Abdominal Mass in Olivia (Story time)

[Amaka]

Trigger Warning: photos of x ray, mass removed, and my baby girl pre-surgery. Discretion advised if you do not want to see these.
My girl’s name is Olivia, she’s about 4 years old. Not sure of her breed, as I adopted her from someone who had her for about 6 months who got her from a pet store back in August 2018. She was spayed about 3 months after I adopted her. My best guess is that she is a mini rex mixed with something else. She is white with blue eyes.

In late January/Early February, I was petting my bunny, when I notice that there as a firmness on the right side of her abdomen. It felt very round wit a few small lumps her and there on the outsides. I thought maybe it was gas so I did some belly massages and infant gas drops, but there was no change in the mass. I waited a few days (maybe 3) to watch her behavior and also took time to reflect back and see if there were any changes. Thinking back, I noticed that for about 3 days, she stopped getting on my bed in the morning to wake me up and she did this every day. She might miss a day but it was rare and would continue the next day. I also began to notice that she would only lay down on her left side to stretch her legs. If she did lay on her right side, she would lower herself to the floor slowly and cautiously. Her other regular essential habits were still normal (eating, drinking bathroom, even binkying, etc.). She was due for a check up soon anyway so I went ahead and schedule it for February 5th.

I went to 2 different vets. The first vet I went to on February 5th suggested a biopsy, which I elected to do. Further options included either watch her and see how she does  and if she got worse, put her to sleep, or attempt surgery. The biopsy later came back inconclusive. As much as I wanted to believe she was okay, I just knew there was something wrong. I schedule a second vet appointment with a different facility for a second opinion on February 12th. This was my first ever visit to this vet. At this vet, we did an x ray and the found a large mass in her abdomen. They could not tell what the mass was exactly or what other organs could be involved with the x ray. The stated that we could do an Ultrasound (declined because it was $400), attempt exploratory surgery or do nothing. I took about a day and then decided to go through with the surgery with the second vet and scheduled it for February 16th. My mind went straight to cancer but after researching, it was hard to tell what kind of cancer it was. It wasn’t uterine because she was spayed so I was stumped for what else it could be. I was a wreck that entire first half of February. I googled EVERYTHING I could find to understand what was happening to my girl and how I could help. In the days leading up to the surgery, I asked for prayers from family and friends, prayed every day, gave her pep talks, and her favorite treats. The night before the surgery, I did some last second searching and found a forum on BinkyBunny (linked here: https://binkybunny.com/forums/topic/mass-found-on-right-side/). It sounded very similar to what Olivia was experiencing so I though “maybe this is what the issue was”.

I woke up, cleaned up her crate changed the fleece so she would have a clean crate WHEN she came home (I was aware of my word choice when I said “when” because I am a firm believer in positive affirmations and truly felt in my heart that she would be okay). I took her to the vet the next day at round 9:30am. I was told they had another routine surgery scheduled for that day that they would do first, so her surgery would take place around 11 or 12. My mom and I stayed in the area and ran errands the rest of the day, and cried over our lunches hoping for a call soon. I figured that no news was good news. Eventually we went back to the vet office’s parking lot to sit and wait. We waited for about 45 minutes and received a call at around 2:30pm same day of the surgery. We were informed that she SURVIVED and was doing pretty well post op!! I was screaming internally I wanted to just jump out of my skin! The mass was a badly diseased kidney, about the size of a tennis ball, maybe slightly larger. They had to remove her right kidney, as the mass was surrounding it. They were able to remove it with no issues or complications and they did not see any spreading outside of the mass they removed.

I was told that she was lifting her head to look around but she was still a bit groggy. They said that some of her kidney levels were slightly elevated and recommended a recheck, as the elevated levels may change once the kidney was removed. She was eating some on her own pretty soon after the surgery and did leave some droppings that were normal in shape. They kept her for 2 days post op, and informed me of her improvements (eating more and going to the bathroom more). They recommended that I get a histopathology report of the mass to guide future follow up and treatment. After a day of thinking, I elected to do it.

