Phil has been acting different for a few days so I decided to take him to the vet. He has not been eating anything except for his yogurt. He has been still and weak and not his normal hyper self. I also felt what appeared to be a few tick like bumps on him.
I took Robin as well for a basic checkup since I knew my vet would want to see her anyway, but she has been doing great lately.
Turns out that the bumps on Phil were just dirt and stuff that I couldnt easily investigate while holding him still by myself. Inspecting his teeth, Phil appears to have a number of dental issues including his original broken jaw area but also not limited to that. I think Phil has attacked the side of the cage a few times and has probably broken more teeth or hurt his gums or such, so he has a few noticeable issues. I believe the mouth pain has kept him from eating anything and thusly he has been losing strength and appearing sickly. So he'll be in tomorrow for dental surgery and removal of a number of dead teeth and she'll do a more exhaustive inspection on him then as well to look for any other issues.
Robin get a big hello from Jennifer as she inspected the original chest surgery area. I decided to hold Robin upside down for inspection and suddenly out of her pouch popped a large thing I had never seen before. Turns out that she has been hiding a couple of mammary tumors in her pouch, one being rather huge. I had felt something solid in her pouch before but having little experience with these animals I paid no attention to it thinking it was a normal part of something down there. So it is my fault for not catching this issue sooner. Opossums should have nothing hard or bony anywhere in or near their belly or pouch area.
So, she is also going to surgery tomorrow with Phil. Since Jennifer will have both animals sedated, if possible at the time, she may try to collect a sample from Phil and use it to attempt an insemination of Robin for me. That is low priority of course but naturally I hope it happens and that it works.
Hopefully Robin will retain at least 3 of her 5 nipples intact after her surgery tomorrow.
UPDATE:
I wanted to get a photo of Robin's tumor this afternoon so I got her out and immediately found that she has been bleeding. I dont know if she has suddenly decided to groom her tumor or if it has suddenly burst, but this is just super odd timing as I wasnt even taking her to the vet this morning, it was Phil. I guess it will be taken care of in the morning, but I did not expect the thing to be all bloody all of a sudden.
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