rat gets sick, then better

Question
QUESTION: I have a 3 year old rat who seems to have a small tumor extending from below her ear underneath her jaw, and do not intend to try surgery. She seems to not be in any pain and continues to brux and eye-boggle. However, twice now in the past three weeks she has gotten extremely weak and lost nearly all her weight, but I have been able to coax her back to full health, weight, and liveliness with Ensure and mashed fruits and veggies to the point where she goes back to eating solid food again. Today she seems weak again though like she is going back into a sick period. Do tumors cause this strange sort of up-and-down? I don't want to have her put to sleep either as long as it seems like she's enjoying life.

ANSWER: I agree not to put her down until she has no quality of life.  You will know when its time. You and her.  Not the vet, or anyone else.

Unfortunately, this sounds like zymbals gland tumor to a tee.  Check out my website and scroll down to the bottom of the page to compare the photo of the mass on the rats face.


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

Let me know if this is the same area. Since it is almost always malignant, it would cause her to wax and wane as far as health goes.


I will wait to see what you say in our follow up.

Hang in there and keep doing what your doing for her, which is loving her and taking care of her!



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

QUESTION: I agree, that's what I was afraid of as well. However something JUST happened that also shed some light on the strange weakness-then-recovery, I watched Roma have what looked like a grand mal seizure about fifteen minutes ago, and now she's quite limp (although eating a blueberry). I'm guessing this may be what happened the other two times, I just didn't witness it. Would this be indicative of a brain tumor as well as the zymbal's gland? She's glazed over at the moment but still bruxing, so I'm hoping that she will bounce back again for a while, and I'm willing to do what I need to in order to keep her comfy!

Answer

Since it is more than likely cancerous, and squamous cell cancer spreads rapidly, this could easily cause a seizure if it is pressing anywhere on her  brain, even the stem.  :(

You can get her on valium for the seizures and when she stops being able to chew, have her teeth clipped down since this often distorts the alignment of the jaw causing malocclusion and the teeth need trimmed. She may not be able to chew, so you can offer baby foods, even to get liquids in her you can add water to the baby food.

NSAIDS or even steroids can help with the inflammation and antibiotics to prevent any infection from spreading.

Hopefully your vet is a certified exotic vet that is in the "know" and willing to prescribe these things, including the liquid valium.  Even if he has tablets, you can give her a quarter of a 1 ml valium tablet and this doesnt make them all zoned out, it simply relaxes them and helps with seizures.

I have been seeing this left and right all week (zymbals gland tumors) if you read my past questions you will see people in the same boat as your rat and in fact someone just had their rat put down due to it.  I am wondering what the heck is the connection and WHY so much of it lately????