rat warts

Question
Dear Sandra,
A lump appeared on my rats head mid March (about 3 months ago). We took him to the vet and he was put on a course of antibiotics (Baytril). The lump continued to grow so I took him back to the vet who said there was nothing they could do and they wouldn't operate as it was on his face. He saw a number of different vets within the same practice and opinions were mixed as to what it was (cyst/abscess/tumor/tear duct infection etc). Eventually the lump burst and went down significantly however grew back again not long after. I took him back to the vet (at this point he was also taking an anti inflammatory called Metacam for the pain, even though he was not out of sorts, was eating well etc), they agreed to remove part of the lump and also did a biopsy. The vet said she had never seen anything like it, describing it as ''like a flower bud'' when she cut into it. The lab results said it was a wart (they also said they had never seen anything like it as it was not caused by the human papilloma virus like human warts). He has been to the vet once a week for 3 weeks to have it frozen off with liquid nitrogen. They also tried an experimental treatment (so they said) of injecting it with interferon (although I think they only did this once out of the three operations). Yesterday they told me it was growing too fast and there was nothing they can do. I would like another opinion as I'm not that convinced. Have you ever seen anything like this? Is there anything that could be administered intravenously? He is in fine spirits and perfectly happy although I know it will keep growing. The treatments did seem to help in my opinion and I'm not ready to give up. I have contacted the Queen Mother hospital which is part of the Royal Veterinary College (I'm from the UK) but they told me to look online as they don't have any rat experts. Maybe you can recommend someone in the UK? Please help!! He is very precious.

Kind regards

Maria

Answer
Can you show me a photo of it??  Have you seen the photos of the tumors and abscesses on the rats on my website?

Is this lump on the side of the face?


Check out my website, the URL below is to the tumor page. Scroll down to see the photos of the rats with tumors on their head and face and also again if you can attach a photo, you can do it here on your follow up by clicking on ATTACH PHOTO or BROWSE etc......  


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


Also, where in the UK are you?