Hoover is a medical mystery
Ralphie's card for Hoover
So when i got up at 4 a.m. for work this morning, after about 3 hours of sleep, Nicole says to me "I think something's wrong with Hoover." We went out to check on him, and he was acting really sick, just kind of lying there and feeling cold. I made him comfortable and went on with getting ready for work, expecting him to be better or dead when i got home. That's usualy the way it goes with rodent illnesses- it's nothing or it's the end. I called home on my breaks and Nicole said he was doing the same. When i got home, feeling guilty that i'd had to leave him all day, and about my lack of attention to him in general, i held my hands on him for awhile to warm him. We decided to try and get him into the vet's office, to see if she could either say "try this, it might be ____ " or "there's nothing we can do." This vet is very cool. She took him and put him in a little tray and weighed him- it was quite pathetic. He was just flopping around like a kid who's sound asleep but you have to put their shoes and coat on them. She examined him all over (including putting a baby thermometer in his butt) and declared that she was mystified. She said he seemes semi-comatose, which he did, as there's no way you could put things in Hoover's butt if he was conscious. However, he was alert enough to do things like scratch his face and react to the shot she gave him. She speculated that his temperature might be low "because his rectum is so flaccid." That was just about the grossest thing i've heard in days. Because it seemed like something neurological, she gave him a shot of cortico-steroid or something... then in case it was something viral, she gave him another shot of antibiotic, and asked "do you think you could give him these injections at home?" We said yeah, and she showed us how to pinch the fat skin on the back of his neck and how far to insert the needle. We practiced on the towel he was laying on. She was so stumped, and before we left she was like "I know this doctor in Toronto who does a lot of work with rats, and i'm going to give him a call and see if he's ever seen something like this, i'll let you know what he says." So we left with our little bag of injections plus a larger syringe with which to give him drinks of water, and when we got home, there was already a message from her. All she and the other doctor could think of was if he'd eaten something fermented, or some kind of drug or alcohol. We didn't think it was likely we'd dropped any ibuprofen or paroxetine into his cage, and i certainly don't let them drink! Another thing she suggested was that in case he's in a hypoglycemic coma, i should give him a little bit of honey every few hours so he gets some glucose. So we've got him bedded down on a paper towel in the bottom of his cage (cos he keeps messing himself) and every once in a while i give him water or honey. He seems to be swallowing most of the time. When i came home from work, and later when i first gave him the honey, it seemed like he was grinding his teeth with happiness, like they do, which i thought was weird but very cute. So now he's my little invalid. We've got a heating pad underneath the cage, and a fleece blanket on him, and he seems to be warmer. The vet wants us to call her tomorrow to see how he's doing, and frankly i'm surprised he's still with us tonight. As much as he's unresponsive, he keeps doing things like scratching his nose and turning over onto his other side. Very confusing. Why does he have to be a medical mystery? I wish i didn't have to go to work tomorrow and leave him alone in his own pee for hours. I'm going to have to bathe him, which will only be possible if he's still this comatose! Poor little guy.
Well, since most of the non-work day was spent napping or worrying about the invalid, we got no cleaning done, and holy shit is there a lot to do before saturday! Yikes. I'm going to get to work on that now.