Tumors

[toyota89]

I found a large tumor on one of my female breeders. It wasn't there last weekend. What should I do?

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[Mike41793]

Euth and feed!

They can survive for awhile with pretty big tumors. The tumor will probably just keep getting bigger. Not really sure theres anything you could do to help her. I would ask Satomi, if she doesn't comment here. She works extensively with rats.

[toyota89]

Yep waiting to see if she does. Didn't know if I could still feed her off.

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[Flikky]

I had a rat with a huge tumor. Just kept growing. Common in females. They're very expensive to have removed. Honestly, I'd Euthanize her.

[PitOnTheProwl]

I put them down and trash them. I just don't want to feed to anyone's OR my own collection.

[shadowsnakes]

Give her a nice fat treat, a couple rubs along her back, then euthanize and trash. You never know what is causing the tumor. If it is due to scar tissue around a foreign body, you are risking feeding that foreign body to your collection.

[toyota89]

OK thanks guys.

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[Mike41793]

Something effecting the rat like that can't effect the snake like that.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Something effecting the rat like that can't effect the snake like that.

I wouldn't bet another snake on it.
My male yellowbelly bas a small tumor on the left side of his lower jaw that is starting to grow. I will let him go till I see it becoming a problem. This guy is a mouser and has downed many "bumpy" mice because I didn't want to waste a life/death of an animal. What caused it? I don't know.

[satomi325]

Just cull the female. It's just going to get worse in time unless it's an abscess.

Its fine to feed off. Female rats often get mammary tumors due to being bred. And those tumors are usually benign anyway. The tumors are stimulated by estrogen and/or menopause. Roughly 50% of female rats will get mammary tumors and the majority are not cancerous. I'm not saying that cancer never happens, but it's unlikely that they are malignant. I'm sure many people have fed off rats that had unknown pituitary tumors, for example, and their snakes are fine. I know I have with no ill effect.

Most illnesses rodents have are species specific anyway. Not to mention, the biology of a carnivore's stomach is very acidic. Way more than omnivores and herbivores. That high level of acidity is to kill bacteria and other nasties found in raw prey. And a feeder with cancer cannot give cancer to a predator. That's not how cancer spreads......