Abscess popped question

[Amy]

short history. earlier this year I discovered a large jaw abscess on my bunny (both sides of face. dr. suspected he probably had it for some time ….year? Had surgery 4 months ago all went well. was abscess free until last week. One side came on suddenly on jawline near original abscess site, but grew faster over the course of a week and was more tublar ….protruding in shape where is was like a round large marble the first time. Called the Dr. and he put him on 10 day of Baytril. He has been taking it 4 days when abscess popped. I noticed it when I was petting him that the tip of the lump look rather red or scab-like so I put on my glasses to take a closer look and  it burst on my shirt. so I cleaned him all up…removed the rest of the paste since it was coming out and now he looks like himself again…. not swollen. He does not seem in pain…he let me clean it out and was eagerly grooming himself afterwards. However, my questions is that online is says to rinse and put honey etc however…I cannot see any access point to rinse or do that. It is like the abscess was just under the skin as he has this “flap” on extra skin hanging down covering everything and it is not open or exposed or anything. This was last night….I checked him this morning…and the flap (like a big skin tag where the abscess was filled) looks smaller. He was happy and bouncing around and enjoying sharing my frozen grapes this morning. Does this extra skin need to be removed and sutured? Will it just shrink more and heal on it’s own? I’ll call his Dr. when they open, but was wondering because I could not find a similar case looking online. I measured the abscess and it was protruding about 2 centimeters before it popped.

Also, I separated him from his bond mate last night as I was afraid she would groom him there. Is she at any risk?

[Bam]

I don’t think your other bun is at any risk, but I do think it was wise to separate them. She could go overboard with grooming him if he has a loose skin flap.

If all goes well the skin flap will just dry up and shrink/fall off. You never suture an abscess closed -if need be, you can do the opposite, a marsupialisation to keep it open.

I think you can wait until your vet opens and ask them. They might want to do something so the “hole” doesn’t heal over, because if it does, chances are there will be more pus. The hole needs to heal from the inside and out. It’d be good if you could get some good pictures of the “wound site” to email them. It’s great that he’s still on antibiotics, hopefully that will prevent re-infection.

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