One of my girls, Fable, is 2.5 years old and has developed a gigantic tumor on her abdomen and is growing two more near the neck and near her genitals. She had two tumors removed last October near her armpit. I decided I wasn't going to get the other tumors removed, mostly due to cost (I've had medical and car problems recently myself, and it's been very tight lately). I had read they can live with them for awhile as long as they're able to get around. She's been mobile, eating, drinking and chewing unassisted, but losing weight and her fur is thinning. The mass has really ballooned the past two weeks or so. Saturday her tumor opened while I was at work but had stopped bleeding but the time I got home. I went to a vet (not my regular, but the only one open who knows exotics) first thing Sunday morning and she gave me Baytril and said to keep it clean and separate her from her cagemate, Gypsy. I'm fully aware that quality of life is important for creatures like rats, who are so sensory. I know Fable isn't fully enjoying a good rat life. I was asking if the vet thought euthanasia would be an option at this point, and she kind of waffled on it. She made me feel guilty not springing for the surgery, but the past surgery set me back 300+ less than a year ago, plus another couple hundred I've spent on Gypsy in June for pneumonia and care. Plus, Fable's developing two more in different places and I just don't see her surviving that hard of a surgery. The last two I got removed while they were small.
Has anyone been in the same boat before? If things worsen in the next week I'll make an appointment with my usual exotic vet. She's pretty no-nonsense but has really good bedside manner. (Not that the one I saw Sunday didn't, because she's wonderful. She just made euthanasia seem like the very last option in a line of expensive procedures and that I should consider, and I felt terrible for asking.) I used to volunteer in wildlife rehabilitation and watch animals be euthanized frequently am acutely aware that quality of life is essential for deciding. I just don't know what to do this time.
Has anyone been in the same boat before? If things worsen in the next week I'll make an appointment with my usual exotic vet. She's pretty no-nonsense but has really good bedside manner. (Not that the one I saw Sunday didn't, because she's wonderful. She just made euthanasia seem like the very last option in a line of expensive procedures and that I should consider, and I felt terrible for asking.) I used to volunteer in wildlife rehabilitation and watch animals be euthanized frequently am acutely aware that quality of life is essential for deciding. I just don't know what to do this time.