Uh oh! Impacted gland or in-grown hair?

[janeyklivian]

I'm so glad I found this forum! My boyfriend and I brought home the most charming little rogue last week. Darnell is 3 1/2 months old and just the light of our lives. He's not my first ferret, so I was prepared for all the training and ferret-proofing, but last night I noticed a little lump on the side of his anus. It's about the size of a pea, maybe a shade bigger and is firm to the touch (but not warmer than body temperature). He isn't acting like it hurts at all, barely squirmed when I poked at it and is rocketing around his room like a dooking streak of lightning.
He's descented so I don't think it's an infected gland, but it looks sort of like a really nasty pimple so I was wondering if it could be an in-grown hair?
As far as treatment goes, I gave him a bathtub with some warm water to play in (he's only the second fert I've known that loves to play in water, lol) and washed the area gently with some ferret shampoo. I massaged it a little to see if it would drain and it did produce some tan-ish fluid. This morning the lump was a bit smaller and seemed to have drained more. I let him go splashing again and cleaned the area.
Have any of you seen something like this before? If he was acting odd at all I'd be rushing him to the vet, but he seems perfectly happy.

[Heather]

You could try using a warm teabag. Sounds silly but it works. The tannin in the tea will pull the toxins out. It has to be as warm as can be tolerated and it must be black tea.
ciao

[janeyklivian]

Oh, why didn't I think of that? I did the same thing for a bartholin's abscess just a few months ago, so it makes sense that it might work for him, too. He's a licker though, so I guess I'll have to put up with a caffeinated ferret if he figures out what I'm doing, lol.
I also read about prolapsed rectums in babies put on dry kibble too soon. I don't think that's what he has (because of the drainage), but it startled me into adding some water to his dish tonight. Little chow-hound didn't even seem to notice that his food was different, haha!

[Heather]

Baby ferrets are just fuzzy tummies with teeth.....they've got never-ending appetites
ciao

[Sherry]

The farms botch surgeries all the time Hopefully that's NOT what you are dealing with. If the teabag doesn't work, it's quite possible he does have an infected or impacted gland.

[janeyklivian]

Phew! I just had got home from work and was making a cup of tea so I could try the teabag trick and asked my boyfriend if he had noticed any change while I was gone. His response was a confused-sounding "Uh... yeah... There's nothing there."
So yay! Warm baths and a little massage seemed to do the trick! I'm going to give him another warm soak (half as a precaution and half because he likes it so much). The fur is a little matted over the spot that was draining last night, but it's barely more than a few hairs stuck together. I wish I knew for sure what it was, but I can be content with it just going away quickly!

[Deleted]

That's wonderful! I'm glad it went down. I wonder if it was a large pimple?

[Sherry]

It's quite possible it was an impacted gland and the warm water and massage helped to express it.

[janeyklivian]

That's what I was thinking too. If it was just a pimple there's nothing to worry about, and I figure that I'll notice pretty quickly if he still has a scent gland. Fuzzy little attention hog is in heaven right now, between his Daddy's new-parent-jitters and my constant checking he's getting lots of love and skritches.