Gregory's tumors. 9/3/11 RIP little man.

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So far he seems to be healing well.

He is his usual semi-not-really-social self. Alas, one of the rats that makes you worry when they want to cuddle, as it usually means they do not feel well or are really distressed.
 
The girls are just too intense for a rat that has really only liked 1 other rat. We might try getting another male rat over a year old and see if an "adult" would be more on Greg's comfort level. But he is as spoiled as ever...he thinks his meds are his own personal special treats twice a day. If we open his cage without putting a spoon of rice cereal down, he gives a dirty look and hobbles off.
 
Update:

Well, this mass has come back. With reinforcements. Little guy has at least 3 fluid filled lumps in the same basic spot. His fur hasn't even grown back in all the way yet. :( Stupid returning-in-5-weeks tumor things.

We had to make a quick decision as Mondays are the "non emergency" surgery day with our vet. He is approx 30 months old and still puttering along with his HED issues, so he is a bit of a higher surgery risk. However, the location of one of the lumps concerned our vet as it was close to his penis, but did not feel attached as of yet.

It was a "these will shorten his life as they invade his organs so should we let him live his days in peace until we have to have him PTS due to tumor complications" versus "he is old and this seems to be recurring so how many times do we put him through this?" decision. He is still bright eyed and eating well and is, as ever, his cranky semi-social self. So he goes in for the 4th surgery in his life Monday morning.

Little rat has had a hard life.
 
DadRat said:
It was a "these will shorten his life as they invade his organs so should we let him live his days in peace until we have to have him PTS due to tumor complications" versus "he is old and this seems to be recurring so how many times do we put him through this?" decision. He is still bright eyed and eating well and is, as ever, his cranky semi-social self. So he goes in for the 4th surgery in his life Monday morning.

Little rat has had a hard life.
Click to expand...
I know how you feel; I have the same decision - my old girl has tumors recurring in the same spot for the third time, coming back after two months. Now she has HED too. I decided that it's not fair to have her continually sore and recovering from yet another surgery in her retirement even though she's otherwise bright-eyed. Good luck with Gregory - I hope he has many more months ahead of him.
 
Greg had his surgery this morning. It really knocked him for a loop (again) at his age. They gave him sub-q fluids and he was in the recovery area for about an hour before he was moving enough for them to call us for the pick up.

Dr. Kuhnle removed 4 (count them, 4!) fluid filled masses from him this time. She said if they come back she would try and drain them, but she doesn't want to put him through another surgery if it can be avoided. If this is like last month, it will take him until about Friday before he is acting right again. Getting sent home with Metacam and Baytril (her concern is straining his immune system with the 2nd surgery in 1.5 months.)

Rather wish Greg was a more social rat, I'd like to cuddle him, but he just wants to be left alone and sleep it off.
 
No real idea for cause. And while I'm not sure if she has seen stuff like this before, she has said they were "unusual" in composition. I.e- full of brownish fluid and some tissue matter.

We kind of expect them to come back as they have once already, but hopefully they will be drainable via a needle if they do return.
 
Little cranky pants is getting ready to celebrate his 31* month birthday. And is getting all lumpy again. Probably have to take him in and see if the fluid can be drained in a week or two. As previously mentioned, a "non-emergency" surgery is not in the cards this time...the last one knocked Greg for quite a loop.

He has finally healed up, although the little fuzzball kept popping his incision open this time. The combination of saggy old rat skin and HED hobble made him step on his incision site rather frequently. Stepping would open it, which would make him groom and pick at it, which would open it again, and so forth.

But he still shuffles on, giving MomRat and I frequent dirty looks and the occasional cuddle, hobble-running to his nightly Ensure and baby cereal mixture, and sleeping like a dead rock.


*31 as best guess, we have no idea how old he was when we got him, other than a lot younger than the "about a year" the previous people said.
 
Gregory's lumpiness burst this evening. Two of the lumps, directly next to his penis, are bloody. Tried to get pics earlier but the camera ate them and I don't want to stress him out again. We're not sure what to do for him. No obvious signs of pain; he's been walking with that hind foot clubbed to prevent catching it on himself since his last surgery, because he kept opening his incision with it, so that doesn't really signify. It has bled enough that it's on his tail and foot. Just keep it clean? I'm hesitant to take him in; last time the discussion centered on, if these keep coming back, we just keep him comfy until its time to let him go. And it's hard to tell if Gregory is comfy, because he has ALWAYS been a nervous spastic, but its really not time to PTS yet, either. We WILL be calling our vet in the morning to chat once she is free(Monday is surgery day; she'll call us back eventually) regarding recommendations, but I wanted to ask here first.

His sneezing is worsening again(finished Baytril a week or two ago) and we are pondering starting it back up, or perhaps combining it with something. We have a standing script at the pharmacy for Doxycycline, so we could order that in, or we have a bottle of Clavamox from David's parents, who received it for an injured cat who refused to take any meds, so it was never opened. Concerns are potential infection of the burst cysts and recurring URI - would Baytril and Clavamox be a good combination for this? Our vet is open to suggestions but isn't ratty experiened enough to recommend some of the less common antibiotics.

The main portion of the mass is up under his legpit, and there are so many bumps I really wonder if the vet can even consider draining them. Bear in mind that she advised against further surgeries for him; 31 months old and he's had 4; she wanted to drain these tumors if they came back a third time. I almost wish we hadn't had the first tumor surgically removed - we asked for an aspiration before definite removal, but I don't know if it actually got done. The first one was a single, then there were four nodes, and this newest is more like a bunch of grapes. There are so many separate lumps under there, and knowing how all it takes is a few cells left behind to start a new cyst, I feel like removing the first one caused some of this.

Help?
 
I had a girl operated for a tumor almost in the same area, the tumor came back, was also taken out then Mattie developed all these little bumps (like small seeds but all together) under the skin at the tumor site. Vet said they were all abscesses and some did leak pus while others remain there. (Does that make sense?) Mattie is 34 months and vet prescribed Baytril and she's been on meds since then. Hope this helps.
 
MomRat, do you know what type of fluid came out of the cysts? only blood or pus or other? What does it smell like? pus smell awful, blood smells like rust/iron.
 

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