My rat may have a tumour and my parents won't let me take her to the vets.
 

Title kind of sums it up.

I was stroking my rats yesterday and one of them has this slgihty bigger than pea sized lum on her back. I checked all the others and they are ok, it's just some big red lump on her back.

Rats are prone to tumours so I think that's probably what it is but I asked my mum to book a vets appoinment and she just looked and me then ignored me.

They're letting my rat die becuase it's the easiest way to get to me. Im' going to call my anutie and ask her to take me but she's going back to Cyprus on Wednesday so I'm not sure whether I'll get an appoinment soon enough and if I do I have no idea what I'll do if t happens again in future.

I love my rats, animals are my life, I have no idea what I'm going to do.

Thats terrible. do you have anyone else who can take you if your aunt cant?
I hope your rat is ok
Take care

I think it's terrible that your mum won't let you take your rat to the vet.
If it has a lump, it needs to be checked and may possibly need treatment.
As the previous poster asked, is there anyone else at all who can take you?
Are you not able to go alone?
I hope everything works out for you and your ratty <3.

You're right, rats like any 'small furries' are prone to tumours. But this may not be the case and if it is it may not be one that grows to any great size, it may not spread or it may not even be a tumour. Could your rat have got injured or bitten, if this is the case it could be an abscess. But for a rat none of these are 'normal' and you're better off trying to get her to the vets. Does it move around when you move the skin (ie does it feel like its attached to anything?) because due to its location, the fact that its only pea-sized at the moment and if it is mobile then the chances are it can be easily removed but this will require surgery which is always quite risky for animals of that size but many do survive. If you ring a vets up most will have appointments within the next couple of days, certainly all of the ones I've heard of and this is definately what you should try. It isn't urgent, I'm not meaning that, I'm just meaning that if there the only way to get her to the vets is to go with your auntie then try that. Its always better to get these things seen sooner rather than later as they do often have a tendency to grow and can cause other problems for the animal which is where surgery becomes more of a problem (you won't believe how big some tumours on animals get before owners notice them so the fact that you've noticed it now when by the sounds of it it's pretty small then thats a good sign) I've just finished my 2nd year at vet school so if you want any more advise on this feel free to PM me if you want as well.

Oh yeah and try not to worry (sorry about th length!),

Kim

I've spoken to my mother and she's agreed to take me to the vets next week when the puppy has his vaccinations.

I was thinking it might be an abcess, I havn't tried moving it around under the skin, she doesn't like me touching it but I'm not sure whether it's painful or just because she's a wriggley rat. She has two cage mates, they don't tend to fight but it's always possible they been playing and got a bit too rough or sometihng. She's the smallest in the group and sometimes likes to play fight with the other two who are bigger in both weight and overall size so she might have been injured.

Thanks everybody.
xx

Really hope your ratty is ok and ihopefully it won't be anything bad, one of my boys had a lump which turned out to be an abscess and it just had to be drained. Is there a PDSA in your area you could take the rat to, as they will treat her free of charge? Here is a link anyway http://www.pdsa.org.uk/petaidhospital.html

Try not to worry too much and best wishes to your rat, my rats mean the world to me as well so I know how you're feeling x

My rat had a tumour and died within a few weeks, I took him to the vet because he was walking sideways and falling over it was so sad.
They gave him anti biotics in hope it was an inner ear infection and hoped that it would clear it up but it didn't and he died a few days later :(

The PDSA are great if you qualify for it but many people don't. There are lots of different things that you need to have to qualify for it such as be on benefits of some sort (not too sure what) and have the right postcode. But yeah if you qualify for it then use it but f you can afford a small donation then please help, they are not government funded.

Ghost, I've PM'd u!

I hope everything is alright, please keep us updated. Take care. xxx

Yeah let us know how it goes at the vets :)

Im Sorry to hear that, i rember my guinea pig had a lump on her mouth, and she had to get an operation, but it was £200 - a lot of money when a new guinea pig can cost £20.

There is also the side of that, the cost issue, it might be why your mum didnt do anything before, i dont think she did it to spite you. I hope it all goes ok

I think as well some uninformed people can view smaller animals such as rats and mice and hamsters as somehow 'lesser' creatures, who can't mean as much to their owners as dogs and cats. Which is obviously very wrong and complete rubbish. Rats in particular I've found to be equally as tame and personable and responsive as any dog or cat, they're wonderful little creatures who deserve to be treated with as much love and care as any family pet

Apparently somebody else's vet asked them one time why they wanted to get their vet seen to when they could just buy a new one!:angry:

I can't remember what they said, but I wouldn't have thought twice about punching him.

Vets really shouldn't say that. I'm going into the job to help all animals, though I know dogs and cats get preferential treatment in a small animal vets. Rodents being easily 'replaceable' is the sort of thing vets do say but it should be behind closed doors. It is joked about but thats usually all it is and may be due to the fact that it is much harder to treat those species which vets have VERY little knowledge of (ie. i've just done my exotics module and hae only had 2 lectures on 'small furries') as well as them being tiny to operate on!

Vets tend to joke about a LOT of things away from clients because its a highly stressful job and its what we need to do to get us through on the days when nothing goes right. Nothing is usually meant by it and it shouldn't be done in front of the client unless they are also joking! But there does get to a point where you wonder whther it is worth bothering to operate on a small rodent whereas you wouldn't think quite as hard about it had it been a dog or a cat, but a little thing like removing a tumour on a rats back should be relatively routine.

Ratty has an op tomorrow! *worries*

im sure it will go ok, try not to worry

Aww I'll be thinking of her, I'm sure she'll be fine :)

Awh. I hope things go fine. :)

The vets called a bit earlier and said they've removed the lump and she's recovering ok. I think I'm going to get her in a minute.
Thanks everyone
xx