Female Rat Tumor near back leg

Question
My daughter currently has two pet rats both are female. I just noticed this morning that one of the rats has a large sized tumor on the inner back leg. She is getting around fine and has not experienced any weight loss (she is pretty chubby)she is 3 years old. She is happy and getting around fine. The tumor is covered in fur and is not scabbed or open. What do you suggest?

Answer
Hi Yvette

At her age, I would let her be.  She is happy now and there is no reason to take the risk at her age.  If she were even 2.5 years old I would say to go for it.

However, I will say this: I would not say to NEVER do it, though. I just would not do it yet. I have seen older rats pass away under anesthesia due to their kidneys, liver and heart too.  What I have done in the past is this (here is a little story)  I had a sweet wild rat named Holly. She had surgery to remove tumors before but they kept growing back. Finally I said ENOUGH! I just could not see her spending the last half of her life recovering from surgery.  So, I let her be. The tumor started to take over and become very large. She lost weight even though she ate like crazy. The tumor was taking her nutrients so it  can   sustain itself and grow and was tapped into her blood stream. THe tumor was so big she could not walk good. I hated seeing her this way. She was a bit over 3 years old.  I brought her in to the vet to have her put down. I was sick about it. I was glad I had those extra 5 months with her though and had no regrets. However, she still seemed like she had alot of life in her and it was killing me to let her go. THe vet agreed and so we decided to remove the largest tumor from her. He gave her a five percent chance to make it. Yes, that bad..... but I was going to put her down anyhow so it didnt not really matter what the percentage was.  Long story short, she MADE IT THROUGH !  It was a very hard surgery for both the vet and Holly. She lost blood. The surgery was 90 minutes long which is super long for a tiny rat.  She woke up fine etc...but had an infection at the surgical site, part of her old age since she was not able to heal as fast as a younger rat would.  
So my old girl made it and lived to be 2 months shy of her fourth birthday.   I still dont know if she would have lived through the other surgery and dont regret letting her go on with the tumor because I still feel I was risking her life at that time.
So, unless this tumor is taking her life and her life is closer to the end, I would wait.  Thats only my opinion though.  Some vets may agree, others may say she will be just fine and that would not be a fair statement to make since there is no guarantee any living thing will actually be ok when it comes to anesthesia. I have never lost a rat due to anesthesia and I have had 42 rats with at least half of them having surgery, from tumors removed to neuters to having one rat have an eye removed due to bad infection. All turned out just fine. BUT.....they NEEDED the surgery in order to survive.  THe neuter was an emergency neuter due to a terrible abscess on one of my male rats testicles and it was near ready to burst open.  

Also, you need to have a super good vet that has all the proper implements needed that are appropriate for tiny mammals.  This is usually an exotic vet but may be a regular vet that has alot of experience with exotics too.  If you would like another opinion and need a vet please let me know.

You can read up on tumors on my website plus see my Holly girl on the page ABOUT ME!

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/allabouttumors.htm