Rabbit Abscess

Question
Hello. My name is Ginger and I live in the upstate of South Carolina.
I was referred to you by Patrice, a volunteer at a rabbit sanctuary in Simpsonville, SC. She told me to be brief, so here goes... If you want the full version, here is a link for you.

http://www.binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/119655/Default.aspx

Any advise you give me will be so greatly appreciated. I thank you in advance.

I have a 6 year old female lionhead rabbit named Cotton. She isn't spayed. Around May of 2011 I noticed she gained some weight and her breast was a little floppier than normal. After that I noticed she had a small lump come up on her breast. Within the last 2/3 months is has progressed in size until it's now about the size of an orange or grapefruit. She can't even reach her left front paw to her face anymore. So I took her to the vet.

I realize you may not be comfortable with diagnosing her without seeing her but I have some recent pictures of her if you have an email address I can send them to.

Her vet told me he couldn't remove all of it and even if he could, abscesses almost always come back so it might not be worth it to put her through it. He said he could "debulk" it to get it out of her way. But if I put myself through the expense and put Cotton through a surgery and recovery, I want her to be rid of it completely. He took fluid samples and it doesn't appear to be cancer. The test results do confuse me though. If you can just help me discypher the cytoloty results it would be of great help.

He said if I wanted it to be completely removed I should take her to the University Of Georgia or some other board certified surgeon. I'm just left hanging with not really know what to do. What is best for her? I can't bare the thoughts of her getting sick and having to put her to sleep because I let the infection slowly eat away at her! I don't understand why it can't be a simpler fix than to take her hours away from home for a complicated day full of tests and surgery.

My question is what her chances would be with surgery to remove the abscess. Should I go through with having it removed? Is it really worth it? Would she have a much longer life after? I realize she might not do well with the anesthesia. What is the risk of her not surviving the surgery?
I
realize these are not questions you can answer with a guarantee but based on your experience I'm hoping you have some sort of answers for me.
If I could send you some pictures of her would you better be able to answer my questions?

If I should put her through the surgery, I don't want to wait too long before I do because I don't want it to eat down to her tissue. I'm desperately seeking advise as quick as possible.

Thank you so much.
Ginger

Answer
Dear Ginger,

Sorry for the delay.  I got swamped at work, and am trying to chip away at these AllExperts answers now...

It sounds to me as if the vet is just not comfortable doing this surgery, which should be relatively routine for a vet who is (1) confident and experienced with rabbit surgeries and anesthesia and (2) a good surgeon.  If you were referred by a rescue, I assume they have given you a referral to a good rabbit vet.  But if not, please check the list linked here:

http://www.rabbit.org/vets

It is definitely something that should not be let go.  Rabbit abscesses tend to encapsulate (wall themselves off), but that doesn't mean they don't continue to grow and are not painful.  They do and they are.  So while it might not be a bad idea to ask the vet about putting her on antibiotics (was the aspirate cultured?) to help while she walls off the abscess, I would still try to find a vet who can confidently excise the mass and then keep her on antibiotics until it's sure she's recovered and there is no recurrence from any leftover bacteria.

It really would be wise to have her spayed, as her risk of mammary and uterine cancers is high if she's not.

Hope this helps.

Dana