Anyone had experience tumor-like masses located on the face?

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Dewi said:
Thanks for your reply bentzrl.

Well Yogi is a regular grey hooded ratbag and about 2.5 yo. Other than his eye he's fit and healthy, good lungs and active. I decided to book him in on Monday (hopefully) to see if the mass can get debulked. I hope I haven't left it for too long as the mass is growing pretty quickly.

I hope your Mazzy has many more months with you. The poor sweetie.
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Sounds like Yogi is a good canidate for surgery, so go for it. If anything else, debulking it will help improve his quality of life. Your vet will do the best he can and may even surprise you.
I was very impressed how much my vet removed that it was nearly gone surface-wise.

Not to depress everybody, but Mazzy has developed another mass on her tearduct. With her current condition, she can't have the surgery yet.

I am pretty distraught with the situation, but like I said before.... as long she keeps bouncing around, I know things are OK.
 
Here is a picture of Mazzy's condition:

mazzycondtumor.jpg


Here's a picture of Eva trying to help clean her face:

mazzy017.jpg


I am doing my best to keep her stable and pain free. But as you can see the tumor has grown back in a different spot on her face. Due to her condition, she isn't a good canidate for surgery...

The swelling is something that doesn't seem to be going away. It's not in her neck anymore, but moved to her jaw which isn't known what is causing this.

Yes... the situaiton looks doleful.
 
Oh the poor sweetie :heart: , it looks like she may have facial paralysis too. I hate it when they get ill. Do you use metcam for pain relief?
 
Dewi said:
Oh the poor sweetie :heart: , it looks like she may have facial paralysis too. I hate it when they get ill. Do you use metcam for pain relief?
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Yes, she seems to have no reaction to that side of the face. Yes, I have metacam for her. By Monday/Tuesday I'll have to get more.

She's getting quite thin now that I might have to euthanize her sooner then I had hoped for. I don't want her to starve to death.
 
I'm sorry I came into this so late. What a beautiful girl, she's so sweet.

Regarding the food I'm not sure what you feed her but if you feel lab block you can soak them in warm water. Ensure or Soy Milk with baby food. Maybe some olive oil as well. Is that right Jo?

Something is nagging at me about the hard mass that developed. I'm thinking it was something to do with a person I knew. Not an animal. If I think of it I will let you know.

Hugs to you both. :hugs:
 
LA said:
I'm sorry I came into this so late. What a beautiful girl, she's so sweet.

Regarding the food I'm not sure what you feed her but if you feel lab block you can soak them in warm water. Ensure or Soy Milk with baby food. Maybe some olive oil as well. Is that right Jo?

Something is nagging at me about the hard mass that developed. I'm thinking it was something to do with a person I knew. Not an animal. If I think of it I will let you know.

Hugs to you both. :hugs:
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I have been giving Mazzy berry ensure with antibiotics and vitamins. I never thought to dissolve a lab block. Unfortunately she's experiencing great difficulty eating due to her swollen tongue. She tries to drink and eat but I think she can't move her tongue out of her mouth. It's very sad.

My partner and I are taking her in today to the vet to see if she actually does have an abscess that was missed. If drained perhaps the swelling will go down and she can eat better. It is the last option we want to try before euthanasia right now.
I'm very aware that it may not work, but I want to try as a last resort.
I'll let everybody know what the vet says.

I do appreciate the emotional support. I really hate seeing my once lively and bouncy rat suffering like this.
 
Well, I was wrong to hope it was an abscess. The vet opened her mouth and abstracted soft tissue and blood that has engorged the bottom of her mouth. It is another tumor-probably the same spindal cell sarcoma.
The mass is large that has been pushing her tongue out of her mouth. It also explained the blood whenever I put a syringe in her mouth.

Just so everybody knows that this mass is NOT a squamous cell carcinoma like I earlier explained. It is a spindal cell sarcoma or the in the Health Guide: Malignant fibrous histiocytomas

We decided try to see if any can be debulked to help her drink/eat since she has the thirst and hunger but couldn't eat/drink on her own due to the tumor pushing her tongue away.

During the operation the vet discovered that the mass is not only in her mouth, but on her jaw, neck, and up to her ear.

We have more metacam and doing palliative care until her final days or of course euthanasia.

Mystery solved, I guess.

I love her too much to let her go, but there is nothing more I can do except comfort her.
 
This evening Mazzy finally passed away.

I am glad she was able to be at peace.

She is by far my funniest rat I've ever had and will always be missing her presence.

If it was my choice I would have wanted to live my entire life with her.

I love you Mazzy even after death
 
I was looking for your post to see how your rat went. I didn't realise that she had passed away already, I'm so sorry about that.

My own rat with the face tumour died today at the vets. The surgery to debulk the tumour (his third) didn't go well and we decided to have him PTS. The poor boy.
 
Dewi said:
I was looking for your post to see how your rat went. I didn't realise that she had passed away already, I'm so sorry about that.

My own rat with the face tumour died today at the vets. The surgery to debulk the tumour (his third) didn't go well and we decided to have him PTS. The poor boy.
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Oh no, not poor Dewi! I'm so sorry that he had to go through that. I sincerely hope he went peacefully.

I think the one of the difficulties that a rat caregiver face is watching a once healthy and beautiful rat fallen ill with physical masses that destroys their little bodies.
However, it never soils their spirit. :heart:
 

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