Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / January 2006

That is a very sad and unfortunate situation to be in, especially when
it is a family member.  Tough thing to deal with.
I would be concerned that the animals might be removed by whatever
agency it is that you are going to call, and be euthanized (especially
the rats).  Any chance of getting them out of there first?  Would you
be able to give the two remaining rats a home with you?  Or maybe being
there if they do a home visit and telling the agency that you have a
place for them to go?
The agencies that I have had any dealings with don't place too much
value on ratty lives.  Maybe you will have a better experience with
them.
Not that I am condoning allowing this to happen, don't get me wrong.  I
would always have the surgery done, or put the rat to sleep if there is
no quality of life or if they are suffering in any way.  I remember
having two mammary tumours removed from my Holly, one just before she
turned two, the other was removed when she was well over two.  When she
died, she had another that was about the size of a grape.
However, it is a fairly common occurance that female rat owners allow
tumours to get out of control like that.  I have seen and heard of rats
with tumours that size.  Sometimes, the rat is too sick to have surgery
in the end, but would have been fine earlier on when the tumour was
much smaller.  Sometimes they are just too sick from the beginning, and
the tumour gets out of control very quickly.  Females can have a good
quality of life for a long time with fairly large tumours.  I am not
saying that this is the situation with Rosie, especially since she is
very old, but sometimes they do well for longer than expected.
I remember my vet telling me that a man brought in a female with a
tumour that was as big as she was.  Other than the tumour, the rat was
doing very well overall.  When she told him how much the surgery was
going to cost, he said to put her down.  Instead, my vet asked if he
would surrender the ratty to her, and he agreed.  My vet removed the
tumour, and weighed it, and it was the same weight as the rat.  Awful.
The little girl came through the surgery fine, and my vet kept her
until she passed away.  I am not sure how old she was at the time of
the surgery, but females usually develop those types of tumours at over
eighteen months, so maybe she was around the two year old mark.
Again, I wouldn't let this happen myself, and I don't condone it in any
way.  I am just hoping that maybe Rosie hasn't been really bad off that
long, that maybe she only started going really downhill just recently.