my rat Dustin again...

[ratcreature]

This afternoon I brought Dustin to the vet to get this small lump under his belly I detected Thursday looked at. So the vet felt the lump (and since it's on his lower belly Dustin promptly peed when pressed there), and unfortunately it's not clearly defined from the surrounding area. The vet suggested to treat it with spider venom before considering an operation, which is supposed to get the growth to become encapsulated in a more distinct shape or something like that, so that it can be removed more easily.

When I had rats before the vets never did anything like that, but the one where I'm now is quite experienced with rats, so hope this works as it is supposed to. I also asked whether the venom would tax Dustin's system further, since he still has the remaining effects from his respiratory problems and mycoplasma infection (i.e. that he's much less active than is brother etc.), but the vet assured me that it wouldn't have such negative effects. So now I have to bring him for at least two more injections over the next couple of days, and then the lump is going to be checked again, and will hopefully have a better shape for removal. There's apparently also a very small chance that it will respond so well to just the spider venom treatment alone that it shrinks and actually vanishes, but I don't expect that to happen, and it's not like Dustin has had much luck with his health in his life so far.

Anyway, the poor guy is sleeping now, stressed by both the vet visit and the heat which my rats dislike even under much more pleasant circumstances.

Comments

[ratcreature]

He doesn't actually feel worse from the tumor right now, that's still quite small. The other stuff that resulted from his mycoplasma infection probably will never get better, only worse when it flares up again (as it is incurable in rats, it can only be treated, though most rats with mycoplasma are lucky enough to only develop symptoms when they are older). I just hope Dustin still has some time before it will get worse. ATM he's just not as fit, and he is not breathing as easily as a rat with a completely healthy lung, but he still likes to eat, to snuggle and to play sometimes, the latter just at a moderate pace. So his quality of life is mostly okay, it's just that any operation especially with small animals such as rats puts quite a strain on them anyway, and he's already has a handicap. But obviously I don't want the lump to grow or worse, if it turns out to be some malignant thing like cancer, to spread either.

[iamza.livejournal.com]

Is there a chance that the lump might be benign?

[ratcreature]

Yeah, my rat book says that about half the tumors rats develop are benign, and even with cancer tumors there are kinds where the prognosis isn't too bad if you get to it when it's still small.

I mean, rats aren't particularly long-lived pets even if you have a best case scenario, if they are lucky they live two and a half years (though so far none of mine reached that old an age), very rarely I've heard of one that's lived three years, but death with just two years or even younger isn't uncommon. So in terms of his lifespan giving him even three or four more months is quite significant, but otoh you have to weigh carefully that you don't make the time they do have miserable in the hopes of a "later" that may not come.

I mean, he might live for quite some time even with an untreated cancer, e.g. with one of my previous rats I decided against an operation, because the other rat I had, which had also mammary gland cancer was so extremely miserable afterward and never fully recovered from the anaesthesia since unfortunately the vet I went to back then wasn't very experienced with rats and gave an injection which dosage is hard to judge instead of an inhalation method, but I didn't know any better then (now asked the local rat club for a good vet, even though he's quite far from my neighborhood), and the vet didn't even get all the cancer, so in the end I had them both put to sleep at the same time, but the rat with the visible large tumor felt fine for quite some time, while he rat for whom I got an operation was miserable and I had to put her to sleep at the same time as the other one anyway, because by the time the first one's untreated cancer had become so large that she was uncomfortable, it had come back internally for the second one.

Still other kinds of tumors may kill rats quickly if not treated, so in the end you have to be able to trust your vet that he knows what he's doing with rats and has enough experience with them to give you good advice.