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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Soft Tissue Mass- Possibly Sarcoma ?

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    • Dee
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        Hi Everyone,
        I haven’t been on in a long time. Seems life keeps throwing me more things to deal with and I spend all my time online researching cures or help for the latest thing going on. Sorry, I’m whiny today.

        Anyway, I have 2 bonded rabbits, the female, Nelli, just turned 7, and the male, BunBun, is presumed to be about 7- not positive since we found him in 2008. Bun has had his share of health problems, recently a loss of balance that seemed to be caused by an ear infection. About a month ago, I thought I saw him favoring his left front leg, so I took him to the vet, but we found nothing. Last Friday, I took him back to the vet because he is no longer putting any weight on the leg. He hops around holding it under him, but he does remarkably well. So the vet found a small subcutaneous lump
        In the front of his shoulder/chest. She tried to do a fine needle biopsy but got no cancer cells or signs of abscess. They did think it was an abscess though, so we scheduled removal for today.
        Well, he’s awake and doing OK, but the mass isn’t an abscess. They got some pieces of it and sent it to pathology, but we’re unable to remove it because it has blood vessels and it extends too closely into his chest where nerves and the carotid artery are. They said it is a soft, spongy mass of tissue. They tried to squash it down and get some cells from it, since fatty tumors often release cells when pressed, but no cells came off. The vet said it could be a sarcoma, but a benign fatty tumor is still possible. He said it could cause the limping if it’s pressing on a nerve, which is one of the reasons he didn’t want to try to cut the tumor out.

        I’m preparing for it to be sarcoma. From what I know about human tumors, having a blood supply (being vascular) is not good. The fact that it is well encapsulated is OK, but extending into the chest, very bad. Also, last night, I was watching him breath, and it seemed like he was breathing harder than normal. If the sarcoma has spread to his lungs, that would make sense. I know I shouldn’t get carried away, but I’m so sad. He’s my baby. I don’t want him to suffer, or have to endure more appointments and surgeries if he isn’t going to get better.

        If anyone has any experience with any of this, please let me know. I’m going to get the pathology results next week. Meanwhile, hopefully he will return to eating, drinking, chasing Nell I and begging for food like he was today. That gives me some hope, if he was in pain, would he be doing all that or would he gave stopped eating and grown depressed?
        If it’s sarcoma, I doubt they should operate unless there is very little chance of recurrence. Thanks for any help.


      • Sarita
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          Oh, no! Vibes to Bunbun. I’ve never dealt with sarcoma only the fatty tissue tumors which seem to be very common in older rabbits. Please let us now what the pathology results are when you get them.


        • Dee
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            Thanks so much, Sarita! You’re always so kind and a great help to me ☺.

            It is encouraging that soft tissue tumors are common in older bunnies, while sarcoma is not. The fact that it appeared very fatty as well is encouraging. I guess I just can’t jump to conclusions here. I was so sure it was gonna be an abscess! The vet was too, said he felt it and didn’t even do Xrays, he was that confident it was an abscess.
            We should be getting results in 3-7 days- so at the earliest, next Tuesday. So stressful!
            Meanwhile, I have no idea of how Bun will be when I bring him home today. I just got the call to come get him as I’m typing this! He’s eating and doing fine. Any tips on bunnies recovering from surgery are welcome, of course!
            Thanks again!
            Dee


          • jerseygirl
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              Some {{{vibes}}} for BunBun.

              How is he doing Dee? Keeping my fingers crossed all is well and that everything turns out to be benign.

              Sarita, was it Bogie that got the fatty growth that was vasculated?


            • Sarita
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                Jersey, I had quite a few with the fatty growths – Giselle, Pepe, Toffee….I don’t think Bogie, but I cannot remember. Those three come to mind though.


              • Dee
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                  Hi JerseyGirl and Sarita,
                  Thank you so much for your replies and support ?. I can always count on both of you when I come here with yet another Bun Bun problem! Poor little bun, he has certainly had his share of ailments ovet the years!

                  He is doing well- hopping around, a little stiff and wobbly first, but then he limbers up. And when he wants a treat, he zooms right along on his three little legs! He’s eating pretty well, but not as much as I’d like to see. On Thursday, I noticed that his poops were getting much smaller than usual, so I began supplementing his diet with Critical Care. I give just a half ounce at a time, twice a day, and he loves it. He’s also on Orabax, Benebac and Metacam. I’m letting him and Nelli together supervised, because she occasionally likes to jump on his head and jump him ?. She’s 1.5 lbs bigger than him and I think she could hurt him by accident.

                  Anyway, our vet sent the biopsy samples out to an exotics specialist, She said it might be a couple days longer for results but it’s worth it. Makes sense- I know rabbit abscesses are very different than other animals, so maybe soft tissue masses are too. Of course, I’m staring at the lump every day trying to see if it’s growing bigger- it’s so maddening to wait!

