Pituitary tumor -- questions

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BrendaLee

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My baby girl Peach has been having a hard go of it. She had a fairly large mammary tumor removed about two months ago, then she had another pop up almost immediately. I was giving her a concoction of coriolus, shark cartilage, flax seed oil, soy yogurt and probiotics, and the tumors didn't seem to grow any over the course of six weeks. Then she started showing symptoms of a pituitary tumor, and almost overnight, two small tumors popped up at the surgery site.

Her vet gave us prednisolone and amoxicillin. We tried that for about a week with no improvement, still going downhill. Yesterday, we asked for bromocriptine; cabergoline wasn't available anywhere in the city. So, we've started that and are, of course, hoping she'll be one of those miracle rats and we'll get the old Peach back for a while longer.

My question right now is, how much water and food does she need? I'm pretty sure she's not eating her regular food, and she doesn't seem to know how to use the water bottle anymore. The last thing I want is her dying of dehydration while I'm trying so hard to save her with these meds. Right now, she gets about 1ml of liquid with her meds, a bit of soy or coconut yogurt w/ a bit of ensure, but she won't eat/drink more than a little off of a spoon. I'm trying to get as many wet foods and liquids into her as possible, but I think it's far from enough.

What else should I be doing to keep her from getting dehydrated? And what is a good amount of food for her daily? I give her some egg every second day, mixed up with a bit of almond milk, and she'll eat a bit of oatmeal, which I make extra watery. She doesn't love the Ensure, but she'll drink a little. What else should I be feeding her?

Ugh. I never imagined I could love something that weighs half a pound so much that the thought of losing her is crushing my heart, but seeing her slowly fade away is the worst.
 
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She needs to be getting a minimum of 40 mL per kilogram(body weight) of fluid in a 24 hour period. If you will give me her weight I can tell you how much and then we can split it up from there.
 
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On the calories, it's hard to find a good source for information but what I'm seeing from research is around 75-100 calories per day.

Fluids are MUCH more important though, do let's start with that.
 
- soak her blocks in water to make mush as it will be easier for her to eat (change twice a day or more often)
- organic soy infant formula (or ensure) thickened with baby cereal
- baby food
- oatmeal, quinoa, cooked and mashed sweet potato, her favorite soft foods, etc

- if she can not eat then see if she can lick off your finger. If she is unable to that then syringe feed her by putting a very very tiny amount into the side of her mouth (so it doesn't go into her lungs) and give her as much as she will eat at one time, then try again a short while later, feeding her frequently

- try using a water dish that can not be upset, feeding her things with a lot of fluid such as water melon

- you can syringe water into her a drop or 2 at a time into the side of her mouth ..... you can also get your vet to teach you how to give sub-Q fluids and sell you what you will need to do it http://www.ratshackforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8730 and http://www.ratshackforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5076

btw, I got cabergoline from a human pharmacy by prescription from my vet. Rats do not tolerate bromo that well but some people have had good luck with it. So sorry the pred didn't help .... it sounds like it may be fast growing :(

http://ratguide.com/health/neoplasia/pituitary_tumor.php

You are basically trying to help her to keep going and to keep her comfortable while you wait to see if the meds will help. It really hope they do
good luck to both of you
 
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She needs to be getting a minimum of 40 mL per kilogram(body weight) of fluid in a 24 hour period. If you will give me her weight I can tell you how much and then we can split it up from there.

She's about half a pound, so I think that works out to about 9 ml of water a day. She definitely hasn't been getting that much. I started syringing water into her mouth yesterday, which she hates, of course, but I'll keep that up.
 
- btw, I got cabergoline from a human pharmacy by prescription from my vet. Rats do not tolerate bromo that well but some people have had good luck with it.

SQ, I believe you deal with the same vet I do here in NB. I think we discussed that before, but I may be wrong. He said there was a shortage of cabergoline recently, and it was hard to get. He phoned around for me but couldn't find it. Today is day three of bromo and no improvement yet. She's about half a pound and is on 1/4 of a 2.5 mg tablet a day. She's also on .5 mg prednisolone and about 15 mg amoxicillin twice a day.
 
SQ, I believe you deal with the same vet I do here in NB. I think we discussed that before, but I may be wrong. He said there was a shortage of cabergoline recently, and it was hard to get. He phoned around for me but couldn't find it. Today is day three of bromo and no improvement yet. She's about half a pound and is on 1/4 of a 2.5 mg tablet a day. She's also on .5 mg prednisolone and about 15 mg amoxicillin twice a day.

I got mine from the New Maryland Pharmacy. The generic version is not available but Joe was able to get in the other version within a couple of days, but that was a few months ago.
My rats with pt have passed away and I have a pill left if you want to try it ...... also godmother on here had a girl who was on cab and passed away so if she has any left she might be willing to sell at cost

If we have the same vet, get him to teach you how to give sub-Q fluids and to sell you the supplies you will need ..... bag of fluid, 10ml syringes with several disposable needles for withdrawing fluid, and 25 or 27 gauge butterfly needles to attach to the syringe to give her fluids.
 
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She seems to be feeling a bit better today. She was ravenous and ate quite a bit of baby food and a bit of wet dog food that I hide her meds in. I've also been syringing water in her mouth every time I go to hang out with her. I got her some watermelon and cucumber. I think we're okay without sub-Q for now.
 
I just wanted to update this and let you guys know that Peach passed away on April 16th.

She was doing great, almost completely back to herself. I thought the bromo was working amazingly, so I started weaning her off the prednisolone. She had her best day ever, even climbing again, then the next day, she took a huge turn for the worse, worse than she'd ever been, and she passed the next night. I don't know if weaning her off the steroid made her go downhill so fast, or if the tumor just progressed to that point.

Either way, with the meds, we had an extra month with her, and two weeks of that was really good. She seemed happy. We had her cremated and brought her ashes home. She was my first ratty to go, and she was the baby, so it was extra hard to accept.

Dr. Stewart at Islandview was great through the whole thing, responding to emails, calling in meds. He's kind of a godsend.
 
I'm sorry she gone. I will say, that I had one that had a pituitary tumor as well and had about six good weeks before she went downhill. Strangely, just as you put, she had one fantastic day were she just seemed like almost her normal self and then the next day she crumped. I think it's just something that happens at the end of life...they get a last burst of energy.
 
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