RatCreature (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ratcreature) wrote2013-08-19 10:09 pm
ratcreature) wrote2013-08-19 10:09 pm
in memory of Rusty
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.
A photo of Silas and Rusty, who were hard to tell apart for me at that age when they still had about the same size:
In this one Rusty is the larger gray one on the left:
With the following Rusty is the gray one in the back:
Rusty on the left, Silas on the right:
And one of Rusty from this February:
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