Expert: Janell McMorran - 11/1/2009

Question
hello,
i have a 3 year old female rat and until the start of summer this year she has been fine, then she got pinkish reddish things around her eyes and nose which i think is a "rat cold"?? but now she's got this big lump thing under her arm and its getting bigger, it looks like a growth thing but i cant find anything on websites about it, and i was wondering if it was a sign of cancer? if not do you have any other ideas by any chance? thank you

Jess

Answer
The red/pinkness around her eyes and nose is porph, basically rat tears/mucus is red and stains the surrounding skin and coat pink, or sometimes red if there's a lot of it. The lump under her arm is a tumor, probably mammary, and usually benign (not cancerous). It's recommended to remove them, however if she's not in pain and is doing fine, you can leave it. Of course removal fastly increases her lifespan, whereas if the tumor is left she will inevitably eventually pass away due to it scraping the ground and becoming infected. Tumor removal is usually a very standard proceed among most pocket pet vets.

Good luck!