I have a female rat who has 2 mammary tumors. I was interested in possibly having them removed as I already know they are benign, but they're growing larger and starting to impair her ability to walk. I contacted Avian and Exotic and they quoted me 700$ which is honestly absolutely ridiculous, and while I know they are the only "exotic" vet around, I feel they charge incredibly too much for their services. So I was wondering if anyone knew of another local vet who may see rats and is would be willing to take a couple masses off??


And no snide comments, this is the lounge.

5/24/2010 7:12:03 PM

For exotics, I've only dealt with Avian and Exotic.

However, I have recently done business for a cat with VCA Broad Street Animal Hospital in Fuquay-Varina and I noticed that they see "pocket pets." I was very happy with Dr. Pondish. You may wish to check them out or one of the other VCAs in the area.

http://www.vcahospitals.com/broad-street

5/24/2010 7:57:23 PM

i only came here to post snide comments

5/24/2010 9:51:44 PM

How old is the rat?

5/24/2010 10:25:35 PM

honestly, call up some of the vet places around that dont deal with "exotics", you might get lucky and they could make an exception

5/24/2010 10:31:16 PM

you can try medlin drive animal clinic. i used to take my birds there, but since exam pricing seemed the same or less at avian and exotic i finally switched there after i couldnt get an appointment. i didnt think the customer service was the best but they are competent.

5/25/2010 12:26:21 AM

Are you sure you need an exotic vet for a rat?

My experiences at A&E were less than stellar. The only issue I ever gave them that they successfully resolves was a minor mite issue. The biggest problem that I had with them was they charged me $500 for things they quoted me for $250 (without contacting me to let me know the bill would overshoot so drastically), and on top of that, once I contested the $500 bill, they let me know they would deduct certain amounts from that total since, in review, they realized they had charged me for procedures they had never actually performed. And after all of that, the animal still died.

5/25/2010 1:09:40 AM

For something like a rat, just ask around by calling normal vet clinics and you should be able to find someone.

I used to have a pet ferret, and as it turned out, one of the vets at our regular clinic (where we take our cats) just happened to know how to deal with them, and it wasn't much more expensive than it would have been for a similar treatment on any other pet.

This was back at my parents' house in charlotte, though, so I can't recommend anything specific in the Raleigh area.

5/25/2010 6:15:33 AM

how old is this rat? just out of curiosity, why would you pay money for an operation on an animal that won't live more than 3 years, anyway? are you a breeder?

my questions aren't meant to be snide, i'm just wondering what sort of bond you have with your rat to make it worth hundreds of dollars (if that's what it ends up costing, anyway)

and now, some news you can use! my dog had some weird tumors on her head that were completely benign and caused her no pain when i'd touch/squeeze them...i was quoted ~$500-700 around raleigh/cary to get them removed, so i took her down to a recommended vet in carthage (about an hour away) and it was a whopping $70...the fact is that vets around this area are crazy expensive and if you don't want to pay through the nose, you will probably need to start looking at more rural areas (even durham is pretty expensive)

[Edited on May 25, 2010 at 8:00 AM. Reason : .]

5/25/2010 7:59:36 AM

^ that's kind of my dilemma. she's about 2.5 years old and when she first got the tumors in January I assumed that she would eventually get to a point where I would need to euthanize her due to her quality of life being poor, that and the fact that her sister died in January, so I didn't think she had much longer. However, now 6 months later, she still has a great appetite, is active, and seems to be just fine other than having these 2 masses slowing her down and continuing to get bigger. So I began to think that if I could find a vet who would do surgery for ~$100 then it wouldn't be that bad and improve her quality of life for whatever time she has left. I'm a vet student and could probably do the surgery myself if I had the resources and I've worked with rats in research before so I know that a quote of 700$ from Avian and Exotic is simply ludicrous.

It may come down to me just euthanizing her, but my vet side knowing that they're benign tumors and completely "curable" by surgery is making me think otherwise.

5/25/2010 8:00:25 PM

When I worked at Fuquay Vet Hospital, I assisted a surgery on a rat with very large mass. So I know they can, give them a call and ask for a estimate.

5/25/2010 8:16:15 PM