flutterby
Fly away!
As you know, difficult child has several rats. One, named Moose, was horribly abused. He is missing half of his face, and his right, rear leg was broken and not treated and has healed so that it's almost backwards. We adopted him from a rescue when he was 9 months old. He's a year and a half old now. He is just the sweetest boy.
A month ago, he had a *very* fast growing tumor - went from nothing to the size of a golfball within a week - and we had it removed. He healed well, but the tumor is returning. The vet said that something like 98% of tumors on rats are benign, but since it is returning so soon it is probably cancer. It is along his deformed leg. His recommendation is to either 1) do another lumpectomy, but the tumor will almost definitely return; or 2) remove the tumor and the deformed leg to try to get as much of the bad tissue as possible.
This guy had such a crappy life, and he is such a sweet boy, and difficult child and I are both HUGE animal lovers and we want to do what is best for him. If we do nothing, the tumor will surely become HUGE in no time. If we do the lumpectomy, the tumor is almost guaranteed to remove. If we do the amputation, though, there is still no guarantee that it will get all of the cancer and that it won't come back. We want to give this little guy every possible chance, but we don't want to do it if it is going to impair his quality of life. The leg is already badly deformed, but he does still use it. I spoke to the vet about the possibility of him getting sores on that side from dragging it and he said as long as there is plenty of soft bedding - which there always is - it should be ok.
You have so much more experience with rats and I really want your input. My heart is breaking for this little guy. We just want to do the right thing. Any thoughts?
A month ago, he had a *very* fast growing tumor - went from nothing to the size of a golfball within a week - and we had it removed. He healed well, but the tumor is returning. The vet said that something like 98% of tumors on rats are benign, but since it is returning so soon it is probably cancer. It is along his deformed leg. His recommendation is to either 1) do another lumpectomy, but the tumor will almost definitely return; or 2) remove the tumor and the deformed leg to try to get as much of the bad tissue as possible.
This guy had such a crappy life, and he is such a sweet boy, and difficult child and I are both HUGE animal lovers and we want to do what is best for him. If we do nothing, the tumor will surely become HUGE in no time. If we do the lumpectomy, the tumor is almost guaranteed to remove. If we do the amputation, though, there is still no guarantee that it will get all of the cancer and that it won't come back. We want to give this little guy every possible chance, but we don't want to do it if it is going to impair his quality of life. The leg is already badly deformed, but he does still use it. I spoke to the vet about the possibility of him getting sores on that side from dragging it and he said as long as there is plenty of soft bedding - which there always is - it should be ok.
You have so much more experience with rats and I really want your input. My heart is breaking for this little guy. We just want to do the right thing. Any thoughts?