Operation

Question
My female rat Buffy has a lump under her left arm and i went to a vet and they said that the best option was to remove it, i could leave it but i dont want her to end up suffering but what i really want to know is how successful are these operations? i know that these are common but i just wanted to know how successful they can be

Answer
Hi Paige

Successful as far as what? Successful in being able to remove them? Usually they are so easy to remove they literally "peel" off from the skin which means it wasnt something super invasive that they had to dig up.  However its best to get them before they become really large and highly vascular or there is a chance that the surgeon has to tangle with some bigger blood vessels and a chance of bleeding is more serious than normal.
A risk is always there for man or beast when anesthesia is involved,but with a skilled surgeon that can proclaim they can do this with their eyes closed and one hand tied behind his or her back, the chances of anything going wrong are lowered. I would always ask about exerience first and type of anesthesia should be nothing other than isoflurane or sevoflurane and also question if they keep the rat warm during and after surgery, if they monitor the rats vital signs during surgery and if they keep the rat overnight for nursing care since the first 12 hours are the most critical. Ask about pain medication and antibiotics. They should be given BOTH post op. A narcotic pain killer for the first 24 hours so that the rat is not in pain and this prevents the rat from tearing at the stitches. Vets think that if the rat feels "too good" they will do too much and perhaps even pull the stitches but the truth is (take it from someone that has studied rat behavior so much I am shocked I dont have a bald tail and dumbo ears!:) the rat will assume the source of its pain is the foreign stitches and will start to pull them should they be allowed to hurt after surgery. Providiing narcotic pain relief post op will simply ensure that:
(A) The rat will be out of pain and discomfort and will leave the
stitches alone.
(B) The narcotics will pretty much put her out for a nice sleep anyhow so she will get the rest she needs regardless.


As for the success of removing the tumor?  Pretty much 100% that the vet gets almost all of the tissue from the tumor but as stated above, the chance that more tumors surface are high because the rat is not spayed and the estrogen levels continue to remain high unless of course the vet agrees to the lupron injections once per month.
The success rate of the lupron has not really been established since its not widely used for this type of chronic problem YET, but because of its success rate, I can almost promise that soon most exotic vets will have intact rats on lupron post op as normal protocol. The best way to avoid any of this of course is to spay the female at a young age (3 to 5 months of age is ideal)
Chances are the tumors are benign too and even if they are malignant, many of them are found to be encapsulated and do not spread to other organs/tissue.
If you chose NOT to do the surgery, her time will be cut short indeed and depending on the rate of growth, it could be just a few months that she is showing signs of serious discomfort and wear and tear on her small body.
What will occur?
Most of this is on my webpage : For photos and more information see my webpage, URL below:

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

but I will still go over it in brief here since I am on a roll now with all my blabbing:

If the tumor remains, it will continue to grow and start to become vascular. Once this occurs the tumor will start to take the rats nutrients she gets from her food which results in severe weight loss despite her very unusual ravenous appetite. SHe will seem like she is starved when you feed her and that is because she mainly will be starving when the tumor starts to take her nutrients away. The vital organs will no longer be supported by her once healthy body and they will begin to fail her.  Rats dont usually die from the tumor itself but rather, they die from the side effects from the tumor.
Kidney failure and heart failure can set in and the rat starts to become lethargic and pretty weak. She will get very thin and frail from lack of proper nutrition. If the tumor abscesses internally, you will not know it, but the tumor will start to push the toxins into the rats body and cause the rat to have a horrible infection. This often                     turns into sepsis which is fatal within a few short hours.

So those are the grim details of what can occur when you let the rat go on with the tumors. I vowed that I will never own another intact female after all the girls I have lost to these nasty tumors and all the friends I have that have lost sweet rats to them as well..