What a nightmare! Two tumors in 5 weeks- Update Feb. 10th

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bruxxy

bruxxy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
668
Location
Toronto
It all began with my heart rat Vesper who started to develop a lump on her shoulder blade. At first it was small (like all tumors are when they start out) and you could only really feel what seemed like an enlarged shoulder blade. I thought at first it might be an injury but she was moving normally and when I put pressure on it, it didn't seem to bother her.

Within a week it grew pretty big and I knew at that point it was a tumor. It quicky became obvious it was spreading and wasn't a typical "ball" shape but an irregular mass. I took her to the vet a week and a half from the time I discovered it and was told it couldn't be removed. Dr.Munn really knows her stuff when it comes to rats, so when she says she can't do something it generally can't be done. She said it was one of the deepest growing masses she has ever seen on a rat and the location was very strange since it was growing all around her shoulders and up the back of her neck.

Right now it has been about 5 weeks since the mass started to show and this is what it looks like...

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And as if things could get any worse, last week I found a small pea size lump on Vesper's sister Kira. The lump was growing in the center of the front of her neck near the adam's apple (I don't think rats have one but it's in that spot). With the advice of Shelagh, I was told to compress it with a warm damp cloth incase it was an absess but after bringing her to the vet I found out it was a tumor.

I was prepared to have it removed but was told the location made the surgery really risky and my vet wasn't confident doing. She said she "could" give it a shot if I really wanted to try but I've decided I won't go ahead with the removal since there are too many odds stacked against her. It really pains me to do this but I know it's for the best. She's over 2 and if anything happened on the operating table I would never forgive myself. Unfortunately this tumor is also fast growing too so I really don't know how much longer I will have with her.

This is Kira's lump...
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Vesper and Kira were the babies in a group of rats that were extremely special to me. This group consisted of 5 of the most wonderful rats I have ever had the privilege if knowing and it will be so painful when they leave. Atleast I still have a few months left with them *fingers crossed* so I'm going to hit it full force and spoil them rotten.
 
Aw geez Bruxxy, I'm real sorry.
I know it's gonna hurt you hard to look at the girls and see the tumors and not be able to do anything about them. I didn't have my girls fixed and couldn't afford to remove tumors and I saw my girls going down with them. For very different reasons we both would if we could, and best I can offer is to tell you to go blind to the tumors - for their sake more than yours.
It'll eat your heart to see them gradually get incapacitated but if it's to be then you have to buck up and see the kids without the tumors so they feel the joy they bring you and never feel the angst and pain you do when you see the tumors.. They read our feelings better than we do. They know pity from enjoyment.
When you look at a kid you first see their markings eh? When they're yours you don't see that any more, you see inside. Same thing but you have to work at not seeing tumors cause you always feel responsible.
But it comes down the same thing. Blindfold me -I know my kids by how they relate to me, not how they look. Don't let your eyes interfere with that.
Your girls will be as ok as you are with them.


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Fidget said:
Aw geez Bruxxy, I'm real sorry.
I know it's gonna hurt you hard to look at the girls and see the tumors and not be able to do anything about them. I didn't have my girls fixed and couldn't afford to remove tumors and I saw my girls going down with them. For very different reasons we both would if we could, and best I can offer is to tell you to go blind to the tumors - for their sake more than yours.
It'll eat your heart to see them gradually get incapacitated but if it's to be then you have to buck up and see the kids without the tumors so they feel the joy they bring you and never feel the angst and pain you do when you see the tumors.. They read our feelings better than we do. They know pity from enjoyment.
When you look at a kid you first see their markings eh? When they're yours you don't see that any more, you see inside. Same thing but you have to work at not seeing tumors cause you always feel responsible.
But it comes down the same thing. Blindfold me -I know my kids by how they relate to me, not how they look. Don't let your eyes interfere with that.
Your girls will be as ok as you are with them.


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Thank you so much for saying that Fidget. It really means a lot. And you know something? You are 100% right about having to force yourself to look past it. I'm just now able to look at Vesper and see past the tumor but for the last few weeks all I've been seeing is this gigantic thing on her back and it's really been hard to handle...Some days it is as if I don't even see her anymore because my eyes are so drawn to this horrible tumor thats eating away at my baby. I've been trying really hard though and part of how I've been able to overcome it is by touching the tumor. It might sound weird, but I didn't want to touch it for the longest time but when I started rubbing and scratching it and realizing how much she liked it because she couldn't reach there anymore it really helped me overcome the visual aspect of it more than I thought.
 
