My lord... that lump. I'm so sorry. That... I don't know, I can't fathom seeing an animal in my care growing something so horrible and just ignoring it for so long. That poor girl.
The roan's description sounds an awful lot like the condition Sibil came to me in. She was thin, crackling badly, had developed head tilt, and, while she didn't have mites, also had ridiculously long nails. She also wouldn't let anyone touch her and flipped out if you got near the cage... turns out he never actually handled her. I still don't understand why you would even keep rats if you're going to ignore and neglect them like that.
I know, it always baffles me why people have animals they then lock in a cage or in the garden and totally ignore. I do think children play a big part in these sorts of things, particularly with small animals like this. Parent get them for kids who beg for them, then the kids get bored and the parents can't be bothered to look after them.
Still though, never any excuse. It doesn't take much work to find my number and call me if you have rats you don't want; Im the only person in norfolk who does it. If this person had just phoned up the vet's first and asked if anyone took on rats, they'd have given them my number. They just couldn't even be bothered to do that and just dumped them. Its so annoying, because people who do this are so STUPID. They have the mentality of children, ie, 'this is becoming annoying, get rid of it, screw my responsibilities!!!'
I've always admired your dedication in that, I'll be honest.
One problem I've noticed (and that drives me up the wall) is that there's... not a lot of education about the work rats take and the requirements for their care. I recently took in a doe (Iris) whose owner had kept her alone in a small fish tank. She'd been told by the pet store that a rat was basically like a hamster and had housed/fed/handled her accordingly. To her credit, she eventually realised this was not the case and put up an ad looking for a better home for Iris (at the time her name was Bubbles) and even had the sense to attach a fee for her adoption to keep her from becoming snake food.
She also came to me with crackling and a severe fear of being handled. I can only imagine how many other rats were sold/obtained with similarly terrible instructions regarding their care.
Comments 16
The roan's description sounds an awful lot like the condition Sibil came to me in. She was thin, crackling badly, had developed head tilt, and, while she didn't have mites, also had ridiculously long nails. She also wouldn't let anyone touch her and flipped out if you got near the cage... turns out he never actually handled her. I still don't understand why you would even keep rats if you're going to ignore and neglect them like that.
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I do think children play a big part in these sorts of things, particularly with small animals like this. Parent get them for kids who beg for them, then the kids get bored and the parents can't be bothered to look after them.
Still though, never any excuse. It doesn't take much work to find my number and call me if you have rats you don't want; Im the only person in norfolk who does it. If this person had just phoned up the vet's first and asked if anyone took on rats, they'd have given them my number. They just couldn't even be bothered to do that and just dumped them.
Its so annoying, because people who do this are so STUPID. They have the mentality of children, ie, 'this is becoming annoying, get rid of it, screw my responsibilities!!!'
Reply
One problem I've noticed (and that drives me up the wall) is that there's... not a lot of education about the work rats take and the requirements for their care. I recently took in a doe (Iris) whose owner had kept her alone in a small fish tank. She'd been told by the pet store that a rat was basically like a hamster and had housed/fed/handled her accordingly. To her credit, she eventually realised this was not the case and put up an ad looking for a better home for Iris (at the time her name was Bubbles) and even had the sense to attach a fee for her adoption to keep her from becoming snake food.
She also came to me with crackling and a severe fear of being handled. I can only imagine how many other rats were sold/obtained with similarly terrible instructions regarding their care.
Reply
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