Advice Needed - Surgery or no?

[xxchelle]

So as many of you know, I have the remaining girls from the RTR rescue, and Shelagh has the remaining boys. There are six girls left, and their lungs are completely crappy. Most of them have been on meds at one point or another, and three are on meds right now.

One of the girls, Tori, the PEW, has developed a small mammary tumor underneath her front left armpit. Now, if I had to pick the "healthiest" of the RTR girls left, I'd pick Tori. She's only been on one course of antibiotics for a URI - she recovered fine - and has had mostly clear lungs since.

But I'm hesitant to jump to surgery (normally it wouldn't even be a question for me). The RTRs have the worst genetics, as we all know, and since a lot of them seem to have resp issues, I don't want to put her through surgery even though she *seems* healthy.

So I have a few options, and I just wanted some general input to see what you guys think is best.

I could go ahead with surgery to remove the lump, but I would not get her spayed at the same time as I think that would just be too much for her (I'm thinking the lump removal alone might be too much for her).

I could try bromocriptine (spelling?), which I believe Dr. Munn says has a possibility to shrink mammary tumors. Maybe Shelagh can give me more input on this.

I could try the implant, a much easier process on her, but I'm not sure if my vet has ever dealt with it. Maybe Victoria can weigh in on this option.

I could leave it entirely for now, watch how fast it's growing, then re-evaluate (if it's extremely slow-growing, then it'll honestly probably outlive her).

I don't really want to sit and wait, I feel like I should do *something*, but with these dang RTRs it's so hard to know how they're going to react to things

I have no clue how old she is, but I'd put her at just over two years old.

UGH! She was so dirty and skinny when she came to me

 

[jorats]

I'd get the vet's opinion. If your vet thinks the lungs aren't so bad, then go ahead and have it removed and perhaps have the implant put in to hopefully prevent further tumours.
My Chu girl has developed a mammary tumour, she's been spayed so I'm really worried that this might indicate that she is starting a pituitary tumour. Plus she has been fighting a URI for a month now. I'm in the same boat...what do I do? Risk surgery which could make her sicker or if she does have a PT, it could make it progress much faster. It's a hard call.

 

[Kimber]

My suggestion would be to try the implant, but from what I have heard (I believe) it doesn't have much effect on tumours that are already present. I have just boys so I am not up to date on all the girly care, but would be interested to hear about this

 

[victoria]

I've been meaning to ask my vet about the side effects Bromocriptine and Cabergoline because it seems a lot of rats are refusing it after the first dose. I'm not saying it's bad, but I wonder what it is doing that is making the rats refuse it. (I have the same question about Regal Rat.) If I had a rat with a pituitary tumour I would probably try it, but personally, I don't know if a mammary tumour that is not causing immediate distress is worth the side effects. That's my opinion only though, and I don't think anyone would be wrong for trying it.

When I asked my vet about Melatonin (it's supposed to be a cheap alternative for Bromo and Cabergoline) for Sophie earlier this year, he said it was unlikely to help anymore than the implant did because they do the same thing. Does that mean that Bromo and the implant work in the same way? I'm not sure. I tried it anyway (he said it wouldn't harm her) but it didn't seem to do much. (Erm... we no longer think any of her tumours were hormone sensitive, but didn't know that at the time.) I'm halfway through writing a reply to Rattus on a similar question (check there for more detail) but it's been my experience that most rats do not develop new mammary tumours after being implanted and the existing tumours don't grow as quickly. I'm judging the growth rate from what I have seen with other people's rats though, as I have never left a mammary tumour before the implants. I've had them done on rats with chronic lung issues/lung scarring with no issues.

The procedure is fairly easy, I'm sure any vet could do it, but they may need a permit as Ratty Momma's vet found out. Not sure if that varies by province. The implants have been used on ferrets with adrenal disease for some time though, so if you go to a vet that that treats ferrets frequently, there's a bigger chance they would be available right away.

Going forward, I will likely implant all my rats (male and female) when I adopt them if they don't have tumours or special circumstances. (For example, Lily was a special circumstance because she was pregnant.) If they do have tumours, are young/middle aged, and are healthy enough for surgery I will go that route because it's cheaper to have a rat spayed and have a tumour removed at the same time than to have them implanted and have the lumps removed six months to a year later when they get big. (Big to me is big enough that if they continue to grow much more they will be bothering the rat but not bothering the rat yet.) If they're not healthy or old (over two) or there are any other factors that make them a high surgery risk, I'll stick with the implants.

 

[Moon]

After seeing what's gone on with the RTRs, I don't in any way blame you for not automatically opting for surgery. I too think the implant is something to discuss with your vet.