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I have an eriosyce cactus that I've owned for almost a year. I noticed that it was leaning to its side today and that it had also stopped growing so I starting poking around it and realized it had what appeared to be a classic case of rot. The side that was leaning was indented and had shriveled up flesh on the outside which was hollow underneath. When I pulled back the skin there was gray looking fuzz (I'm assuming it was mold) underneath.

My question is, will my cactus survive? I scraped/cut/pulled out all of the rotting flesh I could see, pulled off all the rotting roots, washed all the dirt off of the roots and rinsed out the now open green wound. I have it sitting out in my sun room so that it can dry and hopefully callous over. I am worried about my cactus living because it is so small. I hasn't shown any signs of dehydration yet and the rot seems to have only just reached the center. The main tap root also seems to look okay. I'm hoping I caught it in time. What do you think?

Also, I'm worried about the rest of the base. It is showing the shriveled up appearance the rotting part had, but it is still firm. I don't know if I should cut into it to investigate or leave it be. I am a little worried because I can see some traces of brown by the roots in the spot that I cleaned out.

Let it dry for a week or two and if it is not mush, re-plant it. The roots look like the soil is heavy with potting soil. I would use 1 part soil with 5 parts inorganic.

Yes I am definitely going to amend my potting soil mix. This cactus was the first cactus I ever owned and thus subjected to my inexperience with soil. I had already noticed that the soil it was in was not drying out quickly enough before it started leaning. I'm hopeful it will survive since the rest of the plant feels solid.

Key, let it dry and check for soft tissue. Re-pot in very fast draining soil and water less. Should be fine.

I have had Ferocactus with the same thing. They survived. Depending on the hole, some will grow out of it and some will keep it.
This doesn't look that bad.

I'm a little late with this update but alas, it died. I don't know what happened. I got rid of the rot and tried to let it dry out but it just kept getting mushier and mushier. It started leaking brown fluid and became so mushy that I couldn't pick it up any more. So who knows what was really wrong with it.

That's disgusting and disappointing!This has happened to mine before but it did fine with peroxide to the rot and sealed it with wood ash.
This might work for yours but that one will die or continue to rot unless you cure it before repotting.

My experience with soft rot is that usually once the plant starts leaning, it's too late to save it. The problem is that you don't normally see anything wrong before the rot has got a real hold on the plant. I have only a small collection of plants, around 200, and I reckon to lose 2 to 4 each year to rot.