Update on Jasmine

Jasmine made it through the night, and was doing very well when the vet came in today. She didn't eat too much during the night, but as soon as they put Blossom back in the cage with her, she ate immediately. What a bond these two sister's have! Jasmine looks good still, and is just doing wonderfully. Her incision site is not bleeding at all, and it looks good. Being as light as she is however, I can see the bruising under her skin. Poor thing! She flinched when I touched her near her wound. She is on metacam for 3-5 days for pain. She will take time to heal, but I am very grateful I still have Jasmine here with me. What will I do if she gets another tumor? I don't know, but I do know what I won't do: surgery. I know that means a death sentence for her eventually, but I am all about quality of life, rather than quantity. Flower, my rat who died of an intestinal tumor, had a chance to be operated on. I debated it, and the vet and I seriously discussed it. The vet said that they could open Flower up, and then not be able to remove the tumor, because it could be so vascularized and attached to organs. Also, in rats, those types of tumors are in a very tight spot and very hard to remove. On the other hand, we could have opened her up and removed the tumor successively. However, the risks of surgery outweighed the benefits of surgery. The tumor was compromising Flower's immune system, and any type of surgery was dangerous. I chose not to put Flower through surgery. We put Flower on prednisone, probiotics (since long term antibiotic use kills good bacteria, too), and antibiotics (since prednisone suppresses the immune system). The prednisone worked for a while and shrunk the tumor enough to give her more time. But, inevitably, the prednisone stopped working, the tumor grew again, and Flower had a few bad days (only 2 throughout the whole ordeal). Then one day, Flower was being her incredibly outgoing self, and extremely active self. I put her back in the cage after letting her freerange, and she suddenly started having a very bad day. Flower had tricked me with her active, social, outgoing personality. I suddenly noticed how much weight she'd lost, and that I could actually see the tumor growing; it had started growing a different way. My husband (he was my fiancé at the time) and I had plans that we couldn't really get out of, so still went. By the time we got home, Flower had passed on to the Bridge. I lost her early (at a year and ten months), but her quality of life was really good until the end. I never regretted not putting her through the surgery. Of course I wished she had more time with me, as I have never ever met a rat like Flower; she was amazing! But, putting her through an invasive procedure where the vet may not have been able to do anything about it anyway? No way!

I have put Jasmine through 2 mammary tumor removal surgeries now. Yes, they are not very invasive, but look what Jasmine went through this time! Do I want to put her through this again? Nope! We will find alternate treatments, but not surgery. It is too hard on my little Jasmine. My Jasmine who acts tough, my Jasmine who throws temper tantrums, my Jasmine who comes to find me when she is out, and crawls up my leg all the way to my shoulder so she can be with me, my little Jasmine who sits on my shoulder and plays with my hair with her paws, and then takes it upon herself to start chewing my hair with her teeth and playing with my hair with her paws at the same time to give me a new hair style, lol. That little Jasmine who rely's on me to do the right thing for her, and to take care of her. I am going to take care of her, to the best of my ability and do what is right for her. Surgery is not right for her! I am very grateful Jasmine made it through this. The vet said today she was so grateful as well. Jasmine lost a lot of blood for a rat. She may act tough, but be fragile, but she is a fighter all the way! Fight on, Jasmine, fight on!