Lump on Abdomen

[Dyminem2]

We have a 2 year old female rabbit, she was spayed a few months ago. This week we found a considerably large lump on her abdomen right between her legs. She has not pooped in about 4-5 days, she is still eating and drinking. We took her to the vet, and they did an ultrasound to confirm there is indeed a mass, but we don't know what it is. We won't be able to afford surgery, so we are just looking for some answers! If anyone knows what might be going on please let us know. Thank you!!

 

[Mac189]

While the lump is the most obvious problem. it isn't the most pressing. First off, I'm gonna ask a few questions to get a slightly better idea of what's going on. Is your vet rabbit-savvy? Are you sure she hasn't pooped at all in 4-5 days? Not pooping for 24 hours is an emergency in rabbits, so the vet should be extremely concerned by that information. Did you tell the vet that she hadn't pooped in that long? Is she showing evidence of being dehydrated or being in pain (grinding teeth, hunched position)? Is she behaving differently? Has she pooped since?

A lump is not necessarily something that needs to be removed, depending on what it is and where it is located. It could be a cyst, a benign tumor, or unfortunately a malignant tumor. None of these things will kill a rabbit overnight, but GI stasis (the digestive system stopping) will kill a rabbit extremely quickly. A rabbit can live a full life with a benign tumor and surgery is not always necessary in that case.

To sum up, I'm far more concerned by your rabbit not pooping than the mass. The mass can be solved in time. What you are describing is GI stasis and is an absolute emergency. If your vet wasn't worried by this, you need to find a new vet ASAP and go to them immediately.

 

[JBun]

If she doesn't start pooping soon because the mass is obstructing the bowel, surgery is really the only option. I'm afraid that's the only thing that can be done to try and save her. If she does start pooping, then it's just a matter of the vet determining what the mass is and whether or not removal is necessary or not. But the lack of popping is a big problem and needs resolution soon.

 

[Dyminem2]

We took her to a special rabbit savvy vet, he gave her some medicine that is supposed to help her poop. He did say that her lymph nodes were swollen on the ultrasound. (This was a few days ago) this may sound gross but she does have some brown liquid slowly seeping out. She has been drinking plenty of water so I don't think she is dehydrated. She really hasn't been acting differently, and only grinds in pain when you touch the mass. She has an appointment to go back on Monday, but we just have to get her through the weekend


This is what we woke up to this morning.

 

[Dyminem2]

Just an update: we ended up driving an hour and a half to go to an emergency exotics vet on Saturday. We waited 8 hours for her to be seen, and they told us she was very sick. They weren't even concerned with the mass at that point. She had 2 possible issues, her secum was leaking gas into her abdomen because all of her good bacteria was gone, or an intestinal torsion. Her albumin level were abnormal. They said that even if we opted to operate, there was no guarantee that she would survive. So at 2am on Easter we had to put her down. Thank you for trying to help please say a prayer for Sandy ❤

 

[Freedom]

Rip sweet baby