continued thoughts on fancy rat

Question
QUESTION: They told me I had asked too many follow-ups to my original question on the hematoma my rat had last week. I did want to follow up again. I tried changing her diet and I am also putting on cortizone to help her itching. The hemotoma has subsided, however at her last visit the vet he noticed two tumors (one on her left side by her back leg and one by her right sider of her neck). He said that tumors can cause itchiness also and since the anti-mite medicine wasn't working, that might be the probelm. Do you think a two year old rat with tumors should be operated on or should I let her be since she still is very active and besides the itching does not seem to be bothered by them?

ANSWER: I would have them removed at once. They will eventually cause problems and sooner than you think.  The sooner the better and this way the tumor will be become real vascular and the surgery is much easier with less chance of bleeding etc...

Read the info I wrote here about tumors:

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

I get alot of questions about rat tumors so I made a page on my website for everyone that has a rat with them.  

However, I would not allow my vet to operate on my rat unless he is very very experienced with rats and surgery and usually only exotic vets are really properly equipped to handle any problems that may come up during surgery etc...

As for the follow ups...yeah they only let you have a few follow ups and they make you ask a new ??   

I am glad the hematoma has reabsorbed...they usually do like a bruise does.   I cant remember how she got that?  Was it from surgery or an injection?



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

QUESTION: Her hemotoma was from a skin scraping for mites.

How long do you expect rats to live?

How much would you expect to pay on the surgery to remove two tumors? And is it necessary to have them biopsied?

ANSWER: Oh thats right....I remember now, the skin scraping!!  

Anyhow:  You asked how long rats can live?  It depends totally on their care such as their diet and their health history.  I have had rats die as young as 5 months and others live to be close to 4 years old. The average for my rats is right around 3 and a half years old.

I have had tumors removed from rats as old as 3 that did wonderfully.

As for cost on tumor surgery, it really varies from Vet to Vet and also where you live in the world to be honest. It can run anywhere from $100 to $300, again, depending on the vet and your neck of the woods.

I have also had people tell me that they have paid as little as $50 but I have a hard time accepting that since the better anesthesia can run $50.  UNLESS the vet was that good hearted he took a huge loss and only charged for the anesthesia used since the vet has to pay for the gases they use.  

As for a biopsy, a good educated vet can take one look (and one sniff, sounds gross but true) and see if it looks malignant or not.  They can also tell if the tumor is encapsulated. However to make you feel better, most mammary tumors are benign and the ones that are malignant usually are encapsulated and were no threat.  

The best way to prevent mammary tumors is to have any females spayed at a young age...if you read my page on tumors I know I talked about that and also explained how rats usually get these tumors after menopause due to high levels of estrogen.  Spaying will eliminate this totally and the chances that the female still ends up with mammary tumors are very slim.  The rats need spayed young though, around 3 to 4 months old.  The vet, as I always say, MUST be a skilled surgeon especially when spaying since it is invasive and recovery is a bit more uncomfortable that tumor removals are.


Hope this helps!


Sandy

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

QUESTION: So I just wanted to let you know how my baby is doing. On Monday she finally got the tumors removed (the vet put her on antibiotics last week to get rid of the skin infection and we were going to wait another week but one of the tumors tripled its size over the weekend). One tumor was a mammary tumor, but the other was not, we are still waiting on the biopsy as to what exactly it was. Her skin is healing nicely and except for the sutures coming out Monday night and a re-visit to the vet on Tuesday morning she is healing nicely from her surgery. Thanks so much for all of you help and suggestions. You cannot imagine how much I appreciate the time and effort you put in.

Answer

I am glad she had the surgery done.  
She wasnt too old and see,she is doing just fine.

One suggestion: if the biopsy brings some not so happy news let me know.  There is actually a form of chemo rats can have for malignant tumors even though they were removed.  It is called Tamoxifen and it has high success rates in rats that when used, it prevents the cancer from returning if the tumor was not encapsulated.  

I am sure the mammary tumor is probably benign.

Thanks for the update!!  She will feel much better now!