Our vet david grant works his animal magic

Q MY six-year-old female rabbit has developed a lump. My vet suspects a mammary tumour and says further tests will be needed, including X-rays and biopsies. Is this common?

A YOU don’t say whether your rabbit has been spayed. If not then cancer of the mammary glands is common and is often associated with uterine cancer. It is for this reason that neutering of female rabbits is strongly advised.

Your vet is right, in my view, to advise further tests. This will involve cost but will give you information as to how best to proceed.

I would expect the initial tests to be X-rays of the chest and abdomen and if your vet has the facilities an ultrasound examination too. This will indicate whether there is any obvious spread of cancer.

There are two further useful tests. The first is a fine-needle aspiration, which samples the lump. It is possible from this to determine if the lump is benign or malignant. The definitive test is a biopsy, where a small piece of the lump is sent to a laboratory. This will determine exactly what type of tumour is present. If benign then surgical removal would result in a cure.

However it is still possible with radical surgery to cure malignant tumours if they have not spread.