What's Wrong With Fudge?

[ratgirl101]

I said in my first post that Fudge has a few health problems. At the moment, she has what seems to be a tumor by her right hind leg, and it about the size of a walnut. She also seems to have lost a bit of weight. A couple weeks ago her nose seemed to be bleeding, though I have heard this may be porphyrin. Last week her ear was bleeding and it got all over her cage. All her favorite spots had blood, and it was coming out of her ear and going down the side of her head. I don't know how long she was bleeding for because I realized it when I woke up and it stopped when I was out of the house, but less than 24 hours.

One of my previous rats had a tumor in the same area as Fudge and then seemed to have spasms that seemed a bit like seizures. They would last about 5 days and couldn't walk and was always shaking and rolling around. After about a month she seemed better until she suddenly died (at the time, only the tumor was present). Could this happen to Fudge? I have heard symptoms like these in humans when they have teratomas. Can this tumor be found in rats?

Right now Fudge is running around and playing with Cookie and Cupcake, so I'm not concerned about her energy level. The bleeding is the main thing that concerns me, though it could be linked to the tumor. If anyone has any idea of what may be wrong, please reply

 

[jorats]

I would assume that the ear bleeding and tumor are unrelated.
The ear bleeding could have been a simple scratch or perhaps a polyp, abscess or tumor.
Her tumour by her leg could be a typical benign mammary tumor.

 

[Rissa]

If you carefully inspect the ear is the bleeding coming from a scratch or from inside it?

 

[ratgirl101]

Thanks Jorats and Digitalangel.

I carefully inspected the ear and the bleeding seemed to be coming from the inside. Though the other rats did seem to be biting it, I think they were trying to clean her and didn't cause the bleeding. There was also no scab left after the bleeding had stopped. I do hope it doesn't happen again, but older rats can be very unpredictable.

Thanks again! :wink2: