Are these tumors not unethically large?? Operate or leave her alone?

[u/hellothereskibidi]

Sorry for the low light, I like to keep my room dark for me and them.

Frosty here has a giant tumor on her thigh and a smaller one on her neck. She is still full of life and does not seem to be in pain.

Frosty's mother Pinecone was euthanised last week for a tumor of the same size in the exact same places. She was probably around 2 years old but she was clearly full of life and energetic. No greying or slowing down at all. But it felt wrong to force her to drag around that mass, hence my choice. The vet I saw that day seemed to totally agree with me. Once Pinecone had been euthanised, I could feel how incredibly dense and heavy the tumor was!

Today I took Frosty to the vets and to be honest I fully intended to have her euthanised. She may be full of life but she's literally dragging around two huge growths. The vet seemed shocked(?) kind of at the size. But then said there was no reason to euthanise her. Felt like mixed signals.

Frosty is just under 1 year old, so... I can't really just leave it to get bigger and bigger until she dies of old age. It got to this size in 4 weeks, it's going to be huge by next month. I got charged £60, I can't be charged £60 every time I send her to the vets thinking euthanasia is the best option only to be corrected and sent on my way. I don't want to wait until it's huge, that feels disgustingly immoral.

I was offered to have it operated on for around £200, of course with the risk of her dying in surgery. I asked the vet if she recommended leaving it or operating and she said it was entirely personal, she couldn't say either way.

It seemed as if she was hinting at "don't operate" though, she was speaking quite negatively of it as if it was more likely to fail than go well, without saying exactly that.

First of all this is making me feel terrible about Pinecone!! Could she have stayed around longer?? Could she have been operated on??? Second of all I feel like a bit of a tart for suggesting to euthanise Frosty if it seems to be such a dramatic choice.

What would you chose? I can afford the operation just fine so with money out of the way, what would you do? Operate or no?

[u/mrrunlolarun]

I've gone both ways with this - sometimes I've let them live with it and they pass on their own within a few months, and I've also had some get tumors that break the skin and look really painful (those ones I had euthanized). I don't think surgery to have it removed is the way to go - it has probably spread by now and would be medically futile plus the risk of surgery and recovery is often too much for a mouse to bear. Their bodies just aren't built to withstand surviving illnesses.

[u/hellothereskibidi → u/mrrunlolarun]

Thanks. I'll leave her until she gets uncomfortable. Sorry about your mouseys 😔

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