Senior rattie*UPDATES*

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

My beautiful Aida is now 2yrs 9 months. Still going strong. Still no signs of tumors (knocks on wood) it's all my fault for saying that. The next day I saw a tumor the size of a small grape. Now it is 2-3 times bigger in just 1 month. With a whole other month until Xmas I dunno how much longer she has left sad I would like to have it removed. Even though money is pretty tight. But I'm worried about her not surviving the anesthesia. Ideally i'd like to wait until its really affecting her quality of life. Until I start considering euthanasia. However the more I wait, the more weight she loses, the bigger it gets. Her chances of survival go down (and cost goes up).

I have some difficult decisions to make. Like where to have it done. My clinic will offer me a discount in a few weeks but the vet has never done a mass excision on a rat before. They have no anesthesia protocol for rodents. So risk goes way up, but cost is cut in half. My friend suggested a nearby clinic with experience in rodent anesthesia. I guess I can start by calling to ask if they ever do mass excisions on a rat her age and for a general estimate.

The. I'm still holding out hope my school will do it. They anesthetize rats regularly, have a really good anesthetic protocol and two vets with lots of experience in rodent surgery. In a week and a half the lab rats should be gone and I should be allowed to bring my own in for an exam.

On top of that, Aida suddenly has a sensitive stomach confused
I have to be very careful not to give her too many treats or she gets wicked diarrhea. Which sucks cause I'd like to try and fatten her up. That's impossible with the small amount of treats she gets. So far 1-2 almond slivers a day seems to be okay. maybe something more fawning like sunflower seeds would be better.

I mortified the cage so the ladders are now ramps. Added a food bowl on the "bedroom" level and a water bottle. So she doesn't have to go far to eat and drink.

Any other suggestions for keeping my senior rat comfy and healthy?

I cross my fingers and hope every day that she's sees her third christmas and birthday.

Every time she has an itch that she can't reach, or her tumor gets caught as she's trying to get into the litter box. My heart just breaks. This sucks crying  

[Levina-jade]

My friend has a food dish and water bottle at both the top of the cage and at the bottom for her older chinchilla.  

[Kithy Kitty]

I tried looking up a little bit of info.

It looks like your first step is to try and see what kind it is; benign or malignant. From there it seems like benign are fairly simple to remove whereas malignant will likely require euthanasia.

Another person claimed that her friend's rat was being fed flax seed or oil mixed with plain yogurt, could help keep the growth of those tumors under control. Whether it's true or not, you'd want to ask your vet.

Is she perhaps scratching at it or biting? That's usually a sign of discomfort.

As long as it's not bothering her and she's still eating, drinking and moving around with ease, considering her age, I'd say she's okay.

The biggest worry about putting her under is she wouldn't come out of it okay. Not only that but if it's very painful or stressful will her quality of life be better than if you chose not to have it removed?

Either way, I'd meet with your vet and discuss what you can do and what to look out for. It is possible it is a cyst or something else so don't get too worried just yet.  

[xXGabriella-ShadowfireXx]

If its rapidly grown then no vet will remove it because it will grow back. This might help. https://www.facebook.com/LittleRatTailsRatteryEct/posts/500453763300148

Little Rat Tails Rattery is me but you should contact RatLoversOnly about this. The article on that status is her's and she knows how to get the growth to go down. And I doubt its a cyst because of her age and Cyst dont appear over night. They take months to actually grow no matter what animal it is.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Spoke with my vet yesterday. She said 90% of tumors in rats are benign. So removing it COULD be a worthy option. That is once it starts to bother her. In the meantime, she is still acting normally. Eating and drinking and running around as usual. Every anesthesia comes with risk. Especially in such a small animal and more so in seniors. So I do not want to put her life at risk over something that is not yet causing her any problems. She said for now we can try to aspirate it and do a general physical to determin what exactly it is. Though with 80% of female rats over 2yrs getting mammary tumors it seems highly likely. It doesn't seem to have grown any more within the last 2 days.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

It's almost twice the size it was when I first posted this. And more worrysome, Aida's had soft stool the past few days and then last night she had flat out diarrhea IN HER BED. She was covered I had to give her a good bath. Poor thing. The diarrhea scares me cause lil rodents like her can dehydrate real easy. So I added my 2nd water bottle to the cage (I keep it for when I go away for a few nights to be extra sure they don't run out) So I figure having a bottle on each level might encourage her to drink more. The diarrhea was probably brought on from all the pumpkin she ate but for the last 2 years I've given her pumpkin nothing like this happened before.

So, anything I can give her to help with her digestion? I still wana fatten her up but that won't happen if she's having diarrhea. I took the pumpkin out for tonight.

