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Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / December 2007To operate or not
Hi all, Firstly I have to say some of the below might be a bit unpleasant, so be warned :). I'm looking for opinions regarding one of my Rats, Eddie. She is around 2.5 years old now, and is still very active and happy for her age. She currently has 2 mammary tumours, one near her back leg, and one near her front leg. The one near her back leg is now quite large, and it does impede her activity. While she is in no pain, she does seem to get down when she tries jumping or climbing around and her tumours stop her. Around 3 months ago I was on my way to work when I noticed something stuck to her bottom. I thought the size of the tumour perhaps had made poo stick to her, on closer observation she seemed to have a bloody lump sticking out of her behind. She was obviously in pain and so I phoned the vets right away and took her in. They offered me the option of putting her down or operating - it seems the tumour had been growing in her genitals and must have been pushed out by the mammary tumour, because of the location of the tumour there were risks in operating and damaging surrounding areas. Because she had been so active any happy prior to this, I asked them to operate. This involved knocking her out. The operation was a success, and she was back to her usual self within a day, with no obvious pain symptoms. For some reason, that vet refused to remove her two other tumours at the same time. She still is happy, but the two tumours keep growing, and are going to increasingly affect her standard of life. I've now found another vet who is willing to operate, they examined her this morning and there are no physical reasons why they wouldn't operate (i.e. she is very healthy despite her age) but they did warn about the risks of anesthetising a rat - she currently is booked in for next Friday. My dilemma is, should I let them operate possibly giving her a much better quality of life - at the risk of her dying during or just after the operation. Or should I let her live out the rest of her life until the tumours kill her - possibly leading to an increasingly unhappy final few months. What would you do? Thanks for any replies, Chris P.s. here is a picture of Eddie taken a day ago: http://www.flickr.com/photos/misterjingo/2103675541/ She has built a nest in a box on a bookcase. The one good thing about being older is that shes less destructive, so she happily stays out all day if she wants to, but goes back and poos in her cage. Here are photos of my other rats: http://www.flickr.com/photos/misterjingo/sets/72157602125461285/ I personally would get the operation done, so long as the vet has experience with this kind of rat surgery and thinks it is worth doing. I'd rather take the risk than see a rat (or other pet) die from something that was potentially treatable. Dying from a growth (be it benign or cancerous) gets really nasty at the end. Besides, if the surgery works you could have many more months with your rat. If it doesn't, you would have prevented Eddie from having a messy drawn out death. Best of luck. Dewi > Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 50 lines] > > http://www.flickr.com/photos/misterjingo/sets/72157602125461285/ As she is healthy and active I would go for the op, it's good that you have found a vet who is confident to do so. I recently lost my old boy Tar, he had a tumour that I chose not to remove, but that was due to him having other problems such as failing kidneys. If he had been healthy overall I would definatly of had the tumour removed. Her photo is so cute, she looks very bright eyed and full of fun :-) Your others are great too. Chicken really suits her name, what a cutie. Or should I let her live out the rest of her life until > the tumours kill her - possibly leading to an increasingly unhappy > final few months. > What would you do? > >What I would do?... I would give her a chance with an operation. As to letting her live out the rest of her life in that condition? most definitely not !!!! I believe if something cannot be fixed/cured why put an animal through lingering pain and/ or discomfort. Whose needs are being met by this? Good luck with your decision. Kate I'd operate. I had a tumor removed on Chewie as well as getting her spayed at the same time. She was over 2 at the time and the outcome was good. If she's in good shape otherwise, she'll probably recover quickly. Tell us what you decide to do and how it goes. -Marlo > Or should I let her live out the rest of her life until >> the tumours kill her - possibly leading to an increasingly unhappy [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Kate > My dilemma is, should I let them operate possibly giving her a much > better quality of life - at the risk of her dying during or just after > the operation. Or should I let her live out the rest of her life until > the tumours kill her - possibly leading to an increasingly unhappy > final few months. My very best rat ever died suddenly while under anesthetic. To make things worse, after only knowing her for a couple of hours, the vet had already become so enamored of my rat that she couldn't stop crying and *I* had to comfort *HER* because my rat had died! Here's a suggestion that may or may not help, but can't hurt: I had a rat who was hosting a massive benign mammary tumor, and I decided to give aloe vera juice a try. Amazingly, the tumor essentially disappeared in a matter of weeks. It slowly returned, of course, and eventually she passed away, but the av "treatment" had in the meantime bought her a couple of precious months during which she could walk and seemed relatively healthy. My best theory as to what the av juice did is that it didn't miraculously cure anything or even literally make the tumor go away -- I believe that what it did was dry the tumor out (such growths consist of something like 85% water as I understand it) and reverse its ability to negatively impact the rat's movements and level of comfort. It was not a permanent "fix" by any means, but given a rat's brief lifespan, the time gained by its effect was considerable. Since a tumor that's surgically removed can also grow back, it's an alternate worth looking into -- it comes in huge bottles for around $15 or so, and one such bottle is enough for a full course of treatment for one rat. Mind you, it may not even work at all in your case (so far, I've not heard from anyone else who claims to have had the same results as I did) but as I say, it can't HURT the animal. It's marketed as a health supplement in the first place, after all. - Dr Strangemonde Thanks for the advice all. Eddie was taken to the vets last week, but they were concerned about her breathing, so they put her on antibiotics for a week before they would operate. Her breathing has become increasingly loud over the past two weeks, and at times it seems as if she's really struggling for breath. It's been quite sad, as shes taken to sitting on me, and enjoys being stroked - shes always been an active rat - and so this was a bad sign to me. Over the past week sometimes she'd be active, other times, she'd be standing still looking incredibly ill - but later on would recover and explore. I've been letting her out for most of the day lately, and she's been enjoying this. When i took her to the vets for the operation this morning, they were concerned about one of the lumps (it's grown quite large now) and also about her breathing. I asked about another week of antibiotics, and they said they could get some more powerful ones in - but another option would be to knock her out and x-ray her chest, to see what was happening there and if it was ok, to do the operation at the same time. This seemed the best option. The vets called a while back and it seems her lungs either had fluid in them, or possibly small growths, and one of the large lumps had started to grow into her tissue and couldn't be removed. So they could either put her to sleep without waking her up, or she could be taken home but become increasingly distressed and in pain - she wouldn't have lasted long, and what time she had left wouldn't be pleasant. So I asked them to put her to sleep. This has been an incredibly sad decision. Eddie was one of the most intelligent, friendly and playful rats I've owned. She'd stay out late when i was up late and play. I know this was the best decision, but still, it's sad to know i'll never come home from work and see her again. > This has been an incredibly sad decision. Eddie was one of the most > intelligent, friendly and playful rats I've owned. She'd stay out late > when i was up late and play. > I know this was the best decision, but still, it's sad to know i'll > never come home from work and see her again. Hopefully you can take comfort in knowing it was the right thing to do, but no, of course that doesn't take the sadness away. Our thoughts are with you. Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm glad you had the choice to ease her suffering. -Marlo > Thanks for the advice all. Eddie was taken to the vets last week, but > they were concerned about her breathing, so they put her on [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > I know this was the best decision, but still, it's sad to know i'll > never come home from work and see her again. |
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