(no subject)
Been a while since my last update; I just don't have much time these days.
Sadly, I've lost some ratties since, and some are unwell also, but we've also gained some newbies, so swings and roundabouts.
Since my last update, I've lost both Herbie and Kitt.
Kitt, as mentioned last time, had an internal mass, so his death was not unexpected. I had to have him euthanised as he started losing an awful lot of weight, and his quality of life was minimal.
Herbie, however, was slightly more unexpected. I still don't know what caused his death, but about 2 weeks after Kitt was pts, I found Herbie dead in his hammock, apparently having died in his sleep. He was an old boy, and was beginning to show signs of kidney faillure, but was a bright, happy, normal rat. He hadn't been QUITE the same since losing Kitt, however. They were two old boys who had spent the majority of their life together, and even once they were in a big group of other rats, they still had a specific bond to one another. I suppose there is a possibility Kitt's death affected Herbie more than I thought. Its not unheard of for rats to die suddenly after losing a friend.
Springer also had to be pts since the last update. His kidney failure only worsened, despite a special diet, and it was unfair to keep him alive as he was very thin and getting very anaemic.
Oddly, following Springers removal from the group due to his illness, Moth, my oldest girl, who had a bond to Springer, began acting very odd. She seemed desperate to escape her cage, despite always being happy in there in the past. On a few occasions, she did manage to squeeze through the bars, which is unheard of. I've had that cage for years, and had smaller does than her in it, and never had an escape. It didn't matter too much as there was little damage she could do in the shed, but one day, I went out to see her and found her curled up, as if asleep, in the box in the play area, dead.
Again, she was an old rat and had a pre-existing respiratory issue, so her death wasn't TOO unexpected, but the manner in which she died was odd. She seemed to take herself out of the group, and was desperate to do so for a good week before she died, and died alone. I often wonder if she was looking for Springer, as she started wanting to escape shortly after he was removed from the group :(
Just a couple of days ago, I had to have Matilda pts. She'd had a couple of strokes in the past, despite being a very young rat. My vet and I had put her onto steroids to keep them at bay, which worked wonderfully for a month or so, but the other night she had another stroke despite this. This one was her worst one, and it wasn't fair to keep her going on. She wasn't even a year old. so it was quite sad :(
Fortunately, thats all the losses, all elderly rats so all semi-expected, but it sometimes seems like you're taking one step forward and three back with rats :(
For illness, Lenny has been through the mill a bit of late. He had a lump removed, as mentioned in the last post, but shortly after this, both he and Giblet obtained odd tail injuries, within days of one another. Both were almost like degloving injuries, but not quite. It was as if their tails had gotten caught, and some of the flesh had been pulled off, but not in one lump like with a deglove.
Giblet was less severe, but both rats ended up having to have the end of their tail amputated. Lenny's had become infected very quickly and was tracking up his tail at an alarming rate. I've never seen anything like it, it wasn't just a normal infection.
For giblet, this was the end of his ordeal and he's since healed up fine. He now has a missing tail tip.
Lenny, however, ended up with this strange almost gangrene like infection which began to track up his tail AGAIN, just as it had before. The vet was baffled as to how and why and still isn't sure what it is. But, sadly, the only option for him for to have yet another surgery.
He still had a good bit of tail left, but we now had to remove it right to the base, leaving him with a stump.
We did this, and once again, it isn't healing as it should.
Although it isn't actively tracking up the stump as it did before, it has calloused at the end and is taking an awful long time to heal. The vet has seen him multiple times and he now has a regime of dermisol washes to flush off dead tissue and clean it up. It doesn't seem to bother him, but I would love for it to heal up nicely, like Giblet's did.
If it won't heal, there isn't much else left to remove!
He is having dermisol washes 3 times a day, and it seems to very slowly be improving, but don't be alarmed at his tail in these pics!
As well as this, Giblet's eye infection did not improve on drops, so he was taken to the vet and put onto antibiotics. The vet said he could have a tumour within the eye itself, and if it continues to flare up, he may need to have it removed.
Eye removals aren't unheard of in hairless rats.
Hairless generally have eye issues as they have no protective hairs around their eyes, and their eyes are more exposed and prone to scrapes and infections.
Ace has a slight infection in his too, but it isn't as bad, but he's on baytril anyway for respitory (oh yes, Im busy)
And now Gordon's ordeal. Gordon randomly, out of the blue, had a lot of blood around his eye one day. It was definately blood and not porphyrin (after 12 years, you learn the difference) Yet the eye itself looked clean and bright, it was just around it.
