# Tumor Removal



## dapples (Apr 24, 2010)

My rat Lexi had a tumor removed today. My vet suggested that we remove ALL of her breast tissue in addition to the tumor so she has stitches and staples basically down her whole chest. So far she still seems really groggy from the anesthesia and is propping herself up on her back legs and laying sort of on her face. I have her separated from my other rats in a cage with a box and some paper towels. My vet says she can see the other rats after about 5 days, but she should probably stay isolated until hers staples are removed. I'm a little nervous about this separation because I had a hard time integrating Lexi with my neutered male Charlie a month back. I'm worried that the separation will make reintroductions hard! Does anyone have any advice or experience they can share?


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## hansloas (May 15, 2010)

Today I had 2 rats get tumors removed. My one girl, 2, is doing great! She isn't mopey or anything. My other girl, Sassy, is. She has malignant cancer, and its everywhere...
But, I think that you should have tiny introductions every day. Just give them a few minutes to sniff and remember who one another are. That's what I'm doing. Every day, letting Sassy and 2 visit with Yeti and Scrodey.


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## noMoreFaith (Apr 28, 2010)

may i ask how much did it cost?? the whole tumor thing is worrying me, since i've got 2 females too...i read some minutes ago that someone asked a vet and the surgery was 500$...now this is ridiculus!! i hope it doesn't really cost that much..


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## dapples (Apr 24, 2010)

It would have been $500+ but I know the vet and he gave me a courtesy discount. So I paid $175.


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## Nienor (May 1, 2010)

Your vets are pretty expensive 
Do they remove tumors very often or how do they argue that it must cost that much ?

I would put the rats together for some minutes every day. But actually it would be better, so put ehr back into the group as fast as possible. Over here, we let the rat wake up and when she is active again (maybe on the next day) we try to put her back to the group. If she is not stressed by the others and everybody leaves the stiches alone, she can stay. Keeping rats on their own after surgery can cause them biting the stitches on their own. But you can only but her back, if no ther rat is biting the stitches. Most of the time you can leave the rat in the group.


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## noMoreFaith (Apr 28, 2010)

even though i love these animals very much, paying 500 dollars for a rat sounds over the top....


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## Stace87 (Jun 24, 2008)

noMoreFaith said:


> may i ask how much did it cost?? the whole tumor thing is worrying me, since i've got 2 females too...i read some minutes ago that someone asked a vet and the surgery was 500$...now this is ridiculus!! i hope it doesn't really cost that much..


If you're wanting to find out how much vets in your area charge for rats, contact them and ask for some prices. Vet prices in the same area differ greatly in the same country, never mind in different countries. I don't know of anyone else in Greece on this forum either. 

I contacted vets asking for prices on the following when I first got rats...

Consultation
Consultation for more than one rat
Neuter
Spay
Tumour removal
Teeth trim (as one of my rats had malocclusion)

I also asked about their mortality rates during surgery on rats, if they see many rats etc.


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## hansloas (May 15, 2010)

Soft Tissue Lumpectomy for me was $6.38 a minute. It took 10 minutes for #2 and 20 minutes for Sassy.
Sterile tools were $25
Sevo was $40.31


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## ema-leigh (Jan 24, 2010)

Nomorefaith, a $500 vet bill sounds about average to me. It does seem ridiculous, when you think the rat itself cost alot less to buy. But when you think about what the vet actually does, how small their body parts are and veins etc, it doesnt seem that bad. And when you consider the other option, that your rats life will be cut even shorter and they might suffer - its worth every penny. The only thing I can suggest is that you open a bank account and put away money as much as you can. Then when the time comes when you may need an extra few hundred for the rats, you've got a head start. 

I had a young girl with an aggressive lump (and she had very good genetics, good diet etc. Sometimes they are completly random!) it cost just under $500 for the removal and meds. But she made a full recovery and got a second chance in life. 

If you want to do everything possible to avoid tumors, then get your next rats from a reputable breeder. Feed them the best diet possible etc, and keep your fingers crossed. Approx 1 in 3 rats will be effected by a tumor at some point in their life.


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## dapples (Apr 24, 2010)

It was definitely a lot of money, even though I got a nice discount. I am located in MA, and everything is more expensive here.. : They also basically flayed her open and took out ALL of the breast tissue, so that's a lot of tissue on a rat. He spent over an hour working on getting everything out, including her tumor, which was about the size of an egg under her right armpit. My boyfriend and I just figured that we had taken her in as a pet and it wasn't fair to let her live like that. But she is so young (less than a year) that it also didn't seem right to have her put to sleep.

She is moving around atleast a little better today. I think I will heed the vets advice to keep her separated for atleast 5 days due to how many stitches and staples she has all along her belly, arm, and back legs. I'll let the others visit her. I don't want her on the carefresh bedding because it can stick and have a little dust. I bought some crumpled paper eco bedding for when the five days are up, so hopefully it will be less sticky!


