TheFatRatGirl
Active Member
Hi everyone,
I have a nine month old rat with a mammary tumour and asked the vet to remove it and he said no?! He said there's no point as it will just grow back. I told him I was aware of the risk of it growing back but I had read that if you spay a rat at the same time as removing the tumour it greatly reduces the risk of it recurring. He said that in dogs that only works if you get them spayed before they have any tumours. So I said in RATS there's evidence that it reduces the risk even after a tumour has grown. He said 'that might be the case, i'm not a rat specialist' and then told me that he wasn't going to operate on a rat because of Covid19 and that the tumour would eventually make her miserable and I should put her to sleep. I'm a bit shellshocked from the phonecall tbh. I know that people often go to an exotic vet, but I don't have one I can get to and this vet claimed they treated small animals. It felt a bit like I was being told 'it's just a rat, we've got more important animals to deal with while we have lower staff numbers' but shouldn't a vet value all of the animals they claim to treat?
I'm not sure what to do now. I feel like over the past couple of years I have had some pretty appalling treatment from the vets in my area. The only other vet in my price range once botched a tooth trim and my rat passed away so I've been avoiding them. I feel a bit overwhelmed and am not quite comprehending that I have to put an otherwise perfectly healthy rat to sleep. I mean, look at her:
I have a nine month old rat with a mammary tumour and asked the vet to remove it and he said no?! He said there's no point as it will just grow back. I told him I was aware of the risk of it growing back but I had read that if you spay a rat at the same time as removing the tumour it greatly reduces the risk of it recurring. He said that in dogs that only works if you get them spayed before they have any tumours. So I said in RATS there's evidence that it reduces the risk even after a tumour has grown. He said 'that might be the case, i'm not a rat specialist' and then told me that he wasn't going to operate on a rat because of Covid19 and that the tumour would eventually make her miserable and I should put her to sleep. I'm a bit shellshocked from the phonecall tbh. I know that people often go to an exotic vet, but I don't have one I can get to and this vet claimed they treated small animals. It felt a bit like I was being told 'it's just a rat, we've got more important animals to deal with while we have lower staff numbers' but shouldn't a vet value all of the animals they claim to treat?
I'm not sure what to do now. I feel like over the past couple of years I have had some pretty appalling treatment from the vets in my area. The only other vet in my price range once botched a tooth trim and my rat passed away so I've been avoiding them. I feel a bit overwhelmed and am not quite comprehending that I have to put an otherwise perfectly healthy rat to sleep. I mean, look at her: