rat update

[ratcreature]

So I brought Krümel to the vet this morning after all, and while the gasping was only slight on the way there, Krümel then obliged me with an attack of very labored breathing and gasping right in front of the vet, so he could at least see that Krümel was in severe respiratory distress. Anyway, the vet then listened to his lungs, but didn't hear the distinct crackling sounds of bad myco, which fit with the previous time.

He then asked whether I'd pay for x-rays to see whether it might be the heart, which I agreed to and they managed to get a nice picture of Krümel's internal organs. His heart however looked okay, and the vet didn't see anything obviously wrong in the lungs either, but Krümel's stomach and bowels were extremely distended (I looked at the picture and the stomach was scarily huge), so the likely cause of the respiratory distress is that the lungs just can't expand properly. The vet was quite surprised by this because rats aren't prone to gas like rabbits and he didn't think it could be from the food (especially since I'm careful not to feed them stuff like cabbages or pulses and such). He said it could be a bowel obstruction due to a small tumor, because Krümel is over two years now, which is an age when rats are quite prone to them, but he didn't see anything conclusive on the x-ray.

Anyway, he gave me two kinds of drops that help with gas, and an antibiotic (I'm not entirely sure why I got that too, I guess to be on the safe side if it was an infection after all, or maybe because they gave antibiotics last time and Krümel got better). So now I have three medicines that need to be given three times, twice and once a day respectively, and because right now Krümel doesn't eat I can't mix them into stuff but have to force feed them. Which is bad, because no matter how awful he feels Krümel is the opposite of cooperative when it comes to taking drugs. I asked the vet to give the first dose, and even he had trouble to get the medicine into him.

I hope that because Krümel had trouble like this before and it got better once, and he seems at least a little better today than yesterday, that it might turn around again. The vet however didn't seem very optimistic, and told me that Krümel might die in the next few days, if his bowel problems don't clear up fast. If he makes it through the next days,I'm supposed to bring him again at the end of the week.

The one bright spot is that the vet declared his broken foot healed enough that he could go back in the regular cage and be together with the other two again, so at least Krümel won't be alone in isolation, and miserable in a tiny cage.

Comments

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking good thoughts for you and Krumel.

{{hugs}}

[ratcreature]

Thank you, he can sure use them.

Even though I know of course that rats never get all that old, that somehow never makes it easier when they get sick, or stops me from hoping to have just a little while longer.

[shidoikarji26.livejournal.com]

And this had to happen at this time of the year, too. You have my prayers and thoughts.

[ratcreature]

Thanks. Krümel doesn't have much luck with Christmas season. This time last year he was sick with an abscess in his eye (needing an operation); then again he got through that okay, so maybe he'll have luck once more.

[shidoikarji26.livejournal.com]

Christmas is an omen? That feels so wrong.. What doesnt kill you makes you stronger!

[ratcreature]

I don't know about omens, I think mostly you just notice the date more when bad stuff happens around Christmas. I don't really blame the holiday.

Though Christmas morning ten years ago my mother died (sometimes I can't believe it's been this long already), so since then it's always also a sad date for me anyway, not just a happy holiday.

[shidoikarji26.livejournal.com]

Ouch..that's hard to deal with. I dont how I could handle that..

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Sending good wishes to you and Krümel.

[ratcreature]

Thanks.

[imadra-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's terrible. Poor Krumel. I hope it clears up fast. ♥

[ratcreature]

Thanks. I hope so too.

[iamza.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor Krumel! I hope he gets better soon. Good luck with the medicine times -- I hope they go a bit easier than you're anticipating.

[ratcreature]

I hope so too, because right now it is heartbreaking. He can't breathe right, and sometimes it is so bad that he gets panicked and tries to run around, which of course doesn't make anything better, but of who wouldn't panic when they are almost suffocating? The last rat I had that had such bad respiratory distress, Dustin, I had put down, rather than watch him suffocate over days, but then it was heart damage combined with a resistant lung infection, so there was no hope for it to get better at all.