Maria (Liverpool girl) - aggressive tumour Question

[Godmother]

Let's hope for some more quality time with Maria. Rats are always full of surprises.

What a nasty surprise to find that the tumour was worse than you had thought.

Pats and kisses to her.

 

[lilspaz68]

I am sorry Holly There's been times I regretted a surgery before, but you had her best interests at heart. Keep her on a high dosage of metacam for any discomfort and expect a bit of a sleepy rat for the next day or 2 ((hugs))

 

[Dahlas]

it is never easy to know if we are doing the right thing....all we can do is our best and make the decisions we think are right. I will be sending lots of healing thoughts her way.

 

[SQ]

Maria today ... 3 stiches gone (edit: she removed them and the wound is gaping ), 2 remain and not too much blood loss ...
vet says so far it is ok ...

 

[mamarat]

Great news, SQ.

 

[Dahlas]

That is great. She looks very good.

 

[Godmother]

Is she moving around a bit more today? I hope that she starts to feel good soon.

 

[jorats]

Do you have her on metacam. My vet had put my Rylee on metacam but mainly because there was a study that showed metacam actually slowed the progression of certain types of malignant aggressive tumours. Sadly it didn't work for him though.

 

[SQ]

Yes, Maria is on 1 mg/Ib of metacam twice a day.
There is room to increase the dose but this amount seems to be keeping her comfortable as no I hsaven't seen any obvious signs of pain and Maria has not ripped out any more stiches.
Maria had a recheck with the vet on Friday and he said she was doing better then he had expected.

Good to learn about the effect of metacam on some aggressive tumours. Thanks for the info. Jorats.
Hopefully the metacam will help Maria with more then pain management.

 

[SQ]

Maria's abdominal tumour has grown back and is very large.
It is starting to interfer with her mobility.
Maria is still full of life and is enjoying hers.

Removal is not a possibility and when the tumour returned, my vet wasn't hopefully about a second attempt at removal.
I am considering "debulking", ie having as much of the tumour removed as possible since Maria doesn't seem ready to go yet ... and she wil likely need to be pts by next week.

Not sure it is worth it given the pain of surgery and recovery .... but then it might give her a month or more of quality time ...

Thoughts?

(Check back in a bit as I will go take a picture and add it)

 

[lilspaz68]

Waiting to see pics.

I had to let my 2 Sugah's go this week and Emily will be pts on Saturday due to those damn tumours...it's so hard making these decisions.

 

[SQ]

Pictures added.
Maria is bright and alert, tumour is starting to get in the way of lying down comfortably and walking.
This morning I heard Maria screaming .... Gus had flipped her on her back and was grooming the tumour.

Maria eating egg yesterday

Maria grooming herself in my lap during meds today.
Corn on the cob, eggs, peas, etc no problem, but meds need to be by syringe ...
(Maria s on pred to try to slow the tumour growth and so is also on baytril.)

 

[Godmother]

Poor sweet Maria. I would hate to see her have another surgery. It's in a bad spot, and recovery would be uncomfortable. I hope that she has a good QOL for a while yet. Kisses and banana mash to her. :heart:

 

[jorats]

That's really a hard call. Go through the procedure or let her have what little time she has left. If she were mine, I'm pretty sure my vet would recommend not doing anything if removal was not an option. It doesn't look all that big yet... still has some time. I've seen tumours bigger than the rat itself.

 

[SQ]

Thank you for your responses.
Maria wasn't feeling well late last night, her hind end was vibrating so gave her codine for pain and decided to have her pts.
When I checked this morning, I found Maria dead in a hammock.
I wish I hadn't waited so long or that I had stayed up with her all night .....

 

[Godmother]

I am so sorry. It was her time, and she had pain relief at the end.

 

[mamarat]

I'm so sorry, SQ.

 

[Dahlas]

I am very sorry. Even though it is rough on us to find them dead...I often wonder if it is better for them. She had pain relief and was in her own home with her family......maybe much easier then the whole going to the vet ordeal.....

 

[jorats]

I'm so sorry SQ...