You risk cutting tendons or joints and may cause worse problems than you started with. The treatment of abscesses is a surgical procedure and, like most surgical procedures, is best left to those who are trained in them, who can do them in a sterile field using sterile instruments and proper irrigation solutions, packing, wound dressing, and antibiotics - and anesthetics. Ask your vet if you may watch. Ask your vet to teach you how to do minor follow-up treatment at home. Elbow abscess in a green iguana.
Abscesses are localized infections that generally occur in conjunction with systemic infections.
The site may swell noticeably, or the abscess may reside well into the underlying tissue with little change in the skin above. Often there is a slight swelling which begins to ooze a yellowish liquid which may form a crust. As the skin stretches over the underlying swelling, the scales are moved farther apart and the skin in between may be seen. Bacteria that gets into a wound, say a minor scratch or puncture wound, from claws, for example. In healthy animals, the immune system marshals a defence and kills the bacteria before it can cause a problem, forming antibodies to recognize and fight it again.