I took her home two days after surgery. The vet sent me with Gabapentin and Tramadol to give her twice a day. She rain straight for the litter box and began eating hay and going to the bathroom. I kept an eye on her stool. Her droppings were sometimes irregular in shape and she left some cecums but I figured that this was all due to stress and lots of changes, and some pain. I was giving her the pain meds twice a day for about two week. He eating habits returned back to normal within a matter of days. To supplement her kidney and urinary health, I purchased an all-natural herbal supplement  to maintain kidney and urinary health. [Edited by moderator to remove product link]

She was doing very well at home. She was restricted to her crate but was allowed (under my supervision) to be let out of crate to stretch her legs and a change of scenery. After about a week, she was allowed out longer. I reduced her pain meds as advised by the vet to once per day after about 2 weeks then stopped after a week altogether with the pain meds.

About a week after the surgery, I got a call and was told that the man was an adenocarcinoma. The vet advised chest x rays and repeat bloodwork every 6 months for about 2 years to ensure health of kidney and no other mets in other parts of body. She went for a recheck about a month later on March 19th and the kidney levels for the remaining kidney and those levels returned back to normal!

You may be wondering why I didn’t notice until it got as big as it did:

1. The mass was inside of her body and never protruded out of the skin like an abscess or anything like that; 
2. Like all rabbits she does not like to be picked up. I only pick her up if absolutely necessary. If I do hold her longer than a few seconds I put her paws on my chest so that she feel secure so her stomach is not exposed and I am not touching her stomach.
3. She love head rubs the most, I will OCCASIONALLY pet her stomach but its rare because she doesn’t really like it. So she mostly gets head rubs, ear rubs, and some back rubs (now I will check her belly more often to catch things if something occurs.

Photos below are: her laying down before surgery (you can kind of see where the man protrudes when she lays on her side. Her belly is usually pretty close to her body when she lays down), the x rays, the mass removed, and her incision a couple of days after surgery.

She is still doing very well, even though her fur is growing back, she s currently shedding VERY badly haha!

I am happy to address any question you have, but of course I am no vet. I’ll definitely do my best to keep you all posted of any updates, if any. She’s doing very well and is truly my #miraclebun.
I hope that this story helps anyone who may have experienced this or is currently experiencing this. Best wishes to all and thank you for reading!

[DanaNM]

WOW, what a saga. I’m so happy that she is recovering well! Thank you for sharing, I’m sure this info could be helpful to other members.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Amaka]

@DanaNM yes, quite the wild ride. I didn’t realize that those source code things would show up in the post so sorry if it read weird!

[Azerane]

I am so glad to hear that your rabbit is recovering well. She’s certainly been through a lot. Thank you so much for sharing, this kind of information can be really helpful to other people.

[Bam]

Thank you so much for sharing! This is really valuable and highly encouraging!

(I removed the visible source code, I hope I got all of it, haha!)

[Amaka]

@azerane and @Bam thank you for reading! I feel like I always get the oddball situations so researching for this situation was VERY difficult, but I am glad that I was able to get some answers, make some moves and see improvements for Olivia.

Thanks for removing the source code!

[Amaka]

Good Morning,

It’s been about 7 months since her first initial diagnostic appointment, and about 6 months post op. I just wanted to provide an update after her first official recheck on August 26th. Proud to say that there are no new growths and she still ha a clean bill of health! No behavioral changes after surgery. She went right back to normal behaviors not long after surgery and is still spunky as ever! She got her weight back up after the surgery (according to the vet, the mass was about a pound of her weight!). Well before surgery, her weight was about 6 pounds, after it was removed, she was about 4 pounds. This past visit, she was slightly over 5 pounds. Unfortunately, it is not allowing me to upload x ray images this go-around but all is well!

 

[DanaNM]

that’s great! thanks for the update!

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Bam]

Thank you so much for this update! 😍

[LBJ10]

Hmm… I somehow missed this thread. This is a great story, thank you so much for sharing! I’m glad you came back to provide an update and let us know she is still doing well.

[Author]

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