rat worries

[ratcreature]

I just noticed that my rat Krümel has a really odd milky discoloration (?) in/on his left eye, that I'm pretty sure wasn't there yesterday or even this morning. It used to be fully black like rat eyes are, and now it looks weird, though I can't make out what exactly this is. The eye doesn't look injured or visibly infected, though he seems to squint it a little. I have no idea what this could be.

I guess I'm going to take him to my vet tomorrow, though maybe I'll call beforehand, because it's only emergency opening hours on the weekend (and they charge extra for it too), and I'm not sure this is an emergency, because he acts completely normal, is eating and is now running around, chewing on my furniture, so I don't know. But his eye just looks wrong. I hope this isn't something serious. *is worried*

Comments

[devildoll.livejournal.com]

Oh crap! I hope it turns out to be no big deal!

[ratcreature]

Yeah, me too. He's behaving just like always, except for the slight squinting, and he doesn't even groom or rub the eye excessively or anything, nor does it seem to water or have any crusts, but it is just freaky that the eye looks like this with some kind of white-ish spots. And it's not like he's old and his eyes would be getting milky because of that or something.

And in any case I think that process would be much slower and gradual, and I'm fairly sure that yesterday evening his eye didn't have this discoloration, or I would have noticed. I didn't have time to play with them this morning, because of a dentist appointment, and they were still asleep when I left, so I didn't see him again until tonight, but I don't think I paid less attention to him on Thursday than today, so it probably wasn't there then.

And of course this kind of thing always happens on weekends so that there aren't regular vet office hours. But I guess it's better to feel silly if it doesn't turn out to be a true emergency than to wait if it is something, especially since it's the first time I've seen something like this happen with one of their eyes.

But it sucks also because the weather forecast for tomorrow predicts the same kind of cold, stormy weather with heavy rains that we had today, which isn't ideal to transport a rat for 40 minutes in public transport (for the rat or for me), but unfortunately my vet is a bit away from my place (the practice came recommended by the local rat club and is really experienced with rats, very nice, and they're cheap as far as vets go too, but not exactly around the corner from me unfortunately and I don't have a car). Also I kind of foresee the little money I planned to use for buying some Christmas presents early next week go to my vet instead. Um, I just realized, that sounded rather whiny, and of course Krümel's well-being is more important to me than inconvenience or Christmas shopping, but still-- *sigh*