                  We should hear from pathology late next week. I’ll keep you all posted! Thanks again ☺.


                • Dee
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                    Hey Everyone,

                    It’s benign!!! Yay!!!

                    Bun is back to his old obnoxious self, bothering Nell so much I have to separate them occasionally. He still isn’t using his left front leg very well, but sometimes puts it down or brings it forward. The other day I noticed that when I picked him up, I accidentally moved his bad leg all the way forward, you know, over my arm like you carry bunnies sometimes. And he didn’t show any sign of pain! Maybe a nerve is compressed and it feels like its asleep…? That’s better than hurting him- although I think if he was in real pain, he would show it. I can always tell is his belly hurts or his ear is bothering him.

                    Anyway, we are going to Tufts I guess, to see if it can be removed. It depends on how it’s growing, the surgery risks and recovery, and risk of recurrence. I’ll keep you posted! But for now, I’m happy!


                  • jerseygirl
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                      Such good news!
                      What a relief for you.

                      ps. My 8 1/2 neutered boy still acting like BunBun too.


                    • Sarita
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                        So happy to hear this :~) Please let us know what Tufts says.


                      • Dee
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                          Hi JerseyGirl,
                          That’s so strange, both our “old man” bunnies acting like wild bucks lol. I guess as long as they’re OK, it’s kind of cute- except for their companions! Bun is still a humping maniac with Nell when he feels well .

                          Sarita,
                          Thanks for telling me about your bunnies with the benign growths- it helped calm,me during the wait for Buns results. Did any of your bunnies have the growths in places that have them problems? If so, what was done for them? I hate to put Bun through all these appointments and possibly another surgery unless we have to.

                          Just an update on Bun. I’m bringing him to a specialist at Angell Memorial in Waltham next week. They will see if the lipoma can be removed, and if they think it is causing the lameness in his front left leg. I would want to just keep an eye on it if Bun wasn’t limping, but if it’s pressing on a nerve or whatever, that’s not good. I feel badly for Bun, sometimes it looks like such a struggle for him.

                          He was doing fine, but in the past few days, he started hiding more and not bothering his wife Nelli, which is very unlike him. On Sunday, I noticed that his poops were getting very small. I increased his Critical Care and baby food feeding to 2xday, hoping to get his gut going. Oh yeah,I have been giving him Metacam and Orabax per the vet but he tolerates both well. Yesterday, he had poopy butt and I had to give him a butt bath, which he hates. The only thing I can think of that would cause poopy butt is the small amounts of oats I’ve been giving him as treats. They used to give him P.B. but then lately he was fine with them- maybe I gave him too much ?.

                          Anyway, now he’s barely eating his hay or greens and is hiding most of the time. I’m so worried about him- he got through his ear infections that took months to resolve, then the lipoma surgery (well, the first one) and now he seems to be sick with something else. I’m hoping that his belly is just a bit funny and he will improve soon. But I’m worried that the lump is bothering him, maybe making it difficult to eat, and that scares me. I’ll let you all know how it goes. I’m not sure whether I should continue his Orabax at this point, since it might be making matters worse.


                        • Sarita
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                            I believe most of them were in the dewlap/chest area.

                            Bogies was in his neck area and it kept growing but we didn’t do a test on it and I didn’t want to put him through unnecessary surgery either because he was so old…I did decide in the end to let him go to the bridge.

                            I hope he gets better. You take such good care of him.


                          • Dee
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                              Another update on BunBun. We went to Angell Memorial today and discussed our plan of action with Dr Noonan (who is wonderful and came highly reccommended). He thinks this is an infiltrative lipoma because of the way it is attached to underlying structures. Regular lipomas are usually more loose and “grabbable”. So Bun is going for a CT scan on Monday to see how involved the lipoma is and where it is. If it has grown into the shoulder/ leg muscle they will have to amputate his leg. But he is already not using it, so he should be OK. It makes me sad, thinking of Bun having to undergo such a big procedure and recovery, but there is really no choice. This lipoma is growing quickly and could eventually (hopefully hasn’t yet!!) work it’s way into places where surgery is not possible. The location is very tricky.

                              So there we are. Good that it’s benign but bad that it’s not just a regular lipoma. I’m hoping that it is less involved than it appears and can be removed and leave the leg functional again. But as long as Bun isn’t suffering, I will be OK.

                              If any one has experience with infiltrative/infiltrating lipomas and their bunnies, please let me know about your experience. Thanks!


                            • Sarita
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                                More vibes to Bunbun! So glad you found a competent vet you like.


                              • LittlePuffyTail
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                                  Sorry, I’m just getting to this thread now. I’m glad to hear the mass is benign but obviously, sad to hear he will probably lose the leg. Best of luck at the CT scan.

                                  (((Hugs to you and BunBun))))

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                              Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Soft Tissue Mass- Possibly Sarcoma ?