in memory of Rusty

Rusty
7.1.2012 - 19.8.2013

The vet had to put poor Rusty down. When I brought Rusty in this morning he was lethargic, he hadn't even groomed the gunk from his eyes, and he couldn't walk anymore, only sort of crawl on his belly a little. And when the vet touched him, he noticed that his body temperature was much too low, because his circulation was to weak to uphold it like normal. Also he had lost a lot of weight, down to 475g from just Friday when he had 490g and that already was sharply down from his weight earlier that week. So the vet told me that there would be no chance at all that another attempt with antibiotics would help anything. So I couldn't do anything for Rusty but to hold him while the lethal injection took effect, which unfortunately took quite a while. He had to get a second injection to finally stop the last gasping, though at least he was unconscious through that, so I hope he won't have felt any of that.

I have had the worst luck with this group of brothers, with now three of four already dead before the two year mark. And I'll have to bring Kieran to the vet tomorrow as well, because the last days he started sneezing and also shaking his head frequently, so I don't know whether that is just respiratory or something with his ears. Anyway, I didn't bring him today, because I already expected that Rusty would need to be euthanized, and it wouldn't have been practical at all to leave the vet with one rat to bring home and another to bury.

Rats are made of one part heartbreak, one part vet costs and one part delight making the other two worth it (most of the time)... *sigh*

Anyway, Rusty was a really friendly rat, and very cooperative or maybe just resigned when taking meds. Which may be an odd thing to mention this prominently, but tbh it's a quality that reduces the stressful parts of keeping a rat greatly if administering even hated meds is not a half hour drama twice a day. So that is not a small thing. His brother Silas was the same, Kieran unfortunately is not, but of the "resist with all effort" persuasion. And a resisting rat can muster a lot of efforts.

Despite this ease of handling him, Rusty wasn't all that cuddly, though he got more so as he got older. And this Saturday, when he was already feeling poorly, but still went outside during playtime, he came to me and let himself be snuggled and petted for almost ten minutes before he wanted to get away. So that was a nice moment to still have with him, and I hope it comforted him.

( Here are some photos of Rusty. )

sigh

And yeah, Kieran's head shaking I mentioned in the last post is definitely an ear infection. I just looked closely into his ears, and there is redness and a little gunk a bit further into his left one. Now that I think of it, the head shaking may have happened even before the weekend just less extreme, and I didn't notice as much because Rusty was so much worse comparatively, and I've mostly paid attention to Kieran's feet issues with the ongoing bumblefoot and salve application. Now I feel guilty about that.

I always try to do the best I can to really pay attention, and yet I still miss stuff, especially when it's the first time I encounter something. (I've never had a rat develop ear problems before.) Why do I suck at this stuff? Well, I'll bring him to the vet tomorrow and hope these germs aren't as antibiotics resistant as typical rat lung infections. :(