Growths found in a senior bun...advice/thoughts?

[Kris002]

Hi!

New to the forum today. We have a Netherland dwarf bunny named Daisy. We adopted her at the age of around 4 years old from the animal shelter I worked for at the time. This was our first bunny and we have had her for almost 5 years. We thought she was NOT spayed and at the time didn't realize that it was still ok to have her spayed so we didn't do so. We have learned a LOT about being bunny moms, and see that there is tons more to always learn.

Last week when picking her up I noticed a growth of some sort. It starts right under a nipple and then has almost a "rope" like feel that goes in toward the middle of her tummy...maybe a half inch. Imagine it feeling like a rope with a tiny knot on each end.

Obviously, we thought the worst which is a mammary tumor. We took her in to the vet yesterday, where she feels some sort of growth in her dewlap that I don't really feel... vet is saying we could have it biopsied w/ sedation and have it tested to see if it is cancerous, but doesn't think that we should do the spay surgery and lumpectomies due to Daisy being around 9 years old and it being a lot of area that would be affected.

If we aren't going to do the surgery, why should I put her through the biopsy? Other than to know to keep look out for tumor growth, discomfort, pain. I'm looking here to see if anyone has had a senior bun like Daisy with a similar situation and different outcomes?

Another side note: Someone that I worked with at the time basically swears she thought the woman that released Daisy said she WAS spayed...is there any way for me to tell myself? What could this be if she is indeed spayed?

I appreciate any insight...we don't want to lose our bun, but we also don't want to put her through the ringer either. She has no behavior changes, eating drinking and snuggling like normal. I wish I hadn't found the darn thing and we could still be living oblivious, happy and not worried.

 

[missyscove]

Welcome to RO! I'm sorry you have to join us under such difficult circumstances.
Unfortunately mammary tumors can occur in spayed or unspayed rabbits. In dogs there's evidence that spaying early in life may be protective when it comes to mammary tumors and we can presume that it may be similar for other species but unfortunately the supporting evidence for dogs indicates that dogs spayed after they've gone through several heat cycles don't really benefit when it comes to decreasing mammary tumor risk. If you do want to confirm if she's been spayed typically that's done by shaving the abdomen and looking for a spay scar. This is obviously not an exact science as better suture jobs usually leave smaller scars. (This is why some vets, especially in shelters, use tattoo ink on spay incisions). In some species we can do hormone assays to determine if there are ovaries. This is typically done in animals that are supposedly spayed but are still acting like they aren't to see if a remnant of the ovary was left behind. Then of course there's going to perform a spay and not finding anything.
My very first rabbit had a mammary tumor. We adopted her as an adult and the shelter spayed her so we don't know how old she was at that time. A few years later I felt a lump and fine needle aspiration suggested it was a tumor rather than an abscess (the two top differentials) so we had it removed. Histopathology came back indicating it was indeed cancerous. She had pretty good quality of life for about 6 months after that but then went downhill pretty quickly and then we elected to euthanize.
I see your point on not wanting to do the biopsy, but it's important for your vet to offer it. There are some owners who just want to know what it is even if there is no treatment. Sometimes when a veterinarian wants to know what something is that's been surgically removed and the owner doesn't they'll send it in as a "professional interest" which is cheaper but takes longer to come back.
The ideal surgery in your case would probably be to remove the entire mammary chain and spay her, but if there is indeed a lump in the dewlap of the same origin that's not a good sign. Before proceeding to surgery your vet may suggest taking radiographs of her lungs as that is often the first place tumors metastasize to (at least if they're traveling through the blood because all blood circulates through the lungs). Unfortunately even that's not an exact science as tumors in the lung can be too small to identify on radiographs at the point where owners elect to remove the primary tumor.

I'm not sure how much rabbit experience our vet has but it sounds like she's not comfortable with the idea of anesthetizing Daisy. You could seek out an exotics specialist who may be more comfortable if you think you really want to do surgery or you can focus on palliative care and make sure she's spoiled rotten to the end.

 

[BrittsBunny]

Firstly, welcome to the forum! i

Secondly, I completely understand your concern. I too have a senior dwarf who is approx. 9-years-old with a mass between his toes. Please see my thread: http://www.rabbitsonline.net/showthread.php?t=83860

So far the mass has only been aspirated and ultimately the doctors are not quite sure what it is. I have been treating him for almost 2 weeks with an anti-fungal which hasn't done a thing. I am going to possibly have Wrangler rechecked this week. The doctors may want to do a biopsy but that would require anesthetizing my rabbit and then removing a portion of the mass. I am not sure how I feel about that.

Quite frankly if the mass is merely going to exist I would rather not have it removed. It's just not worth putting my senior bun through the stress and other potential complications. He is a happy and otherwise healthy rabbit.

I am on the fence. It is reassuring to know that I am not the only senior rabbit owner who is in the same boat.

 

[Kris002]

Thank you both so much for replying! Hearing other experiences and circumstances are really what we were looking for and you are both providing that!

Daisy is still a happy bun, and is getting spoiled...which is how she has been treated since we adopted her She doesn't seem to know anything is up...except that she is not a fan of me putting her on her back to check everything out. We are still going back and forth on the biopsy. We are pretty sure that we don't want to put her through the full surgery...spay and removal of the two spots...we don't want to put her through so much trauma. (Not saying our minds won't change on the surgery, but the overall feeling is that we'd prefer to not put her under for fear of her not waking up, or it being too much body mass she would have to deal with healing to make it afterwards and decline her quality of life.) As for the biopsy, we're debating what good knowing one way or the other would be if we indeed don't want to have the full surgery done. Granted...knowing it is nothing and Daisy going on about her happy bunny life would be great! But the vibes we got from our vet along with the likely hood of it being a cancerous mammary tumor, we could just proceed as it is and just keep close checks on her. We don't want to cause any stress on Daisy that doesn't have to be there...but still we go back and forth on the biopsy decision. I think we are still sort of letting it all sink in.

I've taken to trying to memorize the exact feeling of the tummy growth...to do my best to tell if it changes.

It's so nice to come to a place where people understand what we are going through...we told a friend this past weekend and they did the whole "Well...it's a bunny..." not fully playing down everything, but sort of.

I hope that Wrangler's little foot starts to show some progress in getting better! But as long as he couldn't care less about whatever is going on with it...the better!

 

[missyscove]

I agree with your line of thinking. With our pets it's really about quality of life, not necessarily quantity. Often we like to recommend to owners of any animal that you take time now to think about the things your pet enjoys doing (for example, eating, digging, running through my favorite tunnel, etc.) and then down the line when you notice your pet isn't doing those things that make life enjoyable anymore, that's a good sign that maybe it's time. You sound like a very loving bun owner/parent and I don't doubt that you know how to make a bun's life enjoyable.

 

[BrittsBunny]

Kris thank you for your kind words. I too hope for the best for your sweet girl. At least we have the peace in knowing that we have given them both a wonderful life. I have had Wrangler since 2008 and he has been such a buddy. I have taken him everywhere with me. The bond between us is just so incredibly precious. He has really learned to trust me.

Therefore it leaves me with what to do next? Do I proceed with a biopsy? Will that anger the mass? Do I leave it alone not knowing what exactly it is? Like I stated above, I am going to consult with my veterinarians this week and see what they advise.

I agree with "quality vs quantity" as missyscove pointed out; it makes a lot of sense to me when it comes to our senior pets.

Please keep us posted Kris about your bun and know that we are hear for any kind of moral support.