turmor male rat 2 yers old

Question
Non-surgical tumor in a male rat, deep in the body(not right under the skin). Rat is loosing its weight very fast, vet gave some supporting drug (gumnat sodium) which helps a little, but still rat looses weight. What drugs can You advise to take to support him more? To better his metabolism but not the tumor's? Because of his illness and age he got Ulcerative pododermatitis. How can it be cured?Some advise to give Dexpanthenol but wont it be better for tumor than to pet?
Would be very thankful for advise.  

Answer
Hi

I am a bit confused as to where the tumor is located.  Why is the rat being given dexpanthenol?  Is it because the tumor is located in the rats abdomen?

Weight loss cannot be prevented at this stage, to be honest. If the tumor is vascular and large enough that it is taking the nutrients from the rat as he eats, regardless of what he eats the tumor will just absorb it.  We often feed our rats vitamin drinks such as boost or ensure, but being your not in the United States the names of things are not the same as what is available to you there.  In fact, I have no idea what gumnat sodium is.  

As for the bumblefoot, this has nothing to do with having a tumor.  Bumblefoot comes from the rats feet having small cuts or sores in it and the excess weight from the rats body causes pressure on the feet. In turn, the sores may absorb bacteria in the cage and this causes infection.  Bumblefoot is often caused by a staph bacteria. Oral antibiotics can help, and keeping the cage super clean and also padded with soft fleece so his feet are not on a hard surface can help. Applying antibiotic ointment to the sores can help as well.


As for not being able to remove the tumor: If the tumor is not invading other organs, as long as the vet is skilled in exotic surgery and has microsurgical instruments, if its a matter of life or death, I was wondering if there was any way to remove this tumor even if its not a typical subcutaneous tumor that is typical of a mammary tumor.