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Millie: Lump of fur on her back / Arthritis treatment

Moonstone

Moonstone

Warren Scout
Millie has a large lump at the top of her back above her spine. I'm pretty sure it wasn't there yesterday, it's grown really fast.

I will check her out again in the morning but I think she needs a vet visit (terrible timing as I was due to move a load of stuff from house to house tomorrow, I don't even have my car with me, just a van I hired that I'm not great at driving.)

But tumours can't grow that fast can they? I'm thinking it's a cyst or something. It doesn't seem to hurt her when I push on it.

She's almost a birthday girl, eleven years old on Monday.
 
Could be an abscess. Impossible to say without seeing it. She hasn’t had any injections or vaccinations lately has she ?

Hope the vet can help x
 
I agree that it is probably not a tumor since it grew too quickly. It sounds like some sort of fluid accumulating in that area. A vet may be able to aspirate the lump during the office visit.
 
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Thank you both. No injections or vaccinations lately. We lost her bunny friend nearly two months ago but she seemed to adapt well, has latched herself onto me instead. I have an appointment for her at the hospital at 10.15. Just going to hope for the best. 🤞
 
Not serious at all! Am very relieved. This is going to sound silly but it was a lump of fur. She has short thick fur and I've never groomed her because she's always kept it so immaculate (unlike Archie who looked like a toy with the stuffing coming out without a daily going over). But now Archie isn't around to help, and she has arthritis, there's a bit on her spine she can't reach so it built up into a lump, she was probably pushing fur in that direction. After lots of pulling it apart, the vet's table looked like a white fleece and she had a normal spine! Phew.

On another matter - she's on the highest metacam dose for the arthritis but does still crunch her teeth a bit a night when she's talking to me though her expression is a happy one (except when in the carrier, I do think travel is more painful now). The vet said that's all they do and to take her to the exotic place if I need more help. Is there anything else that can be done? I have a herbalist vet visiting us on Monday as I was thinking maybe tumeric, willow bark, omega 3... that kind of thing? She is on those joint tablets but that's yet more sugar.
 
Moonstone said:
Not serious at all! Am very relieved. This is going to sound silly but it was a lump of fur. She has short thick fur and I've never groomed her because she's always kept it so immaculate (unlike Archie who looked like a toy with the stuffing coming out without a daily going over). But now Archie isn't around to help, and she has arthritis, there's a bit on her spine she can't reach so it built up into a lump, she was probably pushing fur in that direction. After lots of pulling it apart, the vet's table looked like a white fleece and she had a normal spine! Phew.

On another matter - she's on the highest metacam dose for the arthritis but does still crunch her teeth a bit a night when she's talking to me though her expression is a happy one (except when in the carrier, I do think travel is more painful now). The vet said that's all they do and to take her to the exotic place if I need more help. Is there anything else that can be done? I have a herbalist vet visiting us on Monday as I was thinking maybe tumeric, willow bark, omega 3... that kind of thing? She is on those joint tablets but that's yet more sugar.
Click to expand...
Lots more that can be done. Other types of analgesia such as paracetamol, Tramadol or Gabapentin, acupuncture, laser therapy, physiotherapy, massage.
 
Moonstone said:
.....
On another matter - she's on the highest metacam dose for the arthritis but does still crunch her teeth a bit a night when she's talking to me though her expression is a happy one (except when in the carrier, I do think travel is more painful now). The vet said that's all they do and to take her to the exotic place if I need more help. Is there anything else that can be done? I have a herbalist vet visiting us on Monday as I was thinking maybe tumeric, willow bark, omega 3... that kind of thing? She is on those joint tablets but that's yet more sugar.
Click to expand...

What dose is this? My vet used an outdated handbook that said 0,1-0,3mg/kg, but that's below the therapeutic range and didn't work. I started to see results at 0,4mg/kg and went up to 0,6.
 
So pleased it was nothing serious for Millie and hope you can find something which will help with her pain. x
 
Thank you all. She's on 0.7ml metacam twice a day which I was told is the max for her size, she's 1.9kg roughly, so that's a bit more than 0.7ml per Kg. She started on 0.4ml x 2. I think I'll see what happens with the herbalist and then try the exotic vet if I still have concerns. She hates travelling and the exotic vet is over an hour away so I don't want to do anything requiring regular appointments. I don't know if I could do massage or physio myself? She does still dash around excitedly when food is coming, I know she's not at the pain levels she had before the metacam but I also know she's likely to get gradually worse.
 
What a lovely surprise to learn her spinal lump was accumulated fur. She may benefit from extra warmth if she is not as comfortable at night. Her medicam does is similar to my Heidi's dose and Heidi has cancer. We also added gabapentin.
I am interested in what the herbalist will suggest.
 
Thank you bunny momma. The herbalist vet was lovely, very gentle with her and knowledgable about rabbits. She watched Millie move about the pen as we were discussing her medical history and said from the way she hopped, she it looked like her lower spine was less mobile than it should be and her upper and middle sections were doing all the work, her cat-like stretches indicate this too. I had noticed the stretches but not the hopping, I suppose it happened gradually. Gentle examination confirmed it, she's stiffer and has lost muscle tone around her lower spine in the her hip area too. What was nice is that neither of us had to hold Millie down to be examined, we just bribed her with peas!

She's going to send me a report with food suggestions, recommended herbal tinctures, grooming advice, and information about laser treatment. She's also going to speak to a physio she knows about Millie as apparently I can change her environment to make sure she's getting the right range of exercises. The aim is to reduce Millies pain, reduce inflammation, try to increase mobility (though she's unlikely to get a full range of movement back), and provide strengthing support to her liver and kidneys (to help her cope with the metacam) and gentle support for her immune system as she's getting older. Also we aim to stop the joint support tablets she's having, supporting her in other ways as the corn sugar in them isn't healthy for her.

On lasers she said that cold laser therapy is only available in vets and the devices only sold to professionals (because there are safety issues particularly with eyes). However, she uses infrared treatment, and she said she thought that I could learn to do that for Millie and it would be very soothing pain relief for her.

Millie's birthday is today, she's 11 and apparently not acting her age at all! She said older rabbits used to be rare but now they are seeing more and more of them, she was saying it's the first generation of rabbits who've had enough space and an appropriate diet and vets are really seeing the results of that now.

Millie's insurance is with Pet Plan and I can get up to £750 worth of complementary therapies for her per year with an excess of £50. The excess is actually less than the £80 excess for a normal vet visit. On going treatment will be fairly inexpensive I think as I can do most of it myself.
 
I am glad you had such a positive visit with the herbalist vet.
Happy 11th birthday to Millie. She is very lucky to have you researching ways to keep her comfortable, mobile, and healthy in her golden years.
 
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