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Tumour Surgery........

1K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  SaltandPepper 
#1 ·
Hello,

I have a male rat who is approx 16 months old who is due to have surgery on a lump next Tuesday.
I am a little concerned about it as being a small animal its a worry how he will recover from it.
I feel it is worth it though as the vet said he is otherwise healthy and should make a good recovery.
Just wondering if anyone has experience of having a pet rat going through this type of operation (how long it takes, how long recovery time is etc) and also roughly how much the vets may charge? I live in the UK by the way.

Many thanks,

H.
 
#3 ·
tumpr removal is fairly common and it sounds liek your boy has the besy possbile chance for recovery if he otherwise healthy. i recently went through 2 tumor removals on different rats. one was a free floating tumor on a 25 month old rat. she reovered beautifully. she was groggy and out of sorts after the operation for the day. there was some minor fluid build up that was reabsorbed after a few days. the operation went pretty quick (not quite an hour). on my other girl there have been some minor complications. her tumor was attached to her side and part of the muscle tissue had to be removed to get the all the tumor as a result the operation took a bit longer. being only about a year old her recovery was much faster then my other girl and by the end of the day she was back to her normal self. the fluid build up was more then the older rat's though. in fact the fluid was of normal size then she got in a bit of a tussle with the other girls and it ballooned right up. she needed help to drain it and this ended up in giving her what i hope is just an abcess and not the tumor returned. the lump feels pretty gushy thoughso i think its just an abcess. after the operation the older girl has been acting much younger and though she still sleeps a lot and would rather cuddle more then play she does play mor then he used to when she had the mass. because of the complications with the younger rat i haven't yet noticed much of a difference in her temperment. she's still fairly bouncy and young so it doesn't seem to bother her much.

honestly i think its the owner who is more stressed out over the operation then the rat. there is always a risk when using anesthia (sp?) on any mammal and where the rats are so small we tend to veiw their risk as more. though it is more then some people its really not any more then a person with asthma going under. so long as the rat is in good health otherwise a surgery shouldn't casue much trouble. that of course that doesn't stop us from worrying and thinking constantly about them until we get them home.

as for what the vet will charge that will depend on a number of things. how long the operation takes, if there are complications during surgery, how experienced the vet is in such operations, how available the equipment is to perform the operation and the personal discision of your vet and its clinic.
 
#4 ·
I second what Twich and Lise have said, Also good wishes for your baby boy!!! hope he bounces back! be sure to post pics of your babe after he's all nice and healthy again.
 
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