Hello everyone,
I have a question about my dumbo rat Ivy. She's an intact 2 1/2 year old female. For a couple of months, she's had a large bubble-like mass in her groin area made out of mammary tissue. The vet is always able to aspirate it and gets out A LOT of milk (like a teaspoon). Then the lump is not as tight. The vet thought she would just have to aspirate it every few weeks to make sure Ivy wasn't uncomfortable. She thinks it could be a pituitary problem or could be cured by having her spayed, but feels Ivy's too old for that surgery.
Aspirating the lump still causes there to be less fluid in there. But in about a day, it gets more firm again. It doesn't take long till it gets very firm. The abnormal mammary tissue definitely grew, so a lot of it is a tumor. Last week it felt like a balloon; like there's just air inside. Now it's more firm and seems bigger than her head. When she walks, it touches the ground and she has to drag it. Our vet says she will remove her lump, but she may just get another one filled with milk, which happened before. Has anyone had this kind of milk production problem with their rat?
Ivy's had a mass removal near her lower leg in April that had some weird colored milk in it when she aspirated it. We had a biopsy and it wasn't cancer. A day after the surgery, she had this little lump in her groin. And now it's become this large one that fills with milk. Poor Ivy.
Also since that surgery, two other masses appeared. One is on a lot of her upper side. The tumor is more of a flap of skin than a round one. Just two weeks ago we found a hard small lump near her chin/armpit area. It's growing fast. We have an appointment to remove the 3 of them Fri, but the vet is trying to see if there's any medication Ivy can take to prevent milk production. I don't know if she should be on medication before removing anymore lumps.
Other info about Ivy is that she is overweight. We are not giving her as many treats now to try to help with that. She's had hindleg degeneration for a few months and is getting worse. Her front limbs seem fine. She uses one hand to hold food, but is probably to hold herself up. She can still walk around by hobbling and seems to walk on her heals. Ivy is still active and happy most of the time. She's on Metacam and Glucosamine. She's also had respiratory infections where she makes the wheezing sound and she was on medication for a long time. The vet thinks it's more upper respiratory, and Ivy seems better now.
For her tumor with milk, I'm wondering if it's just the tumor that's causing the milk, so the large milk production isn't the problem? It's just that the vet's never seen a rat with one mammary gland producing so much milk before. On another rat forum someone who wrote a research paper on PTs said it's a prolactin-secreting pituitary tumor. The vet didn't think so because no other mammary glands are producing milk. She couldn't get any out of the other mass on Ivy's side. I'm wondering if there's any medicine that would reduce the milk production, and do you think it would help? Also if this is not cancer, would there be anything she could take to prevent all her tumors? I'm sure more will be growing.
Thank you for reading this and any help you can provide.
Lauren
