Nero's lump, how fast can it grow? - Sad update

[RKEM]

Ok, I'm starting to freak out and I'm puzzled. His lump went from the size of a cranberry on Thursday night and slightly squishy to the size of a large green grape today and now it's rock hard. It went from it being not noticeable unless you pull the skin to him looking like a chipmunk with food in his cheek pouch in two days. Can a lump really grow by 30% in two days? Something makes me wonder if it's not some nasty infection there that just keeps festering.

I mean there was nothing in the aspiration but the last time I had a guy with a facial abscess, once again we were told it was likely a tumor until the thing surface with warm saline compresses.

Alternatively can aspirations just cause trauma and swelling afterward?

Is there any harm in me doing warm saline compresses until Monday (on the very slim chance that it is something other than a tumor) or could I actually worsen the situation if it is indeed a mass?

 

[lilspaz68]

I would imagine a small trauma (that's all I have ever seen) BUT if the aspiration was not in the exact right spot maybe the abscess was missed? It really is coming up fast like an abscess.

 

[RKEM]

That's what I'm thinking ... but maybe it's wishful thinking. I did it a bit once and there's a weird red scar-like line on the lump under the hair. Now I'm really wondering if it can't be an abscess although maybe rat version or stretch marks from the lump growing? It just doesn't seem normal for it to grow that fast.

If these guys were not so friendly and gentle I'd suspect a bite but they literally never fight beyond light squeaks. I can't see them giving each other a full on bite.

When Boxi had his "I'm sure it zymbal gland tumor" lump, the aspiration also revealed nothing and eventually it popped with compresses. And like this one (although much smaller) it seemed to appear suddenly out of nowhere.

 

[jorats]

I'd do the warm compresses anyway.
Once, I watched a lump grow on one of my oldies and I had that sinking feeling...and one day it popped, full of pus. I was so happy.

 

[RKEM]

I had that happen too. Never been so happy to see and smell disgusting green pus.

 

[RKEM]

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse this afternoon. In the span of a weekend, looking back at pictures, the lump at least doubled in size to a point where Nero was struggling to breathe and going lethargic. Even giving him compresses and the stress that caused made him start to struggle to breathe and episodes where he seemed to be panicking.

So we went to ER where they did an ultrasound which showed that the mass was entirely solid. They did another aspiration and 3 people looked at it and the cells were the same as those found earlier last week and conclusion was this was lymphoma and a really quickly growing one. Given the location, the high rate of malignancy, just how fast it grew and how weak he had become (the mass was likely pressing on his blood vessels or constricting the neck), we made the decision to euthanize him.

Chances are he would have died on the table or shortly thereafter if it (as it likely would have) came back. I didn't want the remainder of his life (possibly a day) to be one filled with pain and and struggling to breathe with little chance of recovery. To those that have other rats from that litter, check them like hawks. :sad3:

 

[lilspaz68]

Oh god I am so very very sorry!!! Rest peacefully sweet Nero. :sad3:

 

[jorats]

:sad3: I'm so sorry.

 

[mamarat]

So sad. I'm so sorry.

 

[Godmother]

I am very sorry. It all happened so fast, you didn't have much chance to get used to the thought of losing him.

 

[RKEM]

Yes, it's quite the shock. Never expected cancer to go so fast.

But a month ago he brushed with death with a massive pneumonia, bounced back within 48h then I got a whole month of him happy and hyper and healthy so I am grateful for that because when I took him to the vet that time I was positive he was going to die on the way there. So I did get my miracle with him already.

Part of me just wanted to take him home tonight, to give him some fluids, prednosone and just hang on to the hope that he makes it to surgery and that somehow miraculously it works and he gets to live but I saw him lay there after the ultrasound and getting poked with a needle yet again, his chest sucking in for breath and looking oh so tired ... it's hard to explain but sometimes you just know that it's time, in the way they look at you. He had had enough and the vet agreed. She had no options other than palliative care that just might give him bit more time ... and I didn't think that would have been quality time for the little dude.

He was still willing to eat green peas, his favourite treat so that's what he spent the last minutes of his life doing, which is better than it being spent not eating and drinking or being in post-op pain. Sometimes I think even a day or two earlier, when it comes to euthanasia and the end is inevitable, is better than a day or two too late.

 

[victoria]

:hugs:

I have a girl that had a tumour in a similar spot and it grew very fast as well.