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tumor of rabbit

22 10:33:05

Question
Hello Doctor,
I am ashish from india. We are having female rabbit age is 6 years. she has got tumor starting from the right leg and and grown behind the leg. we have shown to vet hospital. they said                 
that they will operate it & remove it. but also they said its risk since rabbit is very delicate animal & her age is also 6 years. she don't have any pain in that tumor. doctor given OBCODEX ointment to apply on the area for 5 days. So it may create pus  and tumor get cure. we applied as per the instruction but after three days she got itching sensation & that area was became hot, she was pulling her hair of that part. than doctor said to keep hot water bag on the tumor. & she felt relief & stopped pulling hair but tumor is still there we feel that since after applying the ointment tumor area became hot & its a symptom to create pus. We don't feel to her to be operated since its a complicated surgery. Can you suggest any other treatment on this so she can be cured  
without surgery? what would be your opinion since her age is already 6 years. & once she was operated for piles/fissure problem before 6 months back.
Thanks
Waiting for you reply
Ashish (INDIA)

Answer
I'm not going to be able to give you directly the answer you seek.  First, I'm not knowledgeable enough in medicines to know what kind of topical to put on it to make it bothersome for her.
But I will suggest some things for you to think about and then recommend some others that may be able to help you out with some more specific information.

First, I can very much understand your concern about surgery.  6 years itself isn't too old for surgery.  If the doctor is very good about the anesthetic he uses and if she's strong enough healthwise to pull through, it might be something for you to think about some more.  But the tumor won't go away without a surgical solution.  Another kind of surgery to think about is removing the leg with the tumor.  Rabbits can do fine with 3 legs.  This video shows a rabbit running around after having one of it's legs removed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOcTofpyDLM

But if surgery is completely out of the question, you'll need to find something that will not want to pull out the fur and treat the pus of the tumor.

What could be very helpful of you is to try to ask your question to Dr. Dana Krempels.  She's very knowledgeable in many areas of house rabbits and may have experienced cancer in rabbits before and could give you some specific help for your rabbit.

You could also try Pam, she is a veterinary technician and may have some good medical info to help you.

You can also try joining Etherbun on Yahoo groups and asking your question there.  The link is http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/etherbun/

Sorry, this isn't exactly the type of answer you're looking for.  Good luck with your rabbit.