Abscess, Eastern grey squirrel

[Momar]

We have a male Eastern grey squirrel, under a year old that has an abscess under his front leg (armpit) it is the size of a large grape. We raised this squirrel from a baby and released it about 3 months ago and he still hangs around the house and will leave sometimes for a couple of days and come back and we noticed today he has this large abscess. We was unable to find a vet or wildlife rescue to help us so we wrapped Ricky in a towel and punctured the abscess with a needle and squeezed out all the infection. he seemed greatly relieved and when we was finished he picked up a nearby avocado, went up a tree and ate it, so I don't think he was traumatized by the procedure, a lot of puss came out of it looking like sour cream. We would be grateful for any insight someone could give us to help Ricky make a full recover. Thank you in advance

[Spanky]

Draining the abscess should provide him great relief and help him to overcome the infection more quickly.

If you see him every day and can give antibiotics, that too would help him along his road to recovery. If you have any antibiotics, post the name and strength of the drug(s) and someone will let you know if it is an effective treatment for an abscess and assist you with dosing instructions. You will need only a single pill.

We'll need to know Rocky's weight or post a picture so we can guesstimate his weight; antibiotic dosing is done by weight.

[Momar]

Thank you for the reply, We was lucky to find a local person that was able to help us with antibiotics. We have given him his second dose and drained the abscess a second time, very little came out. He seems a lot more perky and he is eating very well. Avocado's, Hazelnuts and apple slices. There seems to be a hard knot in the abscess is this normal for an abscess ? I know it is early in his treatment and we monitor him daily to see how his immune system heals this. again thank you, more comments welcome from others please.......

[Momar]

UPDATE: We was very fortunate to acquire some medicine for Ricky and this helped greatly along with draining it. When we first discovered the abscess we drained it by poking a hole in it with a pin, this worked but the hole really wasn't big enough to get the abscess emptied or let it drain for a short time. I purchased a pointed scalpel set off amazon and the 3rd time we drained it I cut a small incision about 1/8 inch long and this allowed me to completely drain it, there was blood and some puss in it. Ricky did great and we did use some numbing cream and as traumatic as this sounds he really did great and seemed very comfortable while we drained it. We checked him tonight and everything is looking good and he seems to even look and act better. One more thing youtube is a wealth of information about small animal abscess's

[Momar]

This is probably the last update,,, We treated Ricky for about a week with an antibiotic and cream, we punctured the abscess twice with a pin and the last time with a scalpel bought off Amazon. The scalpel was better because the 1/8 inch incision could drain for awhile. We was blessed that Ricky hung around for all his treatments because he has been released. After the last treatment he went on a 2 1/2 day hiatus but he did return and we was able to inspect the abscess, it was almost completely gone, maybe a bump the size of a grain of rice compared to a large walnut when we started.....Thank you everyone for the help

[island rehabber]

Wonderful update, and good work!