Your advice on more surgery

Question
QUESTION: Sandra,

Two months ago you helped me with my rat ella who had a mammary tumor growing, we found a vet and he removed it. She healed so fast and is back to being her healthy and super fast self (she runs so quick we cant catch her sometimes). I wish I would have known to have had her spayed when I got her but now she is almost 2 years old and last night I found another small lump right near where her stitches healed. It's underneath her left arm.  I have an appt with the vet today. I was just wondering if its another tumor what would you do? I want her to live a lot longer and she's in perfect health but I don't know if a second surgery would be too risky...? I'm worried it might keep growing, get to large  and we'd have to put her down.

Thank you for your advice,
A worried mom:)

ANSWER: Right now my best friend has her 2.5 yr old rat scheduled for her second surgery and another good friend had two girls both go through three surgeries.  A devoted reader of mine who is in the UK has had one of her girls go through surgery three times.  I usually say to do it again, esp at her age since she is not even two.  Remember though, surgery is always risky no matter how many times you have it done. I HATE having my rats go through surgery no matter how good of a Vet I have but your right, if you dont do it, eventually it will claim her life, not due to it being cancerous because they rarely are, but because they get so large, they literally starve the rat and their vital organs begin to fail.   What I have done in the past with my older girls, and when I say older, I am talking 3 years and older, is wait until they get to the point that I have no choice to do it and the only other option is to put her down. This way, if, God forbid, something happen to her, she was going to be put down anyhow. I have done this only because the risk of surgery for an older rat is higher.   Your girl is still young enough and healthy enough and did well with her first surgery.  Keep in mind that once our girls become tumor factories, they end up producing new ones every few months.  Very few female rats that I have known of have only developed one tumor and never again did any more appear. This is more common with male rats, not female rats.  My girl Holly grew one huge one and when the Vet went in to remove it, there were 8 more in there growing already!!! He got as many as he could safely remove at the time but it wasn't long before even more started to emerge.  Thats when you have do draw the line and say enough is enough.   However, our love for our rats usually leads us to doing more surgery again and again as long as they are well enough to tolerate it.  Once they get to a certain age though , we have to decide if we want them to spend the rest of their senior years recovering from surgery (the older they get the longer the recovery time is as it takes longer to heal)  again, I am talking about older rats that are older than 2, more like 2 and a half years old and older.
My advice?  Talk to the vet, see what he says....go with your gut.....I am sure that she will do just as good as she did the first surgery but I cannot guarantee it. I wish I could, but I cant.

Is it growing fast now?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the advice!!! I just noticed it two days ago, its about the size of a dime. The vet today agreed with you, that she should have surgery and shes not even two so he hopes she'll be ok. He did mention in the last surgery he removed two mammary glands on that side so there could be a possibility its scar tissue, is that possible? He said to keep a watch on it for the next week and if it grows to get her in right away while its still small. Do they grow that rapidly?

Answer
Some can grow fast while others grow slow. These tumors are fueled by the high hormone levels found in female rats, usually AFTER their estrus cycle ends which can occur anywhere from 14 months to 24 months old with the average being around 18 months.   I have had girls grow them out of the blue and in a week they were the size of a grape, and a month later, the size of an EGG!! Sometimes they fill with fluids.  The reason its better to get them while they are small is with hopes the tumor has not become vascular yet because this makes for a bit of a risk of bleeding and the vet needs to be on his or her toes and quickly stop the bleeding pronto. Controlling body temp is also very very important in small mammals so blood loss, even a tiny amount, is a real pain during surgery on these little rats!    As for scar tissue,there is a chance it could be, yes, but unfortunately its probably another tumor. I have seen it be scar tissue or a seroma on very few occasions but there is at least a slight chance and thats always good to focus on.  fingers crossed!