Cotton is home from her spay...but now what?!?!?!

[lilratsy43]

I brought her in to have her tumor looked at, I just noticed it about 2 weeks ago but it seems to be growing really fast. So anywho, I was thinking I would have her spayed first and then deal with the tumor later. My vet of course wanted to do everything in one shot, but I just can not afford that right now. I really feel terrible for putting my poor girl through 2 surgeries instead of just one, but its my only option at this point.

I didn't even have to make an appt for the spay, he said he would keep her overnight and spay her in the morning...I wish I had known she would be staying, I would have brought her sister Blue in to comfort her....Best wishes for my little Cotton!!!

 

[Tarah]

good luck!
best wishes! :hearts:

 

[mamarat]

Good luck to your sweetie.

 

[raindrop]

Wishing the best for Cotton.

Ann

 

[melon_mayhem]

Good Luck Sweetie!!!!
:hugs:

 

[Godmother]

Wishing little Cotton all the best. :heart: I hope that the tumour does not turn out to be anything serious.

 

[lilratsy43]

Ok well she actually got home yesterday, but I haven't been able to post until now.

If you read in my first post...I simply went to the vet to have her tumor looked at and set up an appt for her spay. Well he took her right then and there and said she would have surgery the next day to have her spay (no tumor removal, I was going to do that later).

Well, when I went to pick her up yesterday, there was an extra surgery listed on the bill...This is why I love my vet!!! He already said he would give me a discount on the spay and then he did the tumor removal FREE!!! I told him he was the bestest!!

So now Cotton is home. Yesterday you could tell she was in pain, but today she seems back to herself, just sleeping more. I have had her alone for the past two days and I know that many of you guys put them right back in with their friends, but I am nervous. I mean she has two incisions...I am just really scared they will be too rough with her or too interested in her stitches...What should I do?

 

[Godmother]

You could try putting her in with the others when you are able to supervise them. If all goes well you can leave her with them. She will feel so much less stressed with her buddies.

Your vet is wonderful!! :thumbup: So good to know that she is rid of her tumour.

 

[Debbie]

Glad to hear your vet did both at the same time. It would have been more cost effective for you, to pay for the anesthesia just once anyway, and your little girl only has to go through surgery once.

Did your vet give you any Metacam for pain? Spays are major surgery and they will be rather painful for a few days. Of course, some do bounce right back too...but we always give them Metacam so they don't want to mess with their incisions, if they are a bit painful.

I would probably be more apt to let her come out and play on the bed or or somewhere that she won't climb too much, and bring a friend or two to visit with her for short periods. The problem with putting her back too soon, is they can develop hematoma's from too much activity too soon. Also, when you keep them isolated, you have a better chance of keeping them in a very clean environment (we keep our girls in a large carrier on fleece we change twice a day) and leave less chance for infection at the incision site.

For the young girls, we generally go 3 days minimum before returning them to their pals. With tumor incisions...about the same.

Does Cotton have the internal sutures? If not, you might have to keep her separate a bit longer, so no one tries to groom the stitches for her (though I never could imagine a rat just sitting there letting their pall pull on them...but who knows :wink2: ).

It IS very hard not to put them back with their friends. But it's worse that an infection develops. You are the best judge of your little one. We've also put a nice calm friend in the hospital carrier with our surgery patients, after the first couple of days, if they aren't quite ready to return to the cage.

Sending Cottom lots of healing thoughts.

 

[jorats]

It also depends on how large is the colony. If there are only a few then you could put her back but if there's more than 4, I would probably wait a few more days.
We don't give metacam to our rats unless it's clear they really need it. We've had a couple of rats go through serious reactions to metacam so now we aren't too quick to give it anymore.

 

[lilratsy43]

I did give her a bit of metacam when she got home, but she has been fine since that day. She lives with 7 other rats, so I think I will wait a bit....

 

[mamarat]

If she has one who's bonded with her and she allows it you could give her just one of her friends. I've done that before changing the friend every day. Sam was in the hospital cage for a week.