Thymoma

[Linuxete]

Hello everyone. I'm looking for some advice. My 9 year old rabbit Sam was diagnosed with thymoma. He started having breathing problems on October 31st. Vet suspected some respiratory infection so he was on antibiotics (Baytril) for 3 weeks. Improved a bit, but he wasn't acting his normal self so I took him back to the vet.
His eyes were bulging out, so our vet did an ultrasound and found a mass near his heart. No other testing was done, so I'm not sure what kind of thymoma this is. Our vet said there's nothing to be done, because surgery would be just too risky for him, radiation therapy not possible for rabbits where I live (Lithuania) and our only option was steroid treatment.
We got prednisolone (5 mg tablets). My rabbit's weight is 1,6 kg. He was getting a quarter of it once a day (our vet suggested we start with the lowest dosage possible). He was getting better and his eyes returned back to normal after the first dosage. But about 4 weeks of starting steroid use he started to get eye bulging again and his breathing was getting worse. I've increased the dosage from 1 quarter to 2 quarters a day, but his symptoms aren't getting any better.
Should I increase the dosage for him again? Or is there anything else I could do to help him at this point? Thanks in advance.

 

[Orenoko]

Not sure if you increased the dose woth vet advice but it sounds like you really need to liaise with your vet about this to make sure Sam is comfortable. It sounds like you may be at a palliative care point unfortunately so always consider quality of life first and foremost. Good luck with your boy.

 

[Shimmer]

There are several members on here who have had rabbits with thymoma. You could do a search (right hand side of top green banner) on 'thymoma' to look through some previous threads on the subject.

 

[Tiggertime]

Hello everyone. I'm looking for some advice. My 9 year old rabbit Sam was diagnosed with thymoma. He started having breathing problems on October 31st. Vet suspected some respiratory infection so he was on antibiotics (Baytril) for 3 weeks. Improved a bit, but he wasn't acting his normal self so I took him back to the vet.
His eyes were bulging out, so our vet did an ultrasound and found a mass near his heart. No other testing was done, so I'm not sure what kind of thymoma this is. Our vet said there's nothing to be done, because surgery would be just too risky for him, radiation therapy not possible for rabbits where I live (Lithuania) and our only option was steroid treatment.
We got prednisolone (5 mg tablets). My rabbit's weight is 1,6 kg. He was getting a quarter of it once a day (our vet suggested we start with the lowest dosage possible). He was getting better and his eyes returned back to normal after the first dosage. But about 4 weeks of starting steroid use he started to get eye bulging again and his breathing was getting worse. I've increased the dosage from 1 quarter to 2 quarters a day, but his symptoms aren't getting any better.
Should I increase the dosage for him again? Or is there anything else I could do to help him at this point? Thanks in advance.

I would discuss the dosage with your vet as soon as possible. And maybe ask if you can be referred to a more rabbit savvy vet, or see if you can find one yourself.

After a good initial response, and then significant regrowth of the mass, we found upping the dose to be effective, but we only did so with our vet's guidance. Paracetamol for comfort, and ranitidine to counter ulceration from the steroid was prescribed as well.


This maybe anecdotal, and completely off the wall, but it's worth a try... I read somewhere about the endogenous cortisol peak. In cats and dogs at least, it's apparently best to administer prednicare in line with this peak to boost it's efficacy.

"In rabbits, endogenous cortisol levels exhibit a diurnal rhythm, peaking in the afternoon and reaching their lowest point around 6:00 AM. Specifically, cortisol levels tend to peak around 12:00 PM, while corticosterone levels, another glucocorticoid, peak at 6:00 PM, according to a study published in ScienceDirect. This pattern is consistent with rabbits being considered nocturnal animals."

With this in mind, I would give Sophia her steroid mid afternoon as soon as I got in from work, rather than later in the evening as I had been doing before the mass re-grew.

How well the mass responds to steroid treatment (and I think any other treatment) depends on how rich the mass is lymphocytes.


How are you administering the prednicare? I would crush the tablets in a pill crusher, dampen some basil leaves, and fold the powdered prednicare into the basil leaf and feed her it. The dampness would keep the powder on the leaf and sometimes create a paste, so I knew she'd be getting her full dose with minimal wastage.


Good luck.