After a few days of drops and no improvement, I took him to the vet who said he appears to have some kind of swelling around his sinuses, and the blood appears to be from his tear ducts.
Right now, we're not sure what is causing it. It could be glaucoma, it could be a mass behind the eye, it could just be a deep rooted infection behind there. He is being treated with baytril, antirobe, and loxicom, and the antirobe seems to be doing the trick, just quite slowly. There is no longer as much blood as there was, but its still not 100% right. Gordon hates antirobe, it tastes absolutely foul and its a horrible thing having to get it into him every day.
And finally in illness, Roux was at the vet the other day for a mystery lump that popped up literally overnight, on her.....girl bits. I was pretty sure its an abscess, due to the speed it came up, but took her to the vet anyway, just due to its location.
As she is quite a distrusting rat, my vet advised just giving her a little gas before trying to draw anything out of it, to avoid anyone being bitten and her associating me with bad things.
So we gassed her a little at work and just put a needle in it. Its full of dark red blood, but its sticky blood, not pure blood. The vet says its probably either a cyst or an abscess, but she was put on baytril and loxicom. She was re-examined after 7 days and my vet says tht with cysts, you often drain them and they come back, so he wouldn't reccomend it. If its growing at all, its very slow so we're going to leave it be, since it isn't affecting her quality of life at all. I guess we're treating it like an inoperable lump and letting her live her life until it begins to affect her. Right now she is bright as a button, so Im not too worried right now.
Phew! Fucking hell, thats a lot of meds and illness. It can be so disheartening running a rescue sometimes, but I wouldn't stop for the world.
Since my last update, I've acquired two new boys.
First off, we have Henry (Eraserhead reference). He is a little black hoody boy, you'll see him in the below photos. He was a pets@home adoption center rat. While I normally avoid adopting from there, he was housed all alone and when I asked whether they would be rehoming him to someone who already had a rat, or pairing him up with another, they said no. They were not at all concerned with ensuring he went to a house that already had rats, they were perfectly happy for him to be housed alone.
They still believed the old myth that rats are fine alone as long as you give them 'enough attention'.
Had they told me they would only home him with other rats, I'd have walked on by.
But their insistance that he'd be ok alone irked me. So I took him on. Got a free toy with him worth £8 ('because he was bonded to it'), which I feel cancels out the £3 I donated to adopt him.
He was about 15 weeks old when I adopted him, and very nervous. He hadn't been handled, and was terrified of other rats. It took a good week for him to settle down in the group and stop jumping at shadows. He was very worried about everything, and every other rat around him, like he thought they all just wanted to hurt him.
Now, however, he's a different rat. He's so cheeky and playful and loves the other rats. He runs about playing with all the older boys and stealing food and just being a happy, normal rat.
Secondly, I picked up Harvey about a week ago.
He was give to me by a work colleague. She had a friend with a rat that she didn't want anymore, and asked if I'd take it. I said yes, and she brought him into work for me.
His name was originally Mash, but I changed it to Harvey, after the first restautant Marco had.
He is apparently a year old, but you can see from the pics how small and undernourished he is. He looks dwarfed next to my rats of the same age. He lived in a very small hamster cage, and was fed on Reggie rat, so he's just a very small, runty, poorly nutitioned boy. He won't ever be big, but since being here, he has put some weight on.
Im told he lived with another rat in his early life (bangers) but had been alone for most of his life now as he was getting beaten up.
He's a lovely little boy, very people orientated, presumably because he knew no other companionship.
However, he eats like he's never been fed, and is SO happy when I give him new foods. I expect he's lived in that cage on reggie rat for his whole life and never had anything different. He ADORES things like custard, biscuits, and little treats I've been giving him, and is SO happy when you offer him something new.
It took a while for him to learn to cope with the other rats. He was terrified of them at first, absolutely terrified. Although none of them, bar reggie, even showed interest in him, he acted like they wanted to kill him every time they came anywhere near. I did for a while think he would actually never get on with other rats, but seemingly overnight he mellowed. I came down and found him huddled up with Gordon, then gradually, other rats joined them, and soon there was a big pile with Harvey underneath.
Now he sleeps cuddled up with everyone and is very happy. Its lovely to see him behaving like a rat should.
Anyway, finally, PICTURES!!!!
Little Henry!
Freddie thinking of going upstairs. He's the oldest rat in the group, about 2 and a half, possibly even more, but hes one of the most adventurous!
