What could this be???

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Was able to get him to the vet a month or so ago. It was a tumor. The vet told me that many rats can't handle the anesthesia to get it removed. So, decided to let the quality of life determine his fate. However, the damn tumor would not stop growing! My strong little guy finally gave up yesterday morning. It was a horrible thing to watch, helpless. Cuddled him til he seized to his fate...now, after some reading and research, I found out, not to wait to get his cagemate a new buddy. Anyone know the best way to introduce the new ratty? What size/age should he be???
 
So sorry for your loss. How old is the cagemate? It may be worth getting a couple of babies, a couple of months old. Quarantine for proper amount of time, then do gradual intros. There's a thread on here about intros. Just search it up, or go to joinrats.com they have a lot of good info too. But I'd do it as soon as possible, so you can get it done. But it's always better to have at least 3 rats housed together, so if one dies, you don't leave the other alone.....
 
I am very sorry for your loss. {{hugs}}

I have no idea if the tumour could have been removed by surgery.
But for the future, you should know that if you have a good vet with the necessary experience and knowledge, surgery is low risk. Rats survive surgery all the time and tumour removal is a normal treatment that is successfully done on rats. Whether or not surgery is a good option is dependent on having a good vet with the necessary skills & knowledge, and on the type of tumour, the health of the rat, and the size of the tumour.

For future reference, you should be aware that having a rat put to sleep by a vet (with the knowledge on how to do it properly) in order to prevent further suffering, is also an option.

There is good information on introducing rats on www.joinrats.com and also please see the Reference Thread https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/
 
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