I've been preparing myself for this since I got her but I'm not ready to loose her. She's still not letting it slow her down. Though her back legs seem uneasy. But she's doing really well since I turned the ladders into ramps.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

The diarrhea has actually gotten WORSE. It's just a blob of very wet poop. I've looked up ideas on how to treat at home. Canned pumpking (um, she ate a huge piece of fresh pumpking does that count) I just gave them a bit of yogurt and since I ran out of their food yesterday they're eating 95% oatmeal flakes right now. I think I will cut the nuts and seeds out. But if this doesn't resolve by tomorrow I may have to bring her to the clinic asap. My reg vet is away on vaca for like 2 weeks sad But I can take her to the clinic I use to work at they have like 2 exotic vets there. Dunno if either of em will be working though or if they'll be able to fit me in at all. So I can maybe pick up some pedialyte? To keep her hydrated. Maybe I can run a fecal analysis at school but it seems unlikely that it be parasites cause then Blaze should be infected too. My worse fear right now is that the tumor is cancerous and the cancer spread to her stomach or intestines.

Does anyone have suggestions on what I can give her to help with diarrhea or keep her hydrated?  

[CrissAngelLover12345]

Aww.. I do hope she gets better soon.. *hugs* I wish I was able to help, but I've never had any rats of my own..  

[xXGabriella-ShadowfireXx]

pedialyte is good or gaderade *sp*. Its what I use for mine when they get sick. To help with the poops give her something that has good fiber in it. Like some cereal with fiber in it. I hope she gets better.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

She likes the pedialyte, so I leave a dish filled near her bed. I'm putting food by her bed too now so she doesn't have to go down the stairs to get it, though she still does. I got some probiotics from alpha omega so I mix a pinch in with 1/4 teaspoon of yogurt and she quite likes that. Last night she still had diarrhea but today was slight better, just soft instead of a watery blob. She needs a bath again already, or perhaps I can just clean her up with a soapy cloth. She keeps dragging her tail through the mushy poop xp  

[Akari_32]

How's She doing Gabby?  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Akari_32

How's She doing Gabby?

The diarrhea was resolved. FINALLY. Was getting pretty worried. The oatmeal didn't seem to help at all so I got them back on the Oxbow, cut out all treats, greens etc. Except for half a teaspoon yogurt with probiotics sprinkled on. It cleared up within a day or two of starting the probiotics, so I think it was just too much treats that started it and then the decrease in normal flora made it chronic. I kept her on pedialyte for a few days after just to be extra cautious. Had a bowl full and she would lick it off my fingers too.

Tonight however, she showed her disastifaction of the bland menu by stealing the treat bag and eating through it gonk so hoping we don't end up with diarrhea again. I waasss gona reintroduce treats slowly. It's essential she doesn't lose weight.

Her back legs seem a lil ataxic. Sometimes she's sitting in an awkward position and I wonder if she's totally paralized in the back end but then she gets up and waddles around. Her back nails are quite long so she's certainly not walking normally and wearing them down. I gave her two baths already this month so last weekend I just wiped her with a warm soapy cloth. I wonder how often is too often to bathe her though cause I would think that the little bit of swimming she does might be good Range of motion exercise for her.

She still goes down the ladder/ramp to potty and eat but I have a 2nd food bowl near her bed now. The tumor is about 2-3 times bigger since I first noticed it. Probably the size of her head now. But...her appetite is good and she seems perfectly happy so I'm just going to let her be for now. I have just one more month till my discount kicks in at work and then I can at least get an estimate for the removal.  

[Akari_32]

That's good that it's finally cleared up! I hate when fussing over my sick babies makes it worse lol

I wonder if being dehydrated from all her tummy troubles has attributed to her leg issues? Or perhaps she fell off the second level or the ramp when you weren't home?

She's obviously feeling at least a little better if she's getting into stuff LOL Hopefully that month will pass quickly and without any more incidents :3  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Akari_32

That's good that it's finally cleared up! I hate when fussing over my sick babies makes it worse lol

I wonder if being dehydrated from all her tummy troubles has attributed to her leg issues? Or perhaps she fell off the second level or the ramp when you weren't home?

She's obviously feeling at least a little better if she's getting into stuff LOL Hopefully that month will pass quickly and without any more incidents :3

I feel like it's come on relatively slowly so I don't think it was an injury or had anything to do with her recent gastro. I've heard muscle wasting and weakness is very common in older rats. Add to that she's dragging a tumor the size of her head, probably not helping matters. At least she still does the ladder just fine. The original owner of the cage seemed to think it would be an issue and that I'd have to section off part of the cage  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

I snapped this just now.



Was hard to get a decent shot cause she hates being held like this. It's been almost a month now since I first noticed it when it was the size of a small grape. I'd say it's at least twice as big now sad But I'm still hoping to hold off on a vet visit for another month. Then my discount kicks in and I can get a better estimate. Although I will run it by my teachers again next week. See...in a week from now there shouldn't be anymore rats at school sad Not sure if they are going to hang on to the girls why they try to adopt them out but anyway, the reason I can't bring her to school is cause our rats are SPF and they don't want to contaminate them. (Not that we'd go near them but, it could still travel on clothing or wtv) So depending on how soon the rats leave, I might be able to take her for an exam at school and then ask my teachers if they'd be willing to remove it, maybe incorporate it into one of the classes.

She's still in good spirits. Appetite is still great and she's still going about life as usual. So I'm trying not to worry yet. I know this is likely her last christmas. Even if I remove it and everything goes smoothly she will be 3 this January. Therefor I'm planning on making this her best christmas yet!