[Rekees]

My rat Nemo has a face tumor. I took her to the vet when it first showed up some weeks ago when it was pea sized hoping it was an abscess and the vet investigated but it said tumor and nothing he can do. Its been slowly growing since then. Its now ulcerated and I'm really stressed trying to figure out if I should get her put down. She's super thin, but still eating, has energy to climb around the cage and cuddle with the other two (they've gotten downright motherly and sweet to her since the tumor showed up). She also still loves cuddling and bruxes when I scritch her. How do I know when its time? I don't want her to suffer some horrible death but I don't want to deprive her of cuddles if she's still enjoying life on the whole.

 

[Isamurat]

I tend to put rats to sleep sooner rather than later with facial tumours or necrotic abcesses (which this might actually be looking at it, thought there could be a tumour under too). The way I judge is to monitor the teeth firstly, if they start getting out of line or malacluded I would normally put to sleep (its started to affect the jaw at this stage so theres a good chance it will colonise the bone and that's getting nasty). I also look for head shaking or excessive grooming, this is a sign its hurting them, and again worth putting to sleep quickly before it gets worse.

In the meantime I would put her on a covering course of anitbiotics (id do flagyl and or amoxicillin) and definitely put her on painkillers (metacam useually) as there is useually some underlying pain from something like that even if they aren't showing it.

 

[Rekees]

Thank you for the advice. She's been on amoxicillin since first seeing the vet for it. I checked her teeth and they have gotten out of line and she does groom her face a lot (though she's always been super fastidious about her face so I didn't notice before you mentioned) I made an appointment with my vet for later today to get her put down. I feel relieved to have to some guidelines for making this decision thank you so much.

 

[Isamurat]

Hugs, I'm so sorry. Been through this one myself fairly recently with a guy who had a Zymbals Gland tumour, its really hard because they are so bright and with it still when you make the call. but having seen how bad it can get very quickly if you do leave it I don't mess around.