jorats
Loving rats since 2002.
Pituitary adenomas are very common in rats. It seems to affect them at any age whereas it used to be only seen in older rats.
My vet has done tons of research and post mortems with PTs and has come to the conclusion that there are at least three types or three occurrences.
1. Your typical pituitary tumour growth where as the usual symptoms of confusion, loss of rear end mobility, head tilt, knuckling, loss of sense of smell are a slow progression and can take several months for it to become fatal.
2. A bleeding pituitary tumour. The symptoms are sudden and leads to a quick death.
3. A pituitary tumour that presses against a vein on top of the gland. When this occurs, it usually causes a stroke in rats. Symptoms, loss of complete mobility or one sided, fetal postion in rats, loss of appetite usually occurs but some rats can and do recover from the stroke but don't recover 100% because they still have that pituitary tumour growth. The rat can have several strokes before finally succumbing to the tumour.
Dex/prednison/prednisolone works in some cases, it can help with just the pituitary tumour and also the strokes but not in a bleeding tumour.
It reduces the swelling in the brain to the point where the rat is given some quality of life before the tumour grows too big.
My vet has seen cases where the tumour has squished the brain like a pancake. In these cases the symptoms were severe: circling, complete loss of awareness and massive porphyrin.
In each case, I would say it's important to catch it early and to administer Dex or pred as soon as possible to give your rat a fighting chance and more good times with you before the inevitable end.
I'm not a vet but this is based on our discussions with my exotic vet.
If you suspect a PT in your rat the best course of action is seeing your vet and discussing the options with them.
My vet has done tons of research and post mortems with PTs and has come to the conclusion that there are at least three types or three occurrences.
1. Your typical pituitary tumour growth where as the usual symptoms of confusion, loss of rear end mobility, head tilt, knuckling, loss of sense of smell are a slow progression and can take several months for it to become fatal.
2. A bleeding pituitary tumour. The symptoms are sudden and leads to a quick death.
3. A pituitary tumour that presses against a vein on top of the gland. When this occurs, it usually causes a stroke in rats. Symptoms, loss of complete mobility or one sided, fetal postion in rats, loss of appetite usually occurs but some rats can and do recover from the stroke but don't recover 100% because they still have that pituitary tumour growth. The rat can have several strokes before finally succumbing to the tumour.
Dex/prednison/prednisolone works in some cases, it can help with just the pituitary tumour and also the strokes but not in a bleeding tumour.
It reduces the swelling in the brain to the point where the rat is given some quality of life before the tumour grows too big.
My vet has seen cases where the tumour has squished the brain like a pancake. In these cases the symptoms were severe: circling, complete loss of awareness and massive porphyrin.
In each case, I would say it's important to catch it early and to administer Dex or pred as soon as possible to give your rat a fighting chance and more good times with you before the inevitable end.
I'm not a vet but this is based on our discussions with my exotic vet.
If you suspect a PT in your rat the best course of action is seeing your vet and discussing the options with them.