PT more common in older females?

[Rachael]

I was browsing a website I don't really like and it states

A Pituitary tumor is a tumor found in the pituitary gland of the rat. It can affect both male and female rats, but is more common in older female rats between the ages of 12 and 24 months of age that are not spayed

Is that right?

My youngest girl was 6 months when she had a brain tumour. And all of the others have been under 2 years old.

 

[Avatar]

I was browsing a website I don't really like and it states

A Pituitary tumor is a tumor found in the pituitary gland of the rat. It can affect both male and female rats, but is more common in older female rats between the ages of 12 and 24 months of age that are not spayed

Is that right?

My youngest girl was 6 months when she had a brain tumour. And all of the others have been under 2 years old.

Actually I am pretty sure that generally speaking, that is right. Most rats I've seen (mostly on the forum) has all ended up with PT in their later months.

 

[Rachael]

Thanks

 

[lilspaz68]

I often see 2 times that PT shows up...late onset (over 25 months) and early onset (from 16-20 months). It seems to be more scientifically proven recently that pituitary tumors are hormonally-driven, like mammary tumors and spaying should help prevent them as well. for a long time people weren't sure they were hormone-driven or not.

 

[MomRat]

Just curious, hormonally driven even in males? Because you see a lot of literature on the benefits of spaying for girls and tumor prevention, but not for boys. The only stuff on neutering for boys is in regards to agression... We would be a lot more likely to just neuter our boys as a matter of course if it would prevent losing heart rats at 18mo. =/

 

[jorats]

It's been my experience that pt does not discriminate, in fact we've seen more PT in males than in females. Also, my vet is not entirely sure if it's hormone driven because our spayed females are still getting them quite a bit.

 

[Rachael]

It's been my experience that pt does not discriminate, in fact we've seen more PT in males than in females. Also, my vet is not entirely sure if it's hormone driven because our spayed females are still getting them quite a bit.

I know of someone who I have discussed a lot with and she routinely spays all males and females, but has still had PT occur quite a lot.

 

[RatsForever]

It's been my experience that pt does not discriminate, in fact we've seen more PT in males than in females.

Very interesting...more of my boys have died of PT than my females (who are spayed).

 

[Rachael]

I only had one boy with PT, and more girls, but that could easily change as a lot of mine hit 2 yo (even though not had any 2+ with PT).