My hairless rat, Buffy, is bleeding from what looks like her vagina. She's currently on amoxi for a slight URI. I noticed the bleeding tonight when I was giving her her meds. When I put her back in her cage I noticed there was blood on my shirt, so i quickly took her out again to check her over. I saw a pretty good amount of blood coming from her private area. I obviously know that rats don't bleed when their in heat, so i knew something else was up. I quickly got my mom up to hold her while I took pictures to post here.
Buffy is acting normal, she's active right now. She's been eating, drinking, and getting around as usual. She's a little over a year. She's unspayed.
I'm going to call my vet first thing in the morning to make an appointment. Even if the bleeding stops i'm still taking her in. I just hope she doesn't have to be spayed because my vet doesn't spay rats, and theres only one place in town that possibly does (and I really don't trust that place).
Does anyone know what this could be, so I can run it past my vet tomorrow?
Here are the pictures. They are not very clear, but you can see the blood.

Thats the bad thing though. My vet doesn't spay rats. The only place in town that does spay rats charges a fortune adn I'm not too crazy about the place as it is.

You will definitely need to spay despite the cost.  That's part of owning animals... getting your butt kicked by vet bills!  On another note, my Scruffy did the same thing- no pyometra or other abnormalties within the spay, but she had a tumor in the general area.

If you don't trust them, I suggest trying to find another nearby vet ASAP.

Have you checked the vet resources in the Reference Desk/Internet Resources?  If you post your city, perhaps someone else has a vet you're unaware of.  I agree, she needs a spay.  At the very least, she needs immediate antibiotics.  The antibiotics won't cure her, but might help with any infections going on right now.  Honestly, it looks like something may have ruptured. 

Good luck with her. You're stuck with a difficult problem that rat owners occasionally face - the treatment of choice just isn't an option. Be sure to keep your vet informed about how she's doing on the baytril. He may decide to increase her dosage or change or add antibiotics if she doesn't improve. Please let us know how she does. Most of us have an option of having a rat spayed so don't have much experience when an infection is treated medically.

Sorry, but my girl nearly bled to death and was not acting abnormal, refusing food/water and didn't lose any weight either. That is poor advice from the vet. Not every condition can be determined life threatening or not by a few vague symptoms. It doesn't take much blood loss for it to become life threatening for an animal that small. A high dose of antibiotics will likely not stop the bleeding if it's ongoing. You may lose your girl. You can try Baytril but a spay is really what she needs. Why doesn't your vet learn how to spay? Mine didn't know how until she worked on mine. She had to call the University and read the procedure from a textbook while doing it.

I'm gonna say it, especially since Kendra's post.  If your vet won't attempt a spay, and you can't find another vet, then perhaps it would be kindest to have your girl PTS so she doesn't suffer a horrible, lingering painful death. 

*HUGS*

*hugs* I'm sorry you have to go through this.  I think I have to second, if the only treatmeant option remains antibiotics then you must strongly consider euthanasia as a potential necessity.  Not an automatic conclusion but as a very strong possibility.

I recently dealt with putting down one of my favorite rats, whom (with vet care) we allowed her to try to live out the rest of her days with a tumor.  I watched her appetite and everything seemed painless and fine, but it wasn't until her last day when I spent the entire day with her that I realized how much pain she had to be in from the smaller, less noticible signs and I wondered to myself if I had left it too long, too late.  I was lucky to have kind euthanasia options because I work for several vets.  However leaving something like this with a weekend coming up...you might strongly regret it, and I don't mean that in an unkind way. 

I just don't want you to feel the guilt I felt, knowing that I left something too long and that there was suffering because I felt I needed more time.     That looks like a lot of blood to be lost, and if it is continuing, especially internally, that is never good. 

whoa slow down

i didnt see nothing any one has said as in insult to the vet.   a vet that takes bleeding lightly like yours did and says antibiotics would get alot of our heads turning and looking for a new vet. he can be the sweetest vet in the world but i would also look at it weird and worry.  bleeding like that is not normal.

also more vets do need to learn how to spay and neutor small animals
. there isnt enough of them around.  i dont even know if my two exotic vets know how. but thats not saying they cant .

anyway i would be asking for a nother opinion as bleeding is nt normal fr any femals and  rats are good at showing they dont feel bad till to late. 

if you feel this is a insult  im sorry but vets need to lear every day and be up to date. my vet i have had for years and he doesnt know everything either.   thats why vets need to keep learning and updating

I hope your little girl gets better. This is such a hard situation and one that can be so serious.     It will be a good idea to have her examined very carefully for signs of masses, swelling/pyometra.

Just for everyone's information -- some veterinarians DO treat uterine infections or mycoplasmal infections of the reproductive tract very conservatively and may not elect spay surgery as the first treatment option.   It's not like that's unheard of.   There are other disorders which cause bleeding other than pyometra/uterine infection and even in the case of suspected infection some vets do try antibiotics as the first line of treatment.  Just because we have our experiences with life-threatening bleeding and needing emergency surgery doesn't mean that this vet hasn't understood the situation or surgical risk for this particular diagnosis and individual rat!   -- It is true that some of these situation are extremely critical and can be life-threatening so quickly.

Having said all that -- there's no disrespect to your vet or insult for anyone talk about the treatments that other vets encourage or share personal experience. And this doesn't mean your vet isn't knowledgeable, caring, wonderful and sweet.    This may NOT be the optimal treatment and you'll have to make some hard decisions if spaying does turn out to be the next step.     -- or if she is faced with more pain and agony than possibility to get the treatment she needs.


  In my opinion every vet should aways continue his or her education  --- not learning to spay is a deficiency if you're a vet who does treat rats because there are certain instances where this procedure is necessary and life-saving.   Not CHOOSING to do a spay is one thing, not knowing how or being uncomfortable with the procedure is another.   I know MANY vets who had to actively seek out the right ways to treat rats and broadened their own understanding. Just like any medical science -- veterinary medicine isn't a study-once and know it all profession -- there will always be ongoing experience where you learn to alter your prescribed treatment.


 

Pyometra does make a spay more risky and wouldn't be a good one to learn on. There is the risk of spreading the infection as well as more bleeding and it's just not routine.

I would suggest going the four hours away to the vet that will spay your rat. You could stay with your brother for the day while you wait.