rabbit with cancer - any advice?

I have a 6 year old male bunny called Crackers who has a cancerous lump on his lip, and the vet has said it is inoperable (too close to mouth and nose, and a deep tumour), and also that it may have spread to his lymph glands already. Crackers is being referred to a more specialist unit, and I will get two or three other vet opinions before I accept that it is inoperable, but I thought I would also consult the specialist called 'lots of other experienced rabbit-carers': hence this post.

Is there anybody there who has had a vet try 'impossible' operations? was it successful? Can you give things like radiotherapy to rabbits? Anybody got any experience of this? Right now Crackers is happy and doesn't know that anything is wrong. He is only 6 and so has potentially many years ahead of him, but I would rather he died at 6 having had a happy life to the very end than that I made him ill with aggressive treatments that didn't work. I would be very grateful for any advice.

Has the Vet taken a biopsy of the tumour to find out what type it is ?

No - she said something which I didn't understand suggesting that she couldn't because of the nature of the tumour, although this was not the usual vet who I trust - he is inconsiderately on holiday, but back on Tuesday (when I will take Crackers there again). If you can give me any information that would be useful for me to have before I go to the vet (what are they looking for in different types of cancer, for example, and what the different prognoses are for them) that would be great

There are literally thousands of possible tumour types- each with different characteristics of local spread, distant spread, speed of growth, response to chemotherapy, response to cryotherapy etc etc. And not all lumps are tumours - infections, cysts, abscesses, viral papillomas and inflammatory granulomas may all appear similar. It is important to try and work out what you are dealing with before a treatment plan can be made. A biopsy can be carried out easily under a short anaesthetic and this will give your vet a lot more information. If there are enlarged lymph nodes then a sample can be collected from these (either by biopsy, or by aspirating some cells with a needle and syringe) to work out whether they are responding to an infection, inflammation or are invaded by tumour cells. Xrays may be necessary to see if deeper tissue in the head is involved or if a tumour has spread elsewhere (often the lungs are a common site of secondary spread).
I'm sure the specialist unit will be able to examine Crackers thoroughly and talk you through the diagnostic and treatment options in detail, don't panic at this stage, nothing is certain by any means
Marie

Thanks Marie - that is brilliant. It is quite likely that it is cancer (for brevity I didn't mention that about 1 month ago he had a cancer removed from that site - it looked like a wound that wouldn't heal - and that the vet who removed it was worried because, due to the proximity to nose and mouth, he couldn't remove as much surrounding tissue as he would have liked). He does have lumps in his lymph gland on the side where the tumour is. The vet is holding out to me the very small hope that this is a response to the tumour rather than an indication of its spread, but I am doing that 'prepare for the worst while not really being able to believe it' thing.

I will definitely take a printout of your post to the vet (for my reference, so I can mention things like 'sampling the lymph nodes')

As Crackers is completely happy and well in himself at the moment I am also really really agonising over the 'treat now and make him artificially ill in the hope of saving his life, with the risk of simply making him ill' vs 'let him live and be happy, and when quality of life declines, enable him to go peacefully to sleep'

I don't have any advice, but I can send lots of vibes for Crackers xx

Thank you, Cap'n H. At the moment he is so well, and pottering around the garden in his usual, greedy way, that if, on top of all the treats he is suddenly getting from me (who cares about his waistline now?), he suddenly finds himself awash in the glow of warm thoughts from total strangers, he'll be really enjoying this 'ill' business.

It is very kind of you

I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing this worry with Crackers.

I have no experience whatsoever with cancer in rabbits however we had a lovely dog a few years ago (Harley) who developed a cancerous lump in his jaw. We were told by a couple of vets it was inoperable due to it's depth and position however another vet in the same practice said he would be willing to operate and he did - very successfully too! Harley ended up with half of his jaw missing on the bottom on one side but apart from his tongue hanging out of his mouth this wasn't a problem for him. He went on for another good few happy and healthy years.

I know it can be much different for buns but the point I am making is that the inoperable to one vet is a 'tricky op' to another.

Don't give up hope. I hope your regular vet can advise you further on Tuesday.

Positive vibes being sent to Crackers and you.

Best wishes

Ruth :wave:

Thanks Ruth - this is what I think, in my heart of hearts, is Crackers' best chance - if there is a vet out there who feels they can do the operation successfully. I think that the tumour is not attached to bone (you can move it quite easily) so the problem really is that there is little spare flesh around to pull together to cover the wound. But if this was a human we'd just have a skin graft, right?

I don't have any advice, but didn't want to read and run. I hope your usual vet can help Cracker and Marie has given you some good background to go in with when you see him.

Crackers has been to his usual vet now, and it isn't good news. The vet took samples from the lump on his nose and from the lumps in his lymph glands. The were both full of melanoma cells. It looks as though in the three months since the original cancer was operated on it has spread and grown, so that interventions would at best just buy him a short time, but at worst could disable him and hurry him along the path I don't want to look down. So I have decided, as he is happy and apparently healthy at the moment, not to intervene. He will have a last, happy month or so, then when things start to fail, go to sleep. When I write that tears come to my eyes, but when I look out of the window I can see him doing his day-time doze in his favourite spot under a bush. When I let him out of his carry cage this morning after his horrible trip to the vet he hopped to the catflap, went out then sprinted down the garden, stopping only to munch on leaves that fell overnight and to flick his feet at me in disgust that I should inflict vets on him, so I am sure that this is the right decision.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts for my lovely Crackers, who is the gentlest, soppiest rabbit you can imagine.

I am so sorry the news was not better for Crackers.

I think your decision to spend quality time and spoil Crackers for what time you have left together is the right one. It is never an easy decision for anyone.

Thinking of you and sending Crackers nose rubs.

No advice I'm afraid but just wanted to send lots of vibes x