Should my rat be put to sleep??

Question
QUESTION: My female albino rat is about 3 years old, she has a mammary tumor by her hip that she's had for a couple months.
since the tumor showed up she's just getting worse and worse every week she's lost a lot of weight I can feel her ribs and her spine and her hips stick out, most of the time she'll eat food I give her, but I haven't really seen her eat her food. she has blood comming out of her eyes constantly and she's always breathing really heavily.
Also she pees red, and brown. and she pees more than she used too.
at some moments she'll be acting happy only when she's with me and at other moments she's very unhappy. I just don't know if I should let her go yet.
I already made the vet appointment to have her put to sleep in a couple days. but I really want an opinion from someone experienced before I make this decision.
thanks.

ANSWER: Hi Lianne


For starters, the red discharge you see coming from the rat is not blood, it is called porphyrin.  It is produced by a gland behind the rats eyes and it is normally produced by this gland to lubricate the rats third eyelid. However, when the rat is stressed out, she will produce more porphyrin and it is secreted from the nose and eyes.
See photo on my website for more info and to compare pictures of the red you see in your rat and the red in these photos:

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


To be honest, why not simply treat your rat instead of put her to sleep? It sounds as if she has a urinary tract infection and all that she needs is a round of antibiotics to help her overcome this infection. Also, once this is cleared up, that tumor can easily be removed.
If she has become bored with her food, this explains why she is eating the food you give her. Right now you need to get her strong if you plan on having the tumor removed, so you can feed her baby foods (any kind of strained is fine) scramble up an egg, boil some chicken food her (white meat is best) offer her some peas, carrots etc....to help her get stronger again.  A skilled vet can remove that tumor and she should spend a night or two at the clinic since she will be more of a high risk due to her condition, but she should pull through just fine. We operate on older rats all the time to remove tumors, one of them was my girl who was over 3 and after that, she lived to be nearly 4 years old.

I do believe if a rat is truly suffering it is the most humane thing to do when you have them properly euthanized, which by the way, there is a way to put them down that is very painful and you need to be sure the vet does it properly, so be sure to check out my site in the rat care section, bottom of the entire page, on properly euthanizing rats. Many vets will try to stick the rat in the heart without putting them under anesthesia and in most states it is illegal since it is very inhumane and painful but a vet that is not real skilled with rats has no real education on this so they do it their own way which again, it is painful as heck. The rat will feel the most horrid pain of her life before dying which is no way to have it done.
Anyhow, I feel that your little old girl has not really had much of a chance to recover from her ailments and deserves a fair chance to get better first especially from the infection she has in her bladder.
Once you treat her ailments and she still does not improve, its fair to make the decision to end her life, but I would try all I could to help her get well again before ending her life.  She has made it this far, she must be a trooper!  If your vet is good with rats, he will be able to help her.
There is alot of hope for mammary tumor surgery and once they are removed, there is a hormone called lupron that is safely and successfully given to help reduce the chances that new tumors will grown. This is given once a month to keep estrogen levels down since estrogen is what fuels the tumors growth in the first place.

If you need another vet I will be more than happy to help you find one.All I need is your zip code and I can find a vet that works on rats.

So I guess my final answer is, no, you should not put your rat down without at least exhausting all avenues to give her a fair chance to get well again.

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

QUESTION: I will go to my vet and ask about the urinary infection and antibiotics. I already asked about the tumor removal and the vet said it would cost 400$ and I simply do not have that money. If I did I would do it in a heartbeat.
my zip coe is v9k 1j3
Last time I took her to the vet about her tumor the vet said that if she stops eating her quality of life is not good and she is not happy.
I'm going to cancel the appointment, and look at other options.

Answer
Oh my gosh that price is OUTRAGEOUS and I can totally relate to not having that handy to spend!!  My husband was in the emergency room last night and I went to get medication and like it was no big deal the pharmacy tech told me it was $250 for one bottle of pills. I blinked and said YOUR KIDDING?  It turns out the doctor just gave us the most expensive stuff they make and there were others much cheaper. They called in a new medication and it was oh say, $240 LESS!  LOL!


As far as the loss of appetite...your vet is right. If she just doesnt want to eat, drink and just lay around and do nothing, she has lost that spark in her eye.

I get alot of people asking me this and its so hard to answer WHEN its time....if she seems to enjoy being alive and still wants held, still will take treats etc...she still is that spark in her to live.

What occurs with the tumor is this: They start to rob the rats body of proper nutrients needed to sustain life of the vital organs. The heart, kidney, liver all shut down. The rat stops eating and drinking and just lays there, too weak to move.
My girl Holly? I was just like you, ready to put her down, but Holly still had spunk left. She was so skinny I could see her rib cage and she could not move her back legs due the pressure of the large egg sized tumor.  I felt so bad letting her like this I brought her in to put her to sleep and my vet just sat there, staring at her as she propelled around the cage, eating, washing her little face, even dragging to the litter box to poop. He turned to me and said, I CANT! I cannot do it, not when she seems to have the will to go on.
So we opted to remove the tumor despite the fact she was so fragile she could die, what did I have to lose  since I planned on putting her down anyhow?  
She made it through the surgery but she still had smaller tumors on her we had to leave. She was already under for 90 minutes which is long for a rat to be under  anesthesia. She lived for several months very happy but still frail. She ate, but the other tumor started to do the same thing as the first one...rob her body of the nutrients she was getting from her food and she lost more weight. Finally, about 9 or 10 months after the surgery, she started to get very weak and one day I found her laying in her food dish and she just was unable to move.  This is what told me this is the end of the road for her.
I held her for hours before finally taking her to the vet to be let go...but she did gain an extra 10 months since we removed that monster...and my vet lets me make payments which helps. That is so high, that price...I cant get over it!!  

Hopefully the infection she has is making her feel lousy. Usually these tumors dont spread (they are almost always benign) and the rat dies from organ failure or sometimes the tumor becomes absessed internally and can rupture inside her, spreading infection which in turn causes sepsis. If that occurs, she will pretty much just stop moving and not care about anything...and you will know at that very momement it is time to let her go.

Its so hard to decide this...and to be honest, I should NOT tell you my opinon like I did because it is my opinion to try to exhaust all avenues that is affordable, that is, but its not fact.  If she has that spark of life in her eyes,allow her that time yet, but once she loses it, you will know.  Even if this is your first rat, somehow, only the rat owner knows her own rat better than anyone else. If you dont see that life in her eyes, its time.
Does that make sense?  It seems like I am running in circles with this but I think you know what I am trying to say.

Meanwhile I can still find a vet for you (I believe this is Canada?) even if you just keep the name handy for other rats in the future.

Also, even though I dont want to say it up putting her down, if you do decide to do that, please read about it on my site...its really important rat owners see what some vets do behind closed doors.

I hope you feel better about all of this....you are doing what you can for her and want to do the right thing, I know that, and its just hard for me to tell you the right thing when I dont know her like you do. Not even the vet does.

hang in there and I will do a revise of this with a vet name for you!


hugs to you and your girl

Sandra