This place I've been and I sure do understand and feel for you. My advice comes from too much painful experience and having to learn to make it about my kids instead of my feelings (but we can cry all we want when we're not with them). If that helps you & your girls I'm so glad, cause that means mine taught me something to help another and that honors them.
You're already learning it on your own tho, aren't you? And Vesper is blessed that you are, stroking her tumor is like stroking her cheek. It's just all about pleasing each other as it always was.
Big hugs.
 
i don't know if it will make a difference but on another forum i go to there is a member that tried a couple herbal tea treatments with some tumors on her rats. she said that it seemed to have shrinked them for a while. there's no guarantee to help here, i never had the opprotunity to try it for violet, so i have no personal experience. but at this point, anything is worth a try right? at the very least they will have some yummy flavored water, its not going to do them any harm.

mayatweak said:
I started with red raspberry leaf tea with a splash of aloe vera juice (both bought at Whole Foods), which shrunk them initally for a while. I just brew a big canning jar of tea, then cool it, and add about 1/4 cup aloe juice, and keep it in the fridge and refill their water bottles with it. It has a nice flowery scent and they seem to like it. Then the tumors started to grow again - it was like the tumor finally overcame the remedy. So, I added essiac to it - I made a batch of camas tea concentrate (which is essiac by a different name) and then I add maybe 1-2 ml to their bottles every time I change them. And then the tumors went back down again and one almost disappeared.

This is the tea that I bought: http://www.lavenderfarms.net/hoodriverl ... rieTea.htm it comes with brewing instructions and everything for boiling it down into that concentrate.
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and there's a thread on the same site with a list of different possible foods to help reduce tumors size. this post looks promising, but i have not looked too far into it.
Nicomuse said:
I've heard that Goji berries can help to shrink tumors and fight cancer. I'm not sure if they're okay for rats or not...
http://www.goji.co.za/uses_cancer.html

The people on this site use them for their rats though...
http://glutenfreevegan.wordpress.com/category/rats/
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also, you may want to put them on a round of antibiotics. it may just have been mine, but nearly all lump removals and necropsies have shown that tumors also caused abscesses on the tumor as well. this is especially true for the lumpy tumors. with any luck maybe the bullk of the tumor is just infection caused by it. if you do decide to give antibiotics and the herbal remedies a try though, check with you vet first so that there is no bad interactions between the two.

i'm really sorry you have to go through this. i hate tumors. but perhaps these things will help to keep them with you and keep them comfortable for longer. good luck.
 
Kira's tumour is exactly like what Aura had...right in front. It grew a little stopped, then grew big then stopped for months, I am praying that this is the same for you. :heart:

Poor Vesper, does it bother her, affect her mobility at all?

It's one of the hard things to learn to look past the tumour or even accept it as part of your rat, but yeah there are so many places they cannot groom that get itchy, and that's YOUR job. :lol:

Even obese rats cannot reach all the spots and need those scratches...I scratch Pinn's butt for her as she cannot reach it.

Your poor wee sisters...I am sorry Laura, 2 at the same time, especially these 2 is very hard on the heart. We are here.
 
Poor sweeties. It must be so hard for you not to be able to do anything. They will get extra love from you, and let's hope that they have some good quality time left.
 
Aw Laura,

Now I see what you were talking about. If Dr. Munn doesn't feel good about removing them, then you have to agree with her. She knows best. Both of these ladies are already over two and the surgery probably won't be good for them either.

You are in my thoughts and prayers. :hugs:
 
lilspaz68 said:
Poor Vesper, does it bother her, affect her mobility at all?
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Sadly yes. She can't move her neck side to side or up and down so if she wants to look behind her she has to turn her entire body around. Also, it seems like she has a really hard time sleeping because she can't get comfortable with it. There are really only one or two ways she can sleep now without it being awkward. It's probably about the size of her head x3 so you can imagine how hard it would be to carry that around on your neck. She probably gets a sore neck from it too which would explain why she rests more often.

Thank you everyone for your kind words. It really helps when there are other people who understand how hard it is. Everyone I know just sees them as "rats" so I can't ever get support, or understanding in some cases, when I'm feeling down. It helps so much to know that there are wonderful caring people are here to talk to. :heart: :cuddle: :heart:
 
bruxxy said:
Everyone I know just sees them as "rats" so I can't ever get support, or understanding in some cases, when I'm feeling down. It helps so much to know that there are wonderful caring people are here to talk to. :heart: :cuddle: :heart:
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Well they are just "rats" - and we are just "humans" :giggle:
One of the things I read once at a rat site that has most touched my heart and stuck with me is "Just cause he/she doesn't look like me doesn't mean he/she's's not my child"
 

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