Pocket's Plight - Cancer?

[40ozslurpee]

After several months of recurring abscesses and surgeries (for lack of a better word) the vet's finally decided that IT'S PROBABLY CANCER. They could do another surgery and buy her a few weeks, but we've spent our entire savings on this precious (and I DO mean precious!!!) little creature. And we'd spend more if we knew it would help. She's not

Comments

[40ozslurpee]

My husband has insisted that we don't euthanize her, but I think if things get bad he'll change his mind. Pocket is the only thing in our lives right now that makes all our problems just melt away instantly. That's how sweet she is! She is on metacam and Baytril and is still acting mostly normal, but I can hardly enjoy my time with her because I'm overwhelmed by sadness. I can totally accept that rats have short lives, but Pocket's still 2 months shy of turning two so I was really hoping she'd make it at least that far. I guess she still could but I can't be optimistic. I finally have plenty of money so I could afford pretty much any procedure, but the vet says there's not really anything they can do...so I'm not sure if I'll be able to convince them to them to try something anyways. I think I'd rather she die on the operating table than slowly and painfully, I mean if she's gonna die anyways.

And before I forget, Thanks for your comment! I need all the encouragement I can get right about now, and Pocket could use some prayers or well-wishes or whatever, too. I've broken my personal 30-year record of "most bad news received in a single week" so I think Pocket's prognosis is harder on me than if I weren't dealing with other things on top of it. I love my rats, I truly do, but I just don't know if we'll get more after this. If we do, it will probably be boys.

[nellorat]

I love the word "euthanasia": a good death. So often with rats, the time comes when the only choices are a long, gruesome death and a short, peaceful one. I hope that either Pocket passes away peacefully or your husband does come around.

And I can really relate to sadness darkening the time you do have left. I try to constantly remind myself that I know what's going to happen & am devastated by that, but the rat doesn't; and I try to take my emotional cue from the rat. Actually, I am in awe of how happy they can be despite paralysis, illness, and injury, and seriously I think of them as role models for my own eventual infirmity and death.

re boys, do you get girls spayed? I know it was controversial here years & years back, and you have to get a vet experienced in rat spays in particular, but I'm sold on its value. It reduces all kinds of tumors, cancer as well as benign.

Our slogan around here is "The best cure for ratsie grief is ratsie love," and we keep a huge Critter Nation cage with 6 to 10 rats at a time, so there's always some consolation. Losing a very special rat is still an extra trauma, and I can understand why people give up on rats due to the heartbreak, but I'd find giving up on rats even worse.

Glad to be of some help! Hope things get better!