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littleheavenWell, the girls had their day at the vet today. Ella's two hard little peas were removed from inside her left hind leg. She seems fine - she's limping a bit on that leg, but is eating and seems pretty bright. The vet said she tolerated the anaesthetic really well, as she has on her previous two surgeries. So that's the good news.
Bad news is the long-term prognosis is grim. The vet found lots of other little pre-tumours all through Ella's mammary tissue, so soon she'll be riddled with them, and there's little we can do about it. Certainly surgical intervention would be too much for her on such a large scale, and there's no medication to prevent it. Abby's big squishy lumps are nastier, and the vet said to remove them he'd have to split her right down both sides, shoulder to hip, and that even if he took them out, they'd grow right back, so it wasn't in her best interests to put her through such major trauma for very little gain. So she didn't get anything done at all, just got knocked out and thoroughly inspected.
I'm not too upset at this outcome. They've lived longer than just about any other rat I've owned, and are still bright and happy at this point. The likelihood of any rat living past three is slim, and they've got just 12 weeks to go to get to that milestone. Even now, every day is bonus territory. I'd pretty much resigned myself to the fact that they weren't going to be around too much longer, even before I found the lumps. Now I just know what's going to kill them, the 'when' hasn't really changed. I'm also glad to know that I won't be putting them through any more nasty operations, and that my initial instinct to let nature take its course is indeed the best thing I can do for them now. Had I not attempted surgery and they'd died, I'd always wonder if I did the right thing. But now that the vet has confirmed that we've done all we can, I can take that journey in peace.
I'm going to investigate natural therapies and methods of slowing the growth of these nasty little benign tumours, see if I can give them some more time. And from now on it's double cuddles, and they can eat whatever they darn well like, even if it is fattening or too high in protien.
So, not the best news in the world, but at least they survived the anaesthetic, and I'm at peace with the outcome.
Bad news is the long-term prognosis is grim. The vet found lots of other little pre-tumours all through Ella's mammary tissue, so soon she'll be riddled with them, and there's little we can do about it. Certainly surgical intervention would be too much for her on such a large scale, and there's no medication to prevent it. Abby's big squishy lumps are nastier, and the vet said to remove them he'd have to split her right down both sides, shoulder to hip, and that even if he took them out, they'd grow right back, so it wasn't in her best interests to put her through such major trauma for very little gain. So she didn't get anything done at all, just got knocked out and thoroughly inspected.
I'm not too upset at this outcome. They've lived longer than just about any other rat I've owned, and are still bright and happy at this point. The likelihood of any rat living past three is slim, and they've got just 12 weeks to go to get to that milestone. Even now, every day is bonus territory. I'd pretty much resigned myself to the fact that they weren't going to be around too much longer, even before I found the lumps. Now I just know what's going to kill them, the 'when' hasn't really changed. I'm also glad to know that I won't be putting them through any more nasty operations, and that my initial instinct to let nature take its course is indeed the best thing I can do for them now. Had I not attempted surgery and they'd died, I'd always wonder if I did the right thing. But now that the vet has confirmed that we've done all we can, I can take that journey in peace.
I'm going to investigate natural therapies and methods of slowing the growth of these nasty little benign tumours, see if I can give them some more time. And from now on it's double cuddles, and they can eat whatever they darn well like, even if it is fattening or too high in protien.
So, not the best news in the world, but at least they survived the anaesthetic, and I'm at peace with the outcome.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-01 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-02 05:27 am (UTC)