I've had a female medium sized fancy rat named Tetra for about two years now. She shares a cage with two newer rats, but we put her in her own cage a few weeks ago because it looked as though she had gotten in a fight with them and lost. We also have a ferret, and it had a pretty bad flea problem, so we took all the animals out, bathed them, and cleaned their cages. When I lifted Tetra to wash her, I immediately noticed a fairly large swollen growth on her underside. It almost looks like she's switched sexes (anyone with a male rat knows what those guys are dragging around all day), except the swollen area is almost black. She doesn't seem to be in pain, and I can't afford to take her to the vet just to have them tell me it's nothing - so, does anyone have any idea what's going on with her?
Answers:
tumors are very common with rats. and almost every rat experiences a tumor. it will keep growing and growing if you dont do anything!!!!!!Unspay... female rats are prone to developing mammary tumors, pituitary tumors and other estrogen-dependent tumors as they age. At the time of menopause (450-540 days) mammary tumor incidence increases sharply and pituitary tumors begin to appear. A second increase in mammary and pituitary tumors occurs around the end of the second year (from 600-800 days) (Durbin 1966).
Most of the tumor susceptibility research in unspayed rats has been done on different strains of laboratory rats. Strains and populations differ in how susceptible the females are to developing tumors. Susceptibility may vary widely.
I no its not a rat, but my hamster had a grown right on the under side of her butt. It turned out that it was a tumor becouse it just kept getting bigger. She didnt seem to be in any pain either. Vets and people say that females(rodents) get tumors more than males. Good Luck. Mine lived for about 8 months with her tumor, then i finally let her go wild. So she didnt die from that iam sure. Good Luck! If you look on the internet you can find food ideas that can stop or slow down the growth. My mom said to feed her apple seeds. I never did though. But you should try it! Good Luck!
I would take him to a vet for a diagnosis. He'll know what's wrong with your pet.
It may be cancer, or a harmless tumour. It may be operable, or otherwise. It may need removing to save your rat's life, or not.
If left, and it keeps growing, at some point your rat will have to be euthanized so as to stop him being in pain. How long that would take? No idea.. it may not even grow any larger.
The only way to tell is to see a vet, I'm afraid. No pain is a good thing, even if it shortens her life, it's better than pain. And it may not even be worth trying to operate, because of her age, I'm not sure.
If you don't want to take her to the vet, you'll have to hope it's not serious. But please take her if she seems in pain or distressed.. other than that, I can understand your point fully.
I know this isn't much help, but there's so many causes of them. Good luck!
Take her to the vet, just in case. You can never be too safe.
take 2 vet
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