Rabbit lump/tumor/possibly cancer

[mollie07]

Hi- My rabbits name is Bun. He is a male and he is seven years old. Over the past month he has started limping on his front left foot. At first I thought he might have broken his toe so I brought him to the vet, got an X-ray and nothing was broken. She gave me a anti inflammatory medication to put him on. In about the span of a week he rapidly grew a lump the size of a Ping pong ball in his shoulder almost like armpit area. I Brought him back to the vet and she poked the lump with a needle to get a sample. She put it on a dish and looked at it. She said the cells seem to be in doubles when cells should normally be in singles which means that the cells are producing and they are producing negatively. (Confusing I know) she said I could send the sample out to a lab to get tested but they would probably just send it right back with the same exact answer that she gave me. She's not positive of what exactly it is.. she said it's possible it could be a cancerous tumor. She told me that if I wanted to I could biopsy the lump which would mean putting my rabbit under anesthesia, and doing surgery. She said she wouldn't want to amputate his entire arm she would try to remove the tumor without having to do that or if she cannot remove the entire tumor because of the location of it she could take out a chunk of it which would help him mobilize again to be able to use his foot. I just ran out of the anti-inflammatory medication so the vet told me to see over the next few days if it affects him not being on the medication or if it has no affect at all. I'm worried about the results of him not being on anti-inflammatory..

I am completely torn on what to do...my Rabbit seems happy.. he eats he drinks he sleeps a lot it doesn't seem to bother him it just kind of seems to be in the way. I'd hate to make him get surgery and then have to recover and be in pain. But at the same time I don't want the tumor to spread and it kills me to see him uncomfortable. He is an older Rabbit so I don't know if surgery would be ideal.. I'm not sure if that would be too stressful on him. I thought about taking him to another vet to get a second opinion but all of these vet bills keep adding up and I'm afraid the second that would just give me the same answers.. I love my bunny. He brings me so much joy in the world and I just want to help him.

Can anyone give me any advice or hope. I'm not sure what to do.

 

[JBun]

I'm so sorry about your bun

Without further testing it's hard to know if the lump is life threatening or not. Anesthesia and surgery is always a difficult decision to make, and quality of life is important. At 7 your rabbit is older but not too old to recover well from having surgery. I have a rabbit that had spay surgery at 7 and she recovered fine, though slower than my younger rabbits. With your rabbits growth developing so rapidly, that is concerning. Surgery may be your best option. Both options do carry their own risks. It's not an easy decision.
Here is a little info on one type of tumor in rabbits.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Cancer/Sarcoma/Fibro/Fibros_en.htm

If you don't feel your current vet is very experienced and you know of a better rabbit vet or specialist, it would probably be a good idea to get a second opinion.

 

[evilhare]

Ask your vet if it's okay to put him on distilled water with a pinch of baking soda. It would keep him alkaline, which helps the body beat tumors.

 

[mollie07]

Yea i might take him to another vet and get another opinion.. I just want to help him anyway i can without putting him thru pain

 

[mollie07]

I also heard that the University of Pennsylvania has a great exotic animal hospital. Has anyone heard about this/been there?

 

[Usagi_Chan]

My Pegasus died one year ago due to a cancerous tumor on one of his fore-legs. He was first diagnosed in September 2012 and the mass was removed. A VERY serious mistake was made by the vet: She removed the growth but failed to schedule follow up visits. I mssed up by not keeping a close enough eye on it and making appointments. Hence, by the time I realized it had grown back, it was too late. It had invaded his lymph nodes.

You may still have time. I read that you love your bunny very much. That is very important and his best chance is through you. YOU need to take charge of the situation and not trust to vets to handle it. You need to be proactive for your fur-baby. Don't delay until it is too late.

This may involve two operations, one to get out the tumor and another to amputate the leg if the growth is found to be cancerous. The second operation might be avoidable if the vet can tell that it is cancerous. He can amputate then and there. I would give preference to a vet who will be more aggressive in treatment.

Bunnies can do just fine with the loss of one hind leg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yujT9TlxCuc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rdhJmBh2mA
Here are a few and some have lost a front leg:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=3+legged+rabbit

I suspect that loss of a front leg is harder but a cat may make it easier though not all rabbits can adopt to a cart. Keeping their weight down should help.

