yesimnathan
Member
Hello Rat shack. I'm a long-time lurker, first-time poster.
Last Thurs (4/29) morning, I opened up my mischief's cage and noticed that Gandalf's left eye was bulged WAY out. Our vet couldn't fit us in until the next morning so I took him in bright and early on Fri (4/30) morning. She did a dental exam and dental x-ray. She didn't see any cause for an abscess or any bone damage from a tumor. It looked like there was fluid behind his eye. The vet prescribed antibiotics and pain meds and said that if things got better or stayed about the same, we could probably safely remove the eye since it was already donezo by the time she saw him (and likely by the time that I found him on Thurs). Over the weekend & Monday things weren't looking better but they weren't really looking tremendously worse either so we went ahead & scheduled his enucleation surgery for next Mon (5/10).
Since Monday, I feel like things are just looking worse every day. Gandalf's eye just keeps bulging out a little more every day. It's completely out of his skull at this point and crusted/scabbed over. I emailed the vet some new pictures this morning and she said it's looking worse to her too and at the rate it's progressing, she suspects it's cancer. She asked how he is acting otherwise and said that our options are:
I just really don't know what to do and it's tearing me up. Gandalf is my heart rat and he's only a bit over a year old. He's the sweetest little guy. Based on what I've seen online, it seems like the odds of him coming out of the surgery and making a full recovery are very low so it feels cruel to put him through that. At the same time, if I euthanize him, I feel like I'm always going to wonder if he would've recovered and regret it. Any words of wisdom, encouragement, etc... would be greatly appreciated.
PS: I can post pictures on here from the beginning to now but they're extremely graphic and hard to look at.
Last Thurs (4/29) morning, I opened up my mischief's cage and noticed that Gandalf's left eye was bulged WAY out. Our vet couldn't fit us in until the next morning so I took him in bright and early on Fri (4/30) morning. She did a dental exam and dental x-ray. She didn't see any cause for an abscess or any bone damage from a tumor. It looked like there was fluid behind his eye. The vet prescribed antibiotics and pain meds and said that if things got better or stayed about the same, we could probably safely remove the eye since it was already donezo by the time she saw him (and likely by the time that I found him on Thurs). Over the weekend & Monday things weren't looking better but they weren't really looking tremendously worse either so we went ahead & scheduled his enucleation surgery for next Mon (5/10).
Since Monday, I feel like things are just looking worse every day. Gandalf's eye just keeps bulging out a little more every day. It's completely out of his skull at this point and crusted/scabbed over. I emailed the vet some new pictures this morning and she said it's looking worse to her too and at the rate it's progressing, she suspects it's cancer. She asked how he is acting otherwise and said that our options are:
- Proceed with the enucleation & possible excising of the mass on Monday
- Don't perform the procedure and euthanize him when his quality of life drastically drops
I just really don't know what to do and it's tearing me up. Gandalf is my heart rat and he's only a bit over a year old. He's the sweetest little guy. Based on what I've seen online, it seems like the odds of him coming out of the surgery and making a full recovery are very low so it feels cruel to put him through that. At the same time, if I euthanize him, I feel like I'm always going to wonder if he would've recovered and regret it. Any words of wisdom, encouragement, etc... would be greatly appreciated.
PS: I can post pictures on here from the beginning to now but they're extremely graphic and hard to look at.