Here we have an exceptionally large tumour which grew incredibly fast. It was originally being treated successfully with Mycoplex Coriolus and had stopped growing altogether, but, after treatment was unaviodably stopped for a few days, the tumour grew to this size. As you can see, it had a very healthy blood supply which is probably why the Mycoplex worked as well as it did.

This is the same tumour opened up, there were at least  seven seperate masses joined together by thin membranes, including one filled with clear liquid and jelly (centre), and one which was like dissecting cartilege (bottom right).

Hatty, Phoebe and Fidget.

These tumours were removed from Hatty and Phoebe. The two on the left were Hatty's and known about, but the one on the right was found during another surgery on Phoebe to remove her bladder stone, so it was an excellent observation on the part of the vet. None had a good blood supply, and they never returned after removal.

This one was taken from my Fidget's chest. On dissection I found that it was mostly filled with a white fatty liquid. It had many chambers, some were filled with this fatty stuff, and others were filled with clear liquid.

Angelina

Here's my Angelina preparing for her first tumour surgery, early in 2004.

She had two malignancies on the left hand side (as you see her here) and one other on the right. Sadly, they came back again. After treatment with Mycoplex Coriolus, most of them seemed to stop growing, but one continued to grow on her  right side.

She was booked in for surgery for the 25th of August 2004, but the tumour ruptured the night before. The removal went ahead as planned, and here's what came out.

The skin had necrotised at lightning speed and had to be removed along with what was left of the tumour, plus some healthy skin to aid healing. On the left is the healthy part that had to be taken with the healthy skin around the edge, and on the right is the dead tumour, along with the dead skin that was removed too. As far as I can gather, the Mycoplex actually killed the tumour off completely, and as in what must be extremely rare cases, the dead tumour continued to cause pressure inside the skin, causing it to become necrotic.

Angelina developed more tumours which were removed on the 24th of November 2004.

These had spent the day in formaldehyde and so the colour isn't quite right. The tumour on the top right had a good blood supply, and in theory should have responded to the Mycoplex.

It is with great sadness that I have to report that Angelina was sent to the bridge on the 28th of December 2004.

During the year 2004, she'd had 3 surgeries to remove at least 10 tumours, and she died with three still attached.

One of which had ruptured after going necrotic, we were trying to boost her up to remove it, but sadly she was far too weak and became very ill. I decided to remove the necrotic tumour post mortem, so that I could bury her without it.

As you can see, my poor baby would have been in considerable discomfort. Located between her front legs, the tumour had started to go necrotic and stank. The skin had died as well, which is why it's so dark.

This is the tumour, necrotic side up. The healthier side is on the left, the necrotic part on the lower right. It had gotten to the point where it had turned to jelly and almost fell apart upon removal.

This is the other side, and you can see the darker areas, which were blood vessels, one of which was quite large and healthy.

Here is Angelina after I removed the tumour, the necrotic skin is still in place. You can see that the tumour came out quite cleanly and was only attached by a few membranes and a couple of blood vessels, but even so, it still took me quite a while to remove.

This is the necrotic skin that I also removed. You can see that the fur is still attached, but the skin itself is very dark. On the second picture, the lower part of the skin is still pink and healthy. In surgery, if necrotic skin is removed, a portion of healthy skin is also taken so that the two edges will heal together properly so quite often an animal ends up losing more area of skin than is originally thought by the owner..

By the time I had finished, Angelina looked like the tumour had never existed, which was my intention. I didn't want her going to her final resting place with such a horrible thing attached to her. I would have hated to have been a vet removing my first tumour, I was nerve wracking enough and I knew that technically I wasn't hurting her. The time it took would have been extremely dangerous for her if she were alive and under anaesthetic. There was very little blood loss, but finding where the tumour ended and the skin and muscle began was tricky.

I would very much like to state that under no circumstances would I ever have attempted to remove the tumour myself had Angelina been alive, and tumour removals should ALWAYS be performed by a qualified vet. Home surgeries are a foolish thing to attempt, as there is no way for the 'surgeon' to have the proper facilities should anything go wrong, and there would be heightened risk of infection. Your pets are worth getting proper care for.

Fee's Tumours

These three tumours were removed from a rat called Fee, and their collective weight amounted to 2.5Kg. they were found to be malignant. The rat stopped breathing during surgery but was sucessfully resuscitated by the vet. She was over two years old at the time of the removal, but was otherwise in very good health. She lived about a month after the surgery and died of natural causes, the tumours having never grown back.

Toffee's tumour

Toffee developed a lump in her right groin area, which was surgically removed.

Here is Toffee, with a white arrow pointing to the tumour, which was removed the following day.

The blue arrow points to her back leg.

Here is the tumour, on the left is the topside, on the right, the underside. You can see that in the right hand picture, the tumour has a large rounded area in it's centre which was very hard. I was able to seperate the lump into 6 seperate masses which were originally connected together by thin membranes.

The largest piece on the right is the large rounded area from the previous photo. It turned out to be very hard, and was difficult to slice into, almost like cartilage.

This is the cartilage-like piece opened up. The mass was the same consistency throughout and took quite a while to cut into, even with a brand new scalpel blade.

Internal Tumour

Sometimes tumours develop inside the body, and grow around organs and major blood vessels. These tumours are much more difficult to remove, and occasionally are inoperable. This is a photo submitted to me by a member of a rat forum.

This is an inoperable internal tumour, as you can see, it was wrapped around major blood vessels as well as organs, and sadly, the rat had to be euthanised during exploratory surgery. It was about the size of a golf ball, and could be felt inside, although wasn't visible from the outside.

This is why it's very important to regularly feel your rats, not only in the normal areas where mammary tumours develop, like armpits and groin, but also in their abdomens, just in case you find something sinister. As with any tumours, they're easier to remove while still small, but in some cases, like this one, nothing can be done.

I would like to stress that this is a much more rare ocurrance. 

If you do find something inside your rat, never assume that it can't be removed, always seek the advice of your vet as nobody will know what's going on inside your rat better than your vet.

There's a reason why they train for as long as they do.