Realize that rabbits as well as other animals cope quite well with loss. They don't dwell on it like many people do and they just get on with the job of living. Better disabled and alive than the alternative.

There is a yahoo group, "Disabled Rabbits" where you can get help and opinions from a number of people:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/disabledrabbits/info

I belong to that group and have found it very helpful.

bob

 

[Usagi_Chan]

also: Seven is not too old. I know of one rabbit that was 8 when amputated and he lived to 15.

 

[Usagi_Chan]

Why there is a 5 minute limit on editing is an enigma. It simply forces people to ignore mistakes or make several posts like this one to correct mistakes.

in my second post above I wrote cat -- it should have been cart.

 

[lovelops]

I also heard that the University of Pennsylvania has a great exotic animal hospital. Has anyone heard about this/been there?

Yes, actually I have. When my Buttons was first diagnosed with a heart problem I wrote to every vet medical school on the east coast that I knew had a decent surgical department. If you contact them, send a picture of your bun as well. It got me a response back within 24 hours which I was highly surprised at. It makes the email more personal with them seeing the animal that is in need of treatment or a second opinion.

Are you in PA? I would also suggest Univeristy of Maryland Vet Med School and also Johns Hopkins Vet Med School also. I think between those three it would be a good start if you are in the PA/MD area.

Vanessa

 

[lovelops]

You may still have time. I read that you love your bunny very much. That is very important and his best chance is through you. YOU need to take charge of the situation and not trust to vets to handle it. You need to be proactive for your fur-baby. Don't delay until it is too late.

I second this from Usagi_Chan. I won't go into too many details, but only YOU care about you and your bunny 100%.
I had to learn this the hard way.

Vanessa

 

[lovelops]

I agree the 5 minute deal needs to be expanded I'm going to ahve to repost my entire post that is above

I also heard that the University of Pennsylvania has a great exotic animal hospital. Has anyone heard about this/been there?

Yes, actually I have. When my Buttons was first diagnosed with a heart problem I wrote to every vet medical school on the east coast that I knew had a decent surgical department. If you contact them, send a picture of your bun as well. It got me a response back within 24 hours which I was highly surprised at. It makes the email more personal with them seeing the animal that is in need of treatment or a second opinion.

Are you in PA? I would also suggest Univeristy of Maryland Vet Med School and also Johns Hopkins Vet Med School also. I think between those three it would be a good start if you are in the PA/MD area.

Nevermind, I looked at your side bar, you are in NC.. actually, why haven't you contacted
North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Raleigh? My second/third cousin who is a vet went there and graduated. He actually fixed 3 of my animals.
Have you already contacted them and they were negative?

If so, I would then start working my way up the coast. I actually had Cornell look at Buttons blood work and lab results, so don't think it can't be done. You have to be persistent!!!


Vanessa

 

[Usagi_Chan]

@ lovelops --- mollie07 is the original poster. She has a rabbit with a growth. She seems to be from Bucks County PA which is Northwest of Philadelphia PA. I live near Raleigh NC.

My fur-baby Pegasus died about a year ago from a similar fibroid sarcoma. My Pegasus was about seven.

Last year when Pegasus became sick I contacted NCSU vet school. I found they would charge a lot more than my vet just to look at Pegasus so I gave up on them. I was surprised and disappointed. I would have thought they would look at it as a teaching opportunity. Anyways, beware that vet colleges aren't necessarily an economical solution.

Sadly, money is a factor. Many of us don't have unlimited funds and hence we may be forced to make a very painful decision.

bob

 

[mollie07]

@Lovelops you did or u didn't take ur rabbit to upenn? I have the cell slide sample from my vet already so I was hoping to take it to upenn for them to do lab work on it.

 

[lovelops]

@Lovelops you did or u didn't take ur rabbit to upenn? I have the cell slide sample from my vet already so I was hoping to take it to upenn for them to do lab work on it.

No, my stuff went to Cornell. They were doing a study on the blood disorder
my guy had...we just lucked out.

Let me know what UPenn says.

Good luck! You are in my thoughts..

