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dubble321

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Jul 29, 2014
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My female dumbo rat, Esther, had a mammary tumor removal surgery done today and is doing well right now, just tired and recovering but eating and drinking well :). The vet used glue to close the wound and there is a little extra skin left over. I am afraid to leave her unsupervised as she can scratch and pick at the scar. What recommendations do any of you have to avoid this? If we make a cone she will still be able to scratch I think. The technician just told us to keep an eye on it to avoid infection and the wound can be washed gently with diluted antibacterial soap. Also, should I give her a small amount of pain killer (such as ibuprofen)?
We have other ratties and are keeping Esther in a separate cage while she recovers.
In the picture you can see the closure with dried blood around it, the vet said it is fine just make sure it does not open up (sorry it's a little blurry). Thanks!!
 
They should of sent you home with metacam for pain. As long as her pain is managed she should leave it alone. If it hurts she is going to scratch, chew at it and most likely open it up. I've never seen hanging skin after a surgery, but I have all boys.
 
They didn't give her any injectable pain meds at the clinic?

If not then you will need to pick up infant liquid ibuprofen at the drug store. Advil grape-flavoured, dye-free is one rats like quite a bit.

It looks like this...

advilinfantdyefreepediatricdrops.jpg~original


If you can give us an approximate weight of your girly we can give you a dose, but with ibuprofen she will need it every 4-6 hours. Most vets send you home with oral metacam which is only needed to be given once a day and is a very effective and safe pain medication for post-op.

If she has a lot of loose skin you also might end up with a swelling below the incision...it would feel soft and squishy and is called a seroma. This is body fluids that pool into the pocket created by the surgery, and the body usually reabsorbs them in its own time.
 
As for the other, the scratching, most rats will only do this when they have not had adequate pain management.

Can you get us a pic of the incisoin on her side from the side, so we can see what they did, the extent of it and give you a better idea of how it will heal?

A lot of us have gone through these removal surgeries before and even many crazy large ones as well. If I see what it looks like I can direct you to a thread that would have the initial incision as well as the healing it goes through.
 
Her tumor was huge before the surgery so maybe that's why they had to leave some skin as to not cut too much off. She weighs about 250 grams (without the tumor). Thanks we will buy the infant liquid ibuprofen you've suggested! And thanks for info about the seroma. Does the seroma help with th ehealing process? Or is it not needed? I have a chinchilla who had surgery on her tail a few years ago due to a bad infection and we had to empty out the pus from her wound every once in a while. She's perfectly fine now :) and nine years old.
My rat's invoice covered: consultation, sedative, lumpectomy, ward care, fluids subcutaneous/add'l. I wish I would have asked them if they gave her an injectable painkiller (they're closed now- I'll call tomorrow for more info when they open). Her home care sheet did not mention medications.
Here's a picture of her with the tumor:
 
lilspaz68 said:
As for the other, the scratching, most rats will only do this when they have not had adequate pain management.

Can you get us a pic of the incisoin on her side from the side, so we can see what they did, the extent of it and give you a better idea of how it will heal?

A lot of us have gone through these removal surgeries before and even many crazy large ones as well. If I see what it looks like I can direct you to a thread that would have the initial incision as well as the healing it goes through.
Click to expand...
Yes I will get you a picture as soon as possible. She is just comfortably sleeping right now and I don't want to disturb her...probably still slightly sedated as we just picked her up a couple hours ago.
 
If she's comfortable she likely had a pain med injection. I wouldn't advise giving her any ibuprofen until the morning if so. When was her actual surgery?


Her dose would be .13 cc/ml to .19 cc or ml every 4-6 hours.
 
That incision looks almost identical to Esther's (the first pic), and I bought children's Advil- they did not have any infant medication at the store I went to by my house (Von's).Will that work all right? She was done with her surgery at 3:30 pm - it's 9:45 pm right now (CA). Good to know that skin will stretch out! How are Didi and Clare doing now? Did you spay after the surgery? They're very cute :).
 
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For Children's ibu you need to double the dose as its half as concentrated.

So her range is now .26 cc to .38 cc every 4-6 hours.

These are older pics I use to document things.

Didi was already over 2 when she had her surgery, so we didn't spay. Clare was also an older lady so the same, but I also rescue and sometimes spays are not always in the books for the older gals, finance-wise, etc.

Your lady being sooo young really does need a spay sooner than later since she is known to be prone to getting mammary tumours.

How is she doing this morning?
 
This was Didi 3 days post-op...it often looks not very good at this time...the rat is moving more, more comfortable, the incision gets pulled open a bit, BUT this is also the time that it starts to really heal, so its the turning point :)

Didi-3rdday.jpg~original


a week after the surgery

Didi-messyhumanyougotsomecerealonyo.jpg~original


Clare the day following her surgery, she's cleaned up the blood and antiseptic betadine and it looks great :)

jun27Claremorningaftersurgery.jpg~original


Here is her pre-surgical pic

may12Clare.jpg~original


All healed up months later, her fur grew in funny for awhile but she was sooo active without her tumour holding her back that getting her to keep still for pics was almost impossible LOL

nov23Clare.jpg~original
 
lilspaz68 said:
For Children's ibu you need to double the dose as its half as concentrated.

So her range is now .26 cc to .38 cc every 4-6 hours.

These are older pics I use to document things.

Didi was already over 2 when she had her surgery, so we didn't spay. Clare was also an older lady so the same, but I also rescue and sometimes spays are not always in the books for the older gals, finance-wise, etc.

Your lady being sooo young really does need a spay sooner than later since she is known to be prone to getting mammary tumours.

How is she doing this morning?
Click to expand...

Good, I assumed I needed to double the dosage. She was getting kinda fussy and chattering a lot in the middle of the night (I put her temporary cage next to my bed) and I saw her licking the wound...but she only licks the incision on the loose skin not anywhere else. So I gave her about .30 cc at 2 am. At 6 am my boyfriend woke me up and said she was bleeding....sure enough the incision on the loose skin was bleeding a bit...but it didn't look open. We gave her another dose of Advil and he watched her for a while. The bleeding stopped and turned into a scab like the rest of the wound (for some reason when we got her from the vet that area looked more "raw" whereas everywhere else a scab was formed). Right now she's sleeping comfortably... Good thing today our schedules for work are opposite so there will always be someone at home to watch her for the first day! I'll give her some more Advil in a little while. As for the spaying...she'll be two around November, and the spaying costs a bit... But yes since she's prone to tumors that may make sense. She actually first got the tumor around March when she was only 16 months old. The tumor didn't really grow much until the last couple weeks..since she had a estrogen suppressor injection.. And then the removal was a must.
 
I tried to get a better picture of the incision..she moves around very much :p. You can see the dried blood and the loose flap of skin...the incision goes a bit underneath the flap as well
 

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