I apologize for my silence lately. I do have some sad news to share.
A few months ago I found a bump on Avi. It's near her back leg, and is in the right place for a mammary tumor. It was pretty small then and I only noticed it by accident. Fast forward to now - the tumor is still small, but is growing. It is a mammary tumor (has exactly the same tributes as the tumor Min had), which means that it is likely benign, Avi is in no pain, and it will continue to grow. It appears larger when she is moving around her cage, and seems smaller when she's reaching up against the bars, or when I pick her up to feel it (I do this about once a week to track growth). I don't believe it is getting in her way, but I'm not sure how long that will be the case.
I suspect her to be around until Christmas at least, but I could be very off in this estimation. Like Min, I'm going to wait until it gets to be an inconvenience for her, then put her down. In the mean time, I'm trying to do my best to keep her as happy and as comfortable as possible.
No new ratties, by the way. I'm waiting until January to start my search again. I'll be getting 3 of them, all female, and I'll be getting them spayed. Apparently, spaying is a very good preventative measure against these mammary tumors, and - if done by a vet who understands the smaller critters (an exotics vet, in this case) - is relatively safe. This is one reason why I want rats from a local breeder. I will know the exact birthdate of the rats, and so can get them spayed during the amount of time that spaying-as-prevention turns out the most successful (which I believe is somewhere in the 3-4 month area). My only problem is that spaying is a major operation (the tumor removal surgery is a minor operation, but costs 4 times as much), and I run the risk of losing one, two, or all three of my girls! I'm going to do some research into the current vet I use, but I'm pretty certain that he has experience in this area.
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