Yeah, I wish they wouldn't happen either. It's especially bad when a health situation happens the first time, and you have no frame of reference yet. And rats are so much less robust than you'd think from their reputation! (The wild ones really only have their high reproductive rate going for them, for the population numbers it just doesn't matter that the individuals die quickly.)

If my vet was right next door I'd probably would have dropped by regardless, but it takes an hour to get there, and in the end it's just not practical to to try to more or less camp out in my vet's office because I feel anxious.

I just hope I made the right call. *frets*