Hi Hazel has a cheek abscess. It appeared suddenly before christmas and as it was in her cheek pouch area i thought it was hoarded food at first. I had heard their pouches are delicate so not long after it hadn't gone away so we took her to the vet. The vet told us to try her on Baytril for a week then bring her back. A week later it wasn't looking better but we decided to try another five days of treatment. He said it looks like it will need surgery. As Hazel is nearly 9 years old now i knew that surgery would be a big risk, i told the vet her age and he agreed we should continue with antibiotics. Although i have treated it with antibiotics it didn't completely go away but did reduce quite alot. At one time it covered almost her whole cheek and she could hardly see out of one eye (it got worse at first with treatment). It did get much better and she can see fine, although she had lost the fur on the area. I bathed it regularly with salted water and an antisceptic to keep it clean. She eats and drinks fine and is still quite active so unless it becomes life-threatening such as she stops eating/drinking we will not risk operating on it as the operation would most likely kill her she is so tiny. She's the only one remaining from my original litter as her brother passed away in June so she is special to me.
A few days ago i noticed it is looking bad again and she is scratching it alot. She did that before and that punchured it which actually reduced the swelling. It keeps doing this it gets much better after treatment then gets worse again.
I don't know what to do for her without surgery
Hazel hated her medicine. At first she wasn't too bad and i could administer some by mouth although it took me awhile to get the hang of it so i doubt she got the full dose the first few days. By her second lot of treatment she started to really resist, pushing the syringe away and spitting it out, i wore gloves as she would fly at me when i went to get her out. She is normally very friendly but started to associate me with a bad thing. I then tried it in her water but she stopped drinking her water so i stopped it in water and she drank her water again. I mixed some of it in peanut butter and she liked the peanut butter but only ate tiny amounts of it so i went back to giving it by mouth. I had to wrap her up so she couldn't push the syringe away, she still resisted but i seemed to get most of the dose down her but she still spitted some out so hard to know just how much she swallowed. That may be the problem that she didn't get enough of the Baytril to clear the infection up. Her first dose was 0.2ml every day. Her second and third doses were 0.4ml every day.
She don't seem any worse than a few days ago but not good though. The infection may have spread and she could be very sick. She still is quite active but sleeps for longer periods now, she also was struggling to grip onto the branches in the cage so i had to replace them with thicker ones but i was worried she might fall and hurt themself so decided she would be better off in a small cage with levels rather than branches. I moved her into the new cage about a month ago. She eats alot of calcium whether this is to do with her being ill i don't know.
If the vets see her now they will most likely say she needs to be put to sleep i feel. I have been thinking that that is probably the most realistic for her but the thought of doing it makes me feel ill but i don't like the thought of her suffering.
I will have a think about whether i should try another dose of treatment or whether it is unfair to continue on such an ill and old animal.
If the infection had spread i think there will be no hope
I've included a pic of what it looked like before treatment , one during treatment and the third pic was it getting better after it had got worse again. She had just been treated so it looks abit wet. She has missing patches of fur due to her age.
The last pic was taken 28 Feb
Hazel has had one tough year, she was beaten up in the new aviary and suffered a broken leg but that completely healed and i thought what a fighter and i think she is.
I will be devastated if i have to put her to sleep
