bud and repeated the salt water / cotton bud application a few times a day - healed up in no time. i would suggest you give it a little prod and see what his reaction is. if it feels like a spot and he lets you poke at it, just try rubbing the top of it off. if it comes off then apply the salt water regularly to prevent further infection and he should be fine :-)