Freddie has a Reggie pillow!
Bertie
Luciano emerging into the upper level
Warlock in his corner hammock.
How is that comfortable?
Mad ears Henry!!
Warlock
Mum, someone has made a mess upstairs :3
Freddie, lol
Henry using the low tube
You cant stay glum when you have this to greet you everyday.
BUT I WANT IT NOW!!!!!
Photo to show the size difference between Giblet and Warlock. They are both fully grown.
Bertie
Harvey
Bertie again
Lenny and his butt stump
Kyuss is a special needs rat. He broke a shoulder some months ago in a minor fight with another rat (a misjudged leap and an awkward landing) and there wasn't anything we could do for it surgically, so as it doesn't actually seem to hurt him, it was left on the advice of my vet. Over time, this has actually caused his body to be somewhat deformed. He cannot use his front legs properly as they're sort of fused almost, and moves by scooting himself about on his chest. However, he is a wonderfully happy rat still, so I see no reason to have him pts when he clearly still enjoys life, and doesn't appear to be in pain. He manages to eat and drink fine, and is still enthusiastic about doing so. I have to help him every so often with cleaning his ears and such, but other than that, he manages. He is over 2 now so not the most active rat anyway, but he's SO loving and happy.
In this pic, you can see how his front feet are both fused into fists. You can unroll his fingers and it doesn't cause him any pain, it just seems he's unable to do it himself.
This is how he gets about
As you can see here, he can still sit up and wash himself (or semi wash himself, he's not that great at it)
Lollipop. She was in season and vibrating her ears but you can't tell in the pic.
Handsome Bertie!
Hamilton, my hamster, in his wheel
Harvey. He's a buff hooded.
Lollipop's face.....ridiculous.
Luciano is quite dim....
Pic to show Harvey's size. He's a year old, apparently.
Happy Henry
Warlock had an itch
:D
The boys cage, still unfinished. Some of the hammocks and bits were in the wash. Excuse the mess, was in the middle of shed cleaning. This is basically 4 cages joined together. Despite having all that room, they spend 90% of their time in the bottom right hand side. I've done a lot to encourage them to use the rest of the space, but concluded that if they WANT to cram themselves into one section, who am I to stop them?
Sadly, I've lost some ratties since, and some are unwell also, but we've also gained some newbies, so swings and roundabouts.
Since my last update, I've lost both Herbie and Kitt.
Kitt, as mentioned last time, had an internal mass, so his death was not unexpected. I had to have him euthanised as he started losing an awful lot of weight, and his quality of life was minimal.
Herbie, however, was slightly more unexpected. I still don't know what caused his death, but about 2 weeks after Kitt was pts, I found Herbie dead in his hammock, apparently having died in his sleep. He was an old boy, and was beginning to show signs of kidney faillure, but was a bright, happy, normal rat. He hadn't been QUITE the same since losing Kitt, however. They were two old boys who had spent the majority of their life together, and even once they were in a big group of other rats, they still had a specific bond to one another. I suppose there is a possibility Kitt's death affected Herbie more than I thought. Its not unheard of for rats to die suddenly after losing a friend.
Springer also had to be pts since the last update. His kidney failure only worsened, despite a special diet, and it was unfair to keep him alive as he was very thin and getting very anaemic.
Oddly, following Springers removal from the group due to his illness, Moth, my oldest girl, who had a bond to Springer, began acting very odd. She seemed desperate to escape her cage, despite always being happy in there in the past. On a few occasions, she did manage to squeeze through the bars, which is unheard of. I've had that cage for years, and had smaller does than her in it, and never had an escape. It didn't matter too much as there was little damage she could do in the shed, but one day, I went out to see her and found her curled up, as if asleep, in the box in the play area, dead.
Again, she was an old rat and had a pre-existing respiratory issue, so her death wasn't TOO unexpected, but the manner in which she died was odd. She seemed to take herself out of the group, and was desperate to do so for a good week before she died, and died alone. I often wonder if she was looking for Springer, as she started wanting to escape shortly after he was removed from the group :(
Just a couple of days ago, I had to have Matilda pts. She'd had a couple of strokes in the past, despite being a very young rat. My vet and I had put her onto steroids to keep them at bay, which worked wonderfully for a month or so, but the other night she had another stroke despite this. This one was her worst one, and it wasn't fair to keep her going on. She wasn't even a year old. so it was quite sad :(
Fortunately, thats all the losses, all elderly rats so all semi-expected, but it sometimes seems like you're taking one step forward and three back with rats :(
For illness, Lenny has been through the mill a bit of late. He had a lump removed, as mentioned in the last post, but shortly after this, both he and Giblet obtained odd tail injuries, within days of one another. Both were almost like degloving injuries, but not quite. It was as if their tails had gotten caught, and some of the flesh had been pulled off, but not in one lump like with a deglove.
