Rat has tumors on tail, amputation y/n?

[lilspaz68]

The tumours seem to be surface growths? If they are I would leave it personally. Its not in a place that can affect internal organs and affect his lifespan.

On the pro side, you would be removely those unsightly lumps, and on the off-chance it ends being an invasive malignancy it will be gone

On the con side, his age makes healing much slower, he might have adverse affects to the anesthetic or he may die, your vet may not be experienced enough (have you yourself gone through a simple rat surgery?), the lumps may all be old age lumpy bumpies and grow slowly and not affect his lifespan at all.

I think check to see if its more surface lumps and see how fast they grow. I have old boys who have funny little bumps and skin tags on them but it doesn't bother them so I leave it.

 

[MomRat]

And if you hold off on the surgery, definitely cut all sugar out of his diet to slow the growth, as sugar feeds tumors.

 

[Godmother]

I would be very hesitant to have surgery on a rat of his age. If he is still acting his normal self, and if the tumours don't seem to be malignant, he will probably have a better quality of life without surgery.

 

[jorats]

It sounds to me that your vet is fairly new to rats and probably wouldn't recognized a benign growth on a rat.
Rats are susceptible to all kinds of different "innocent" growths like cysts. At this point, I would hold off on surgery.
Lots of rats have had small lumps and bumps on their tails and have never needed an amputation.
I would however ask for meds and treat it as an infection.

 

[Broseph]

It sounds to me that your vet is fairly new to rats and probably wouldn't recognized a benign growth on a rat.
Rats are susceptible to all kinds of different "innocent" growths like cysts. At this point, I would hold off on surgery.
Lots of rats have had small lumps and bumps on their tails and have never needed an amputation.
I would however ask for meds and treat it as an infection.

Well, they're most definitely tumors, my vet just couldn't judge whether they were malignant or not for sure, but she was fairly sure they weren't. For now I'll just keep a close eye on how fast they grow and act accordingly. Thanks for the input, everyone :3

 

[jorats]

A tumour is an abnormal growth, so that can also mean cysts. If your vet didn't aspirate it, then you can't rule out abscess either. Regardless, I'd have him on Baytril.