Vanessa

 

[mollie07]

Thank you! I'm taking bun in to get a biopsy at upenn. Hoping to get some answers. Thanks for the support! Send us happy thoughts

 

[mollie07]

So here's an update on Bun: I took him to Upenn Ryan Vet Hospital yesterday. The Dr. did a full exam on him and she said everything else looks good and healthy. She ran a blood test and that came out fine as well. She was hoping to do a punch biopsy to figure out what the mass really is and if it's cancerous.. But after some further examination she said a biopsy might not be a good idea. She said the mass is in a spot where there's a lot of nerves and important blood vessels and she would be afraid to do a biopsy and puncture one of his nerves. The mass seems to be in his armpit area and wrapped around his arm . She suggested either an X-ray or a Catscan to get further details as far as if he would even be a candidate to do surgery and remove the mass or if the mass has wrapped around his bone we might have to amputate his front leg .

Bun is still happy and eats and poops and drinks. It just seems to be in the way causing him not to be able to use his front left leg. I'm not sure what to do... A Catscan is around $200 and then if we decide to do surgery it could be between $1200- $2300. Idk if it makes sense to try and do surgery and put him through that Orr to let him be.

Any advice? If you were in my shoes what would you do?

Also, can anyone recommend a vet hospital that does cat-scans in pa bucks county area?? Upenn cat scan was around $600 so I'm trying to find a local vet that's more affordable.

Thanks for reading my post and any information will help!

 

[lovelops]

Ok my two cents after spending over a thousand on Mris on my own animals I would want the best scans possible. I think a vet school hospital would have the best equipment and this is KEY be able to read them correctly.

Case in point I broke/ fractured my ribs Jan 20th. The first place I went to could not read the X-rays and said I had bruising. My husband works in radiology at the hospital 5 minutes from our house. He took my X-rays and ct scans in. I have FOUR fractured /broke ribs. I knew it because I could feel it but needed dr back up for treatment being correct. The dr at the hospital did us a great favor to take his time and really look at both the X-rays and ct scans. How can one dr read the same thing and find nothing and another find everything????

 

[lovelops]

My iPhone is sending this before I'm finished but if surgery was possible to remove after a good ct I personally would do it. I would try to get the mass out with out amputation as well. I'm sure others will offer some other option but please keep us posted!!!

Vanessa

 

[Usagi_Chan]

mollie07 -- What you are describing sounds like what my Pegasus had. He was a mini-lop about 6 1/2 years old. The mass was removed in September 2012 and a biopsy done. The biopsy described it as a "poorly differentiated sarcoma." I eventually learned that term meant it was likely to grow quickly. It was wrapped around his leg. I believe it had also invaded the bone. Like Bun, it was also on the right front leg.

If I had it to do over again (and I REALLY wish I had) I would have told the vet to amputate the leg if he found the mass had invaded the bone or if it was impossible to totally remove.

Pegasus had a bond-mate, Thumper, who worshiped the ground he hopped on. For Thumper's sake it was imperative to do everything to save him. Thumper is still with me and has a new friend but she doesn't worship him like she did Pegasus.

Surgery by an exotics specialist is almost certainly going to be expensive. The mass on Pegasus was initially removed at a cost of $273 by a vet who knew rabbits but did not specialize in them. I had three bunnies neutered/spayed by that vet before this so I had some trust in him. A friend on bunspace told me that her bunny cost about $700 to have his hind leg amputated. There is a group on bunspace for tripod bunnies.

Pegasus died February of last year. When I realized the cancer was back, it was too late because the cancer had invaded his lymph nodes. That is my fear in your case. My opinion is that you need to get a diagnosis quickly before you find it is cancerous and has invaded his lymph nodes and you find it is too late to help Bun.

So here's my opinion:
Find a vet who will remove the mass for a modest cost. (I emailed a bunch of vets and made lots of calls to local vets, including ones who were NOT exotics specialists and I asked for quotes) Get the mass removed and biopsied ASAP. If it is cancerous make SURE you schedule checkup visits at least once a month and examine him yourself for any sign of it returning. If it does return, have the leg amputated.

Again, bunnies adapt well to amputation and can live full lives, 15 years if they're lucky and have good care. They don't dwell on their disability but simply get on with the business of living.

bob

 

[Usagi_Chan]

Curses on the absurd 5 minute limit on editing !!

Add to my last post:

As I suspect lovelops implied in her post,
Cat scans, xrays, etc. are not likely to give definitive answers. They are more likely to simply waste precious time. Surgery and biopsy is the only real way to know what you are dealing with.