Giblet was less severe, but both rats ended up having to have the end of their tail amputated. Lenny's had become infected very quickly and was tracking up his tail at an alarming rate. I've never seen anything like it, it wasn't just a normal infection.
For giblet, this was the end of his ordeal and he's since healed up fine. He now has a missing tail tip.
Lenny, however, ended up with this strange almost gangrene like infection which began to track up his tail AGAIN, just as it had before. The vet was baffled as to how and why and still isn't sure what it is. But, sadly, the only option for him for to have yet another surgery.
He still had a good bit of tail left, but we now had to remove it right to the base, leaving him with a stump.
We did this, and once again, it isn't healing as it should.
Although it isn't actively tracking up the stump as it did before, it has calloused at the end and is taking an awful long time to heal. The vet has seen him multiple times and he now has a regime of dermisol washes to flush off dead tissue and clean it up. It doesn't seem to bother him, but I would love for it to heal up nicely, like Giblet's did.
If it won't heal, there isn't much else left to remove!
He is having dermisol washes 3 times a day, and it seems to very slowly be improving, but don't be alarmed at his tail in these pics!
As well as this, Giblet's eye infection did not improve on drops, so he was taken to the vet and put onto antibiotics. The vet said he could have a tumour within the eye itself, and if it continues to flare up, he may need to have it removed.
Eye removals aren't unheard of in hairless rats.
Hairless generally have eye issues as they have no protective hairs around their eyes, and their eyes are more exposed and prone to scrapes and infections.
Ace has a slight infection in his too, but it isn't as bad, but he's on baytril anyway for respitory (oh yes, Im busy)
And now Gordon's ordeal. Gordon randomly, out of the blue, had a lot of blood around his eye one day. It was definately blood and not porphyrin (after 12 years, you learn the difference) Yet the eye itself looked clean and bright, it was just around it.
After a few days of drops and no improvement, I took him to the vet who said he appears to have some kind of swelling around his sinuses, and the blood appears to be from his tear ducts.
Right now, we're not sure what is causing it. It could be glaucoma, it could be a mass behind the eye, it could just be a deep rooted infection behind there. He is being treated with baytril, antirobe, and loxicom, and the antirobe seems to be doing the trick, just quite slowly. There is no longer as much blood as there was, but its still not 100% right. Gordon hates antirobe, it tastes absolutely foul and its a horrible thing having to get it into him every day.
And finally in illness, Roux was at the vet the other day for a mystery lump that popped up literally overnight, on her.....girl bits. I was pretty sure its an abscess, due to the speed it came up, but took her to the vet anyway, just due to its location.
As she is quite a distrusting rat, my vet advised just giving her a little gas before trying to draw anything out of it, to avoid anyone being bitten and her associating me with bad things.
So we gassed her a little at work and just put a needle in it. Its full of dark red blood, but its sticky blood, not pure blood. The vet says its probably either a cyst or an abscess, but she was put on baytril and loxicom. She was re-examined after 7 days and my vet says tht with cysts, you often drain them and they come back, so he wouldn't reccomend it. If its growing at all, its very slow so we're going to leave it be, since it isn't affecting her quality of life at all. I guess we're treating it like an inoperable lump and letting her live her life until it begins to affect her. Right now she is bright as a button, so Im not too worried right now.
Phew! Fucking hell, thats a lot of meds and illness. It can be so disheartening running a rescue sometimes, but I wouldn't stop for the world.
Since my last update, I've acquired two new boys.
First off, we have Henry (Eraserhead reference). He is a little black hoody boy, you'll see him in the below photos. He was a pets@home adoption center rat. While I normally avoid adopting from there, he was housed all alone and when I asked whether they would be rehoming him to someone who already had a rat, or pairing him up with another, they said no. They were not at all concerned with ensuring he went to a house that already had rats, they were perfectly happy for him to be housed alone.
They still believed the old myth that rats are fine alone as long as you give them 'enough attention'.
Had they told me they would only home him with other rats, I'd have walked on by.
