Happy Birthday Hermione! I love the older girls. Although most don't seem to know there age

My old gals have mammary tumors so I know how it is, they are too old to have surgery to remove them. It's sad, but i'm happy they made it to this age, and the tumors to bug them too much.


I did the same muffin thing for my boys birthday, if you want a laugh check out my gallery. lol

If you ever want to talk about rats gimme a shout.

--
From the one and only Mitch hedberg. why'd he have to die?!
If you find yourself lost in the woods, fuck it, build a house. "Well, I was lost, but now I live here. I have severely improved my predicament!

go girl go
I lost 4 rats because of the cancer ...

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. . . : : : ~( :> : : : . . .

thats one lucky rat!

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"Prevent global warming...build a time machine" - LACEY

happy belated birthday!

I know how you feel. My girl, Sheila, has a tumor to. She is 2 years old and I can't find a vet who feels comfortable enough to remove it. However, I have her on herbal remedy that is known to either slow down or halter the growth of tumors, and in some cases, kill the tumor.

there are two herbal remedies;

1. Mycoplex Coriolus ([link])
this is a mushroom with anticancer properties to it.

2. Shark cartilage: many people do not like this route because it comes from another animal

For better results, I give Sheila a mix of both. I understand why people do not use the shark cartilage, but at the time I purchased it I was scared of loosing Sheila sooner then expected and bought the stuff without thinking. Once the stuff is gone, I do not plan on buying it again. I also don't plan on getting more females until I know I have the money to get them spayed (spaying females before they are 6 months of age has been proven to reduce their chances of developing tumors from 70% to 4%!).

Unfortunately, herbal remedies will only be effective if the tumor is still small (ex: 2 cm). and even then there is a chance it will not work (depends on the rat and the tumor) .

Wow, that's fascinating. I can't believe I've never heard about that before. Thanks for the info! If I ever have a rat with inoperable tumours again (though I dearly hope not), I shall certainly give that a go.

I did know about spaying to prevent tumours, but personally I reckon the risks of spaying - being so much more invasive than castration on males - outweigh the risks of potential lumps in future. Depends how much you trust your vets, I guess.

I've been fairly lucky with lumps and such so far - the rest of mine have mostly died of respiratory issues. And actually, I reckon Hermione simply died of old age (it was a month or so after her second birthday, she just went to sleep one day, very peacefully) rather than the tumours. She had a whopping total of six in the end, but they never affected her beyond getting in the way a bit. She lived for over six months since I discovered the first one. She was such a fighter.

*hugs for Sheila* I hope this works for your girl.

--
A balanced person has a rat on each shoulder.

To the world, you are one person. To a rat, you are the world.

The Rattic

I understand your worries, but I know a tone of people who have had this done with their females.

if you have a liverjournal account, you should join the ratties community (-->[link]) there is one girl on their who has a mixed colony who live in a combined ferret nation cage (the cage--> [link]). All rats are fixed. Of her many females she has only ever lost one. When having a rat spayed it is a good idea to interview vets and ask how many times they have done a spay and how many were successful. Luckily I have a vet in my area who is experienced. To find a rat vet here is a page full of rat vets recommended by Debbie "the rat lady" (-->western US other countries [link] midwest, eastern US [link])

*hugs for Sheila* I hope this works for your girl.

thank you :3