tumors everywhere!

Question
QUESTION: Ok, so my friend Heather had a rat who developed a bunch of tumors at once and she told me the vet told her not to remove them because when they show up in a cluster, they'll come right back again if you take them out. Heather just kept her rat until the tumors got so big the rat couldn't move at all then she had her euthanised. Whenever my rats get tumors, I have them taken out right away because I don't want that to happen to any of my rats! I have a girl named Sweetpea who was born sept '07. She got a small lump on her chest last year, which I had removed, and it came back a few months later, and now she had been doing really well without it coming back for more than 6 months. However, about a month ago I noticed one show up in an awkward location, under her tail, just off to the side. I made an appointment at the beginning of May to have it removed, but in the last 2 weeks, she has suddenly had tumors pop up all over her body. She has the one under her tail and it feels like 3 down her side and one under her arm. If the doctor were to remove them all, there'd have to be at least 3-4 incisions. It just seems that every few days I feel a new one. Is it true that when they start getting these tumors everywhere you should just leave them? They are showing up so rapidly, I wouldn't want to put her through surgery and while she's healing have another 3 show up! What can I do? I don't want her to be like my friend's rat who couldn't even move, but I don't know if there is any other choice.

ANSWER: Hi Lisa


Please check out my website all about mammary tumors to help you better understand why the rats, esp girls, get them after a certain age.

When your done checking it out, let me know and I will go over more of the questions you asked me with you having a better understanding of them after reading my website and seeing the photos etc.  Feel free to ask my anything else you may want to know once you read it, too.


Here is the URL below. I dont know how to make a link, sorry, so just copy and paste it in your browser.  I kind of stink at computer stuff:)

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

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QUESTION: Hi thanks for the link....I've actually already done a lot of research because in the last few years I've probably had about 15 tumors removed from 8 or so girls, so I am familiar with the process and cause, etc. I just never saw so many tumors pop up so fast on a rat, the most they've ever had at once was 2 tumors, which the vet usually removes in 1 surgery. I have no idea what to do with a rat with 5+ tumors with more appearing every day! I do have a good vet who has done all the surgeries on my other girls.

Answer
Since you have done some research, you probably have read about treating these chemically using tamoxifen for malignancies or lupron for benign tumors.  I would say at this point it would be worth it to discuss using lupron on her. Just through experience with tumors its pretty safe to say hers are estrogen fueled and benign.  Stopping estrogen production at this point may help stop the production of new tumors and shrink the existing ones.  However I would have the vet remove any current tumors she has, or as many as he can get within a reasonable time once she is gassed down, keeping her under for as little time as possible, even though I have seen rats under for 90 minutes, one being a 3 year old female that recovered wonderfully.  Once as much of the invasive tissue is gone, the lupron depo should be started with monthly injections.  They cost no more than around $30 to $40 per injection which again is just monthly.  Since you have a vet that is well versed on rats he should be very familiar with the use of lupron depot since it is also used on ferrets.

I have seen many times the tumors growing in clusters. There is nothing worse than having your rat go through surgery and not even enough time has elapsed between the surgery and the time the stitches were to be removed and more tumors start to surface.  There is nothing worse than seeing that, as you probably already know.  Surgery after surgery is also not the best thing and often we resign ourselves to simply accept the fact that our rats will just live out the rest of their lives with these tumors until they finally take their toll on their little bodies.  Again, I would check into using one of the hormones above, depending on what the origin of most of the tumors have been, which again, most of the time they are benign, and going forward with the treatments.  There are no real ill side effects either, and of course at this point and time, the benefits outweigh the risks.