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Dapples said:


> It was definitely a lot of money, even though I got a nice discount. I am located in MA, and everything is more expensive here.. : They also basically flayed her open and took out ALL of the breast tissue, so that's a lot of tissue on a rat. He spent over an hour working on getting everything out, including her tumor, which was about the size of an egg under her right armpit. My boyfriend and I just figured that we had taken her in as a pet and it wasn't fair to let her live like that. But she is so young (less than a year) that it also didn't seem right to have her put to sleep.
> 
> She is moving around atleast a little better today. I think I will heed the vets advice to keep her separated for atleast 5 days due to how many stitches and staples she has all along her belly, arm, and back legs. I'll let the others visit her. I don't want her on the carefresh bedding because it can stick and have a little dust. I bought some crumpled paper eco bedding for when the five days are up, so hopefully it will be less sticky!


no offence to you but your vet is insane! Mammary tissue runs from the top of the chest, to near the tail head, and wraps up over the rats body almost to the spine. I have NO clue what your vet was thinking they were doing, removing all that extra tissue from your rat. Yes, they need to remove a bit more than you expect to make sure they get all the affected tissue to prevent regrowth but to remove all the breast tissue when she only had a small armpit tumour is butchering. 

They had better have sent you home with antibiotics and pain meds for this particular surgery.

I take pics of the incisions leftover after removals...

This is a small side tumor removal









this is poor Ceres who had 3 tumors one after the other removed...she had to have extra tissue removed on the ends.









I have linked these next 2 pics (they might gross some people out) but my vet took pics of my girl Aki who had a big tumor removed...during the surgery. 

Anesthetized on her back, waiting for the surgery to start
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/medical/Tumours/Akiundersedationwithlumpfeb23.jpg

After the tumor is removed...you can see the incision is big but its not insane for the size of that monster.
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/medical/Tumours/Akiwithlumpafterremovalfeb23.jpg

And tiny Didi...biggest tumor removed yet


















After it was removed











My rats usually are put back with their cagemates as soon as we arrive home, as long as they are feeling fine after the surgery, and I have no real concerns. You do have to bed them down on surgery appropriate stuff, I usually use fleece for a few days after a surgery. You also need to watch her cagemates to see if they are bugging her too much. Some is expected as they greet their companion, who is different and smells funny LOL

Watch those staples, she will likely pull them out herself, I am soo not a fan of staples and I got my vet to always use internal dissolvable sutures and glue on the outside to close the skin layer.

Pain meds for 1-3 days is a must, and if the surgery was very extensive or the rat is a bit compromised you also should have an antibiotic to prevent any infection.


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## dapples (Apr 24, 2010)

My vet wanted to remove all of the tissue because in most cases more tumors just pop back up after the first is removed -- especially since she is so young. Yes, he removed a lot of tissue. She has been on pain medication for 3 days. I have primarily trusted my vet, but this did seem like an awful lot for such a little animal. In the past he's been very knowledgeable and precise. I understand the logic behind the removal, but yeah.. :/
With the size of the incision, it seems that the staples were necessary. So far she doesn't seem to be picking at them. While the surgery was expensive and extensive, the chance that she'll have to be subjected to going through any more surgeries is substantially less likely since she has no more of the cancer-prone tissue in her body.
And her tumor was pretty large. It was a little larger than a large brown chicken egg.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Dapples said:


> My vet wanted to remove all of the tissue because in most cases more tumors just pop back up after the first is removed -- especially since she is so young. Yes, he removed a lot of tissue. She has been on pain medication for 3 days. I have primarily trusted my vet, but this did seem like an awful lot for such a little animal. In the past he's been very knowledgeable and precise. I understand the logic behind the removal, but yeah.. :/
> With the size of the incision, it seems that the staples were necessary. So far she doesn't seem to be picking at them. While the surgery was expensive and extensive, the chance that she'll have to be subjected to going through any more surgeries is substantially less likely since she has no more of the cancer-prone tissue in her body.
> And her tumor was pretty large. It was a little larger than a large brown chicken egg.


Unless you had her spayed at the same time, then she is full of cancerous (malignant) or benign mammary tissue. If she has had tumors pop up at this young an age I would be more concerned about how prone she is and get her spayed. 

I hope she does well, but I would've beaten my vet for the butchery. 

((hugs)) to you and to your sweet gal. She'll need pain meds for up to a week probably.


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## noMoreFaith (Apr 28, 2010)

does hair grow back after the surgery??


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## Stace87 (Jun 24, 2008)

noMoreFaith said:


> does hair grow back after the surgery??


Yes, but it may come back a little patchy sometimes.


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## dapples (Apr 24, 2010)

She was only given 3 days worth of pain meds. She's doing remarkably well so far! She's redecorated her whole cage last night and the night before. : How would I know if she seems like she is in pain to call my vet?


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## yunafonfabre (May 31, 2010)

Rosie's tumor removal went well, but it cost about $600 (which included the surgery, anaesthesia, boarding, and the medications we took home afterwards).

She had a really aggressive lump right over her chest (it was about the size of a hackysack when they removed it!) but we caught it before it attached so all she lost was mammary tissue. She seems to be doing fine now!


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