But their insistance that he'd be ok alone irked me. So I took him on. Got a free toy with him worth £8 ('because he was bonded to it'), which I feel cancels out the £3 I donated to adopt him.
He was about 15 weeks old when I adopted him, and very nervous. He hadn't been handled, and was terrified of other rats. It took a good week for him to settle down in the group and stop jumping at shadows. He was very worried about everything, and every other rat around him, like he thought they all just wanted to hurt him.
Now, however, he's a different rat. He's so cheeky and playful and loves the other rats. He runs about playing with all the older boys and stealing food and just being a happy, normal rat.
Secondly, I picked up Harvey about a week ago.
He was give to me by a work colleague. She had a friend with a rat that she didn't want anymore, and asked if I'd take it. I said yes, and she brought him into work for me.
His name was originally Mash, but I changed it to Harvey, after the first restautant Marco had.
He is apparently a year old, but you can see from the pics how small and undernourished he is. He looks dwarfed next to my rats of the same age. He lived in a very small hamster cage, and was fed on Reggie rat, so he's just a very small, runty, poorly nutitioned boy. He won't ever be big, but since being here, he has put some weight on.
Im told he lived with another rat in his early life (bangers) but had been alone for most of his life now as he was getting beaten up.
He's a lovely little boy, very people orientated, presumably because he knew no other companionship.
However, he eats like he's never been fed, and is SO happy when I give him new foods. I expect he's lived in that cage on reggie rat for his whole life and never had anything different. He ADORES things like custard, biscuits, and little treats I've been giving him, and is SO happy when you offer him something new.
It took a while for him to learn to cope with the other rats. He was terrified of them at first, absolutely terrified. Although none of them, bar reggie, even showed interest in him, he acted like they wanted to kill him every time they came anywhere near. I did for a while think he would actually never get on with other rats, but seemingly overnight he mellowed. I came down and found him huddled up with Gordon, then gradually, other rats joined them, and soon there was a big pile with Harvey underneath.
Now he sleeps cuddled up with everyone and is very happy. Its lovely to see him behaving like a rat should.
Anyway, finally, PICTURES!!!!
Little Henry!
Freddie thinking of going upstairs. He's the oldest rat in the group, about 2 and a half, possibly even more, but hes one of the most adventurous!
Freddie has a Reggie pillow!
Bertie
Luciano emerging into the upper level
Warlock in his corner hammock.
How is that comfortable?
Mad ears Henry!!
Warlock
Mum, someone has made a mess upstairs :3
Freddie, lol
Henry using the low tube
You cant stay glum when you have this to greet you everyday.
BUT I WANT IT NOW!!!!!
Photo to show the size difference between Giblet and Warlock. They are both fully grown.
Bertie
Harvey
Bertie again
Lenny and his butt stump
Kyuss is a special needs rat. He broke a shoulder some months ago in a minor fight with another rat (a misjudged leap and an awkward landing) and there wasn't anything we could do for it surgically, so as it doesn't actually seem to hurt him, it was left on the advice of my vet. Over time, this has actually caused his body to be somewhat deformed. He cannot use his front legs properly as they're sort of fused almost, and moves by scooting himself about on his chest. However, he is a wonderfully happy rat still, so I see no reason to have him pts when he clearly still enjoys life, and doesn't appear to be in pain. He manages to eat and drink fine, and is still enthusiastic about doing so. I have to help him every so often with cleaning his ears and such, but other than that, he manages. He is over 2 now so not the most active rat anyway, but he's SO loving and happy.
In this pic, you can see how his front feet are both fused into fists. You can unroll his fingers and it doesn't cause him any pain, it just seems he's unable to do it himself.
This is how he gets about
As you can see here, he can still sit up and wash himself (or semi wash himself, he's not that great at it)
Lollipop. She was in season and vibrating her ears but you can't tell in the pic.
Handsome Bertie!
Hamilton, my hamster, in his wheel
Harvey. He's a buff hooded.
Lollipop's face.....ridiculous.
Luciano is quite dim....
Pic to show Harvey's size. He's a year old, apparently.
Happy Henry
Warlock had an itch
:D
The boys cage, still unfinished. Some of the hammocks and bits were in the wash. Excuse the mess, was in the middle of shed cleaning. This is basically 4 cages joined together. Despite having all that room, they spend 90% of their time in the bottom right hand side. I've done a lot to encourage them to use the rest of the space, but concluded that if they WANT to cram themselves into one section, who am I to stop them?