Have you ever had an issue with tumors?

I've never had an issue with tumors in my rat colony and I'm wondering how common they are. I'm not talking about megacolon, I'm talking about old age tumors. My sister's hairless kept getting tumors that would grow, then 'pop', then grow back. The poor thing had a gigantic tumor when she was 3+ years old that wouldn't go away and they put her to sleep when it got really bad.

Is it a hairless rat thing or does it happen with a lot of rats?

I have never had them with hairless rats but I do see them once and a while in my older rats.

Some of my older rats have had them.

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Originally Posted by SlitherinSisters

My sister's hairless kept getting tumors that would grow, then 'pop', then grow back.

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That sounds more like an abscess- I had a rat get those once. I thought it was tumors until they popped open... soo gross...

I've never heard of tumors popping open like that O_o

I've had rats as pets for a long while, and it's mainly the females who get mammary tumors from old age unless they are spayed. If the rats originally came from pretty bad breeding stock, they can get mammary tumors before the age of 1.

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Originally Posted by bad-one

That sounds more like an abscess- I had a rat get those once. I thought it was tumors until they popped open... soo gross...

I've never heard of tumors popping open like that O_o

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That's what I thought till I saw it. It was more like they rubbed open from rubbing on the cage/floor. Once they were open the rat would chew/clean it constantly and it would eventually go away. My mom would clean the tumor thing as well-she's a nurse so she likes that gross stuff. The last one never went away and she could hardly walk. I suppose it could have been an abscess, but when it was open it wasn't infected, it was just tissue :confused: I only saw her every now and again so I don't know how long it took to go away, or what it looked like when it first starting forming.

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Originally Posted by AkHerps

I've had rats as pets for a long while, and it's mainly the females who get mammary tumors from old age unless they are spayed. If the rats originally came from pretty bad breeding stock, they can get mammary tumors before the age of 1.

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That would make sense. Do you know how much it costs to neuter/spay a rat by any chance?

Haha I don't think it would be cheap, because they are smaller animals, so it takes more precision. Males get testicular cancer also, but it also diminishes with neutering, they don't usually get tumors.

My older, retired breeder females sometimes get mammary tumors. I don't think I've ever had a male get tumors of any kind.

I had a hamster one time that had cancerous tumors (as diagnosed by a vet) and one of them that was close to the surface could be drained and cleaned every so often. After being cleaned out it would almost seem to go away for a little while, but it always came back. :(

It cost about $60-80 I think when I had my female rabbit spayed a few years ago, but it also varies depending on the vet.

Slither sister, I've had this happen with mice. However, when I found out some rat and mouse feeds sold at petstores actually contain ingredients known to be carcinogenic, I quickly switched feed, to help prevent cancerous tumors.

Most of our feeder rats were originally from lab stock that was bred to get cancer (or other ailments), so it is fairly common. I have found higher rates of abcess in hairless if they are kept on wood chips. I use carefresh mixed with good mews pelleted cat litter.