My flatmate has 2 sister rats, just turned 2- a good age for rats! They're getting a bit old and scabby and slow and sleepy (when they're up and about they're like rockets but they do spend more time asleep etc than they used to).
One of them developed a lump on her left hind..heel? I'm not sure what to call that area of the leg because so much of the leg seems to actually be a huge long foot! But the area where the foot 'joins' the leg has a lump:
-it has slowly grown over the last month (but still isn't even the size of a pea yet)
-she has started to take notice of it whereas before I never saw her lick/nibble it.
- it started as a fleshy skin coloured lump but now looks a bit like a 'sore' of some sort, red and shiny in the middle (but not bloody)
- I wouldn't say it's hard OR soft (google tells me this could indicate if it's cancerous or not) it's just sort of in between. I haven't got a really good poke at it though
Does anyone know what this is?! ALSO the other rat looks to have the beginnings of the same thing on both her legs (in exact same place) so I wondered if it was just like humans getting hard skin on their heels over time?
Flatmate is reluctant to take them to the vet as she's worried the stress combined with their age will kill them. They don't SEEM to be in any pain/out of sorts?
We (another flatmate and i) used to have a hamster who got a very similar sore on his chest- flatmate rang vet who said it's normal when they get old, it's a tumour and he'll probably die soon. He did. But again, didn't seem bothered by it.
So basically: does anyone know what these are? And if it's worth the stress of a vet trip? They're very beloved by flatmate (I've grown quite fond of them too!) but they are old for rats I guess.