Whiplash!!
I swear, I'm just whipping back and forth here!!
My vet called me unexpectedly today.
Even more unexpectedly, her first words were: "Go to the show."
Hoop's ultimate cause of death was simply the diminished lung capacity, which (if it was not cancer, which I won't know until Thursday, ugh) was caused by the same myco crap that ALL fancy rats have.
ANY stress to his immune system would have killed him at this point. ANYTHING. Having new rats in the rat room that he could smell, pollen count, a change in humidity, CLEANING HIS CAGE ffs. He was a "dead man walking" already, for months now, and we had no idea. (C asks me if this makes his babies dhampirs. My fiance is a big nerd.)
She ALSO said that if she was going to give a breeder advice, someone who was having a lot of problems with early deaths and sick rats and stuff? It would be to do... what I do. She said that!! The manner in which I keep my animals - in an undamp, finished basement, right next to a furnace with a filter, fully air-conditioned in the summer, with good light/dark cycling through controlled lighting, waiting until a year+ to breed (SO THERE, naysaying other-breeders!) so you can really evaluate health and temperament, using the CBC panel, not caging bullying rats with others you plan on breeding... she would advise new breeders to have a setup like this. And I do all that!! I'm an example!
/dances
As far as breeding Hoop's children, she said that she and the other vet discussed this (the other vet is a lab-rat-population vet and apparently applying his knowledge to a population he knows is not pathogen-free and cannot be dealt with the way they deal with lab rats is fascinating and amusing to him) and we should be breeding for asymptomatic rats, since we cannot breed for concrete health. The CBC panels will help breeding for more concrete health, BUT, what we should be doing is never EVER breeding a rat who is symptomatic. We want rats who are exposed to different stuff and DON'T get sick.
They said by the time you can hear a rat getting raspy and wheezy, they've already lost 50% of their lung capacity. They are never ok to breed. And I don't. So what I need to do is watch Hoop's kids for symptoms, cull the ones that show it ruthlessly out of my breeding program (out of the program, not real culling :P) and make sure I do the CBC panel on Stubby before I breed her and any of her brothers and sisters.
I'm really flying high. My rattery is fine - not just fine, it's an example. My vet learned a bunch of new stuff over this and that will be put to use helping Kirstin and I continue to grow as breeders and caretakers. And, unless Claudia decides to take a hard line about the fact I DID have a rat die in Q (though to non-infectious causes, she could still want to follow the letter to make an example) I can still go to the show.
Claudia's calling me tonight. The show is on Saturday.
Keep up the good thoughts, amigos, because they TOTALLY are working for me!!
My vet called me unexpectedly today.
Even more unexpectedly, her first words were: "Go to the show."
Hoop's ultimate cause of death was simply the diminished lung capacity, which (if it was not cancer, which I won't know until Thursday, ugh) was caused by the same myco crap that ALL fancy rats have.
ANY stress to his immune system would have killed him at this point. ANYTHING. Having new rats in the rat room that he could smell, pollen count, a change in humidity, CLEANING HIS CAGE ffs. He was a "dead man walking" already, for months now, and we had no idea. (C asks me if this makes his babies dhampirs. My fiance is a big nerd.)
She ALSO said that if she was going to give a breeder advice, someone who was having a lot of problems with early deaths and sick rats and stuff? It would be to do... what I do. She said that!! The manner in which I keep my animals - in an undamp, finished basement, right next to a furnace with a filter, fully air-conditioned in the summer, with good light/dark cycling through controlled lighting, waiting until a year+ to breed (SO THERE, naysaying other-breeders!) so you can really evaluate health and temperament, using the CBC panel, not caging bullying rats with others you plan on breeding... she would advise new breeders to have a setup like this. And I do all that!! I'm an example!
/dances
As far as breeding Hoop's children, she said that she and the other vet discussed this (the other vet is a lab-rat-population vet and apparently applying his knowledge to a population he knows is not pathogen-free and cannot be dealt with the way they deal with lab rats is fascinating and amusing to him) and we should be breeding for asymptomatic rats, since we cannot breed for concrete health. The CBC panels will help breeding for more concrete health, BUT, what we should be doing is never EVER breeding a rat who is symptomatic. We want rats who are exposed to different stuff and DON'T get sick.
They said by the time you can hear a rat getting raspy and wheezy, they've already lost 50% of their lung capacity. They are never ok to breed. And I don't. So what I need to do is watch Hoop's kids for symptoms, cull the ones that show it ruthlessly out of my breeding program (out of the program, not real culling :P) and make sure I do the CBC panel on Stubby before I breed her and any of her brothers and sisters.
I'm really flying high. My rattery is fine - not just fine, it's an example. My vet learned a bunch of new stuff over this and that will be put to use helping Kirstin and I continue to grow as breeders and caretakers. And, unless Claudia decides to take a hard line about the fact I DID have a rat die in Q (though to non-infectious causes, she could still want to follow the letter to make an example) I can still go to the show.
Claudia's calling me tonight. The show is on Saturday.
Keep up the good thoughts, amigos, because they TOTALLY are working for me!!