Review of tumors in pet rabbits regarding a case

Abstract

Rabbits are becoming increasingly popular as pets, so much so that the total number of rabbits in Europe is 30 million, compared to 29,347,757 million in 2021. As they are increasingly seen as part of the family, their life span in captivity as pets is expected to increase. This can be translated into the appearance of pathologies that increase with the age of the animal, such as tumors, whose prevalence has been shown to be around 14.4%. Rabbits can be affected by many different types of tumors, such as uterine adenocarcinoma, which is the most commonly diagnosed in female rabbits, followed by lymphoma, thymoma and other primary non-haematopoietic tumors of the skin, mammary gland, testes, urinary tract, alimentary system, respiratory system and musculoskeletal system, affecting specific organs such as the liver, kidneys, adrenal glands and eyes. In order to atudy a case of tumor in rabbits, the clinical case of a 6-year-old intact female rabbit is presented. She wasadmitted to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) due to the presence of a mass on the face. However, after a complete physical examination, it was determined that there were two additional tumors. Specifically, one tumor was located on the face, which was diagnosed as a salivary adenocarcinoma. Another tumor was found on the left cranial and medial mammary glands, identified as a tubulopapillary mammary carcinoma. The third and last tumor was located in the left hind limb and was diagnosed as a mixed-pattern osteosarcoma.