questions about surgery

[Liz]

I had said in my intro thread that I'd be here today with questions, so here I am .

I'm having a small tumor removed from one of my girl rats tomorrow morning. She's about 20 months old and the tumor is right behind her left front leg, so I'm assuming (hoping) it's just a benign mammary tumor. Since it has been years since I've had to get surgery on a rat and my current vet doesn't specialize in exotics like my previous one, I have some questions. I have read the thread on what to know before surgery, so mostly I need some clarification on a few points.

I'm going to be speaking to the vet sometime this afternoon with questions, so some of these might not apply, but I'd like to be armed with some helpful info just in case.

1. Pretending I have a vet who doesn't have much experience doing surgery on rats, would it be best to use an oral analgesic like metacam before surgery, rather than an injectable? From what I read on the other thread, it seems like the vet should have some experience or set protocol if they're going to use injectable analgesics before surgery.

2. If that is the case, should the metacam be given the day before the surgery, or the morning of?

3. Regarding putting her back with her cagemates once she's awake, alert, eating, etc. - is there a general consensus on this? I plan to keep her in a one-level smaller cage after I bring her home so I can just use fleece for bedding (didn't know until recently I could litter train them, so we're still working on that), but it would be good to know if I can put one of her buddies in with her so she's not stressed.

4. If I do have her in with a cagemate in a smaller cage, should I still put a heating pad under one end of the cage, or is the other rat enough to keep her warm?

5. The list stated rats don't need to fast before surgery, so I wanted to make sure this is true also. I was given the general presurgery form for her saying she shouldn't eat after 7pm, but that's for dogs and cats.

6. And the last question (for now, hahaha) - I was considering having her spayed, but again - is this something I should leave to a vet who has lots of experience with it? I haven't talked to him yet, so I don't know if he does or not, but just in case . . .

Thanks very much in advance. I've already gotten so much out of this forum to prepare me for tomorrow.

Liz

 

[fenshae]

Others with more experience will weigh in on this, but I wanted to offer me $.02

As far as eating before surgery -- rats absolutely do not need to fast and it can be dangerous to do so. The main reason to fast before surgery is that the anaesthetic can make you very nauseous and you can aspirate vomit while you're unconscious -- not good. But, since rats are incapable of vomiting, that's not a concern with them, and their super-high metabolisms put them at risk of having their blood sugar drop low and cause complications with the anasthetic. So just feed them like normal and you should be fine

I'd also recommend having her spayed while she's under. It GREATLY reduces the chance of returning tumors, and will save you a lot of money in the long run. Many people think that getting a tumor removal without a spay is just wasted effort because without a spay she'll almost certainly get another one.

Good luck!

 

[SQ]

Please see : viewtopic.php?f=26&t=9640

The vet should give her an injection of metacam after surgery so you don't start the oral metacam until teh next day - but ask your vet and make sure they give the pain med. after surgery.
I always put rats back in with their cagemates once they are alert.
A heating pad, well wrapped water bottle, etc at one end so rats can more closer or far away from it as needed, is important as they can not regulate their body temp for up to 24 hours after anesthetic.
Spaying is a good adea to help prevent many health issues including mammory tumours. This is a personal decision and the experience and training of your vet is certainly a very important consideration. If your vet does not have much experience, s/he can consult with other vets such as my vet, lilspaz68's vet and Jorats' vet.

 

[jorats]

Hi, it's always a scary time when your rat is undergoing surgery and even more so with an non exotic vet.
Your vet should have a set protocol for small animal surgery. It's really not for us to say what that should be. It differs with every vet. Some keep changing and tweaking it to make it better like my vet does. That would be something for you to discuss with your vet. I will assume that your vet will be doing his "homework" before taking this task on.
I have all my girls spayed and doing so during the same time as a tumour removal is ideal but again... the vet should be comfortable with the procedure.

All rats are different. Some can go straight back into the cage while others need more time to recuperate. Since you've had rats for sometime now, you'll probably be able to tell.

Good luck!!!!

 

[Liz]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions! Grace is back at home now and doing well. I have her in a smaller cage with her best buddy, Linny.

I felt really good last night after talking to the vet - he's done surgery on rats before and seemed to know all about the analgesic/anesthetic issue, keeping her warm, etc. I go to a larger vet hospital where you tend to see whomever you can get an appointment with, so I was glad to have been put with a doc who has some knowledge about rats. I'll be asking for him specifically next time one of them needs to go in for something.

It turned out that Grace actually had two small tumors right next to each other, so she has two little incisions behind her left front leg. I had talked to the vet about having her spayed, but he wasn't comfortable doing it along with the lumpectomy, especially since there were two tumors being removed. I have four other females, though, so I'm going to check back to see if they've got some kind of frequent flier mile program if I get them all spayed, hahaha.

Grace is just plugging along like normal, eating and drinking, though I do think she's still feeling a little drained from the whole experience and has been sleeping a lot.

Thanks again for all of the input. I look forward to coming here to talk about Grace for a long time to come .

 

[jorats]

That's great news!

 

[lilspaz68]

Wonderful news and it sounds like your vet may be a "keeper" :joy:

 

[Liz]

So it's been four days since Grace had her two small tumors removed from right behind her left front leg (one incision is on her side, the other on her underside, but both behind the leg).

The incision sites have looked great and are healing well - no redness or swelling, no bruising, no discharge, etc., and Grace has been eating, drinking, and playing like she didn't just get cut open four days ago, lol.

While they were out for playtime this morning, though, I noticed that where the incision is on her side, the skin looks a little baggy. Kind of like there's some fluid in there. Again, doesn't look infected on the outside, nothing leaking out, and she's acting completely fine. I felt it, and there's no lump or anything; it really does just feel a little squishy.

I'm hoping it's not an abscess (she is on an antibiotic, though I know infections are sometimes a result of something that one particular antibiotic doesn't work against). I remembered that about four years ago, about four or five days after having hernia surgery, my husband went in to get checked because he was still feeling so bad, and they told him there was some fluid behind the incision site. It was normal and nothing to worry about, and they told him his body would just reabsorb the fluid.

Has anyone had any experience with this in a rat after surgery?

 

[mamarat]

I have and it was just fluid and was reabsorbed by her body. I would just keep an eye on it though.

 

[lilspaz68]

exactly what mamarat said...its a seroma...it should reabsorb in time

 

[Liz]

Thanks so much! I'll keep an eye on it, but it's good to hear others have seen the same thing.