RatCreature's Journal

Like how he somehow managed to grind a sharp sunflower seed shell fairly deep into the bumblefoot wound on one of his feet, so that I had to pull off/out the shell with a good bit of the scab, just so there wouldn't be foreign objects festering in his foot on top of everything else. Of course that hurt, and he was not at all pleased or cooperating with me. It's a wonder he didn't manage to wrench his foot with his flailing. It's not that easy to inspect your rat's feet to begin with, unless you have a second person holding it up, much less remove something splinter-like with the rat trying to simultaneously pull the foot away and escape. Also I ended up with small rat blood stains all over my pajama.

I brought Rusty to the vet today because I noticed he's starting to make the myco breathing sounds. And once I was there I noticed that he had actually developed bumblefoot sores on both his backfeet, that I completely failed to notice. I had never had a rat develop these before, and didn't remember to check their feet closely. Clearly a mistake. Oscar's feet are fine, but Kieran's have backfeet have raised bumps too, one very slight, but the other a bit larger, theough thankfully no open sore, though the larger looks like it might be heading there.

I don't have wire cage floors, just solid metal sheets covered with several layers of newspaper, so I'm not exactly sure what caused this. They are a bit on the heavy side, which is also supposed to be a risk factor, because it puts more pressure on the feet, but not more so than my previous rats. Though I'm going to change their bedding more often now. I usually do that every two or three days, but because they pee in their favorite house all the time, sometimes the bedding there is still wet. And I read that wet bedding can cause bumblefoot too. So I'm going to change it once or even twice a day to make sure they are on dry bedding at all times. I also changed their favorite cloth-tube for a new one, because they had chewed through in places and also it was sagging by now so that it bumped against the willow basket below, so maybe that made for an irritant.

I have oral antibiotics (for both the lungs and the feet), a painkiller and an antibiotic wound salve for Rusty, plus a decongestant, and I'm going to use the salve on Kieran's more irritated red bump too, hoping that his won't develop into open sores. I feel horrible that I didn't even notice this going on, and that somehow the conditions in their cage made this develop in the first place. I heard that once they developed these sores only heal with much difficulty too. :(

I just found my rat Silas dead in their cage. I had noticed that he hadn't come outside this evening, but hadn't thought anything about it, because he doesn't always come outside. Then when I locked them up, I could only count three, and no Silas when I called for the count, so I searched the cage, and at first I didn't find him, so I searched the room again, and still no fourth rat. Finally I looked more closely in the cage again, and there Silas was, lying dead under some stairs. To think that I didn't even notice for maybe hours that he had died. I don't even recall whether I'd seen him this morning. I mean, I think so, but didn't pay that close attention. I feel like a horrible person.

He hadn't even been sick, aside from his sneezing having come back a little even after the antibiotics, and now he's suddenly dead. No visible injuries either. He wasn't even a year old. I still can't quite believe it. It hasn't sunk in yet that Silas is dead. I hope it was a heart attack or something, and not anything contagious I never heard of that makes rats drop dead so quickly. I know certain types of acute pneumonia can kill rats suddenly, but I think even the fast ones show some symptoms. I mean, my other three seem fine, but it is very disconcerting. That's the first time I had a rat die at less than a year without an obvious reason.

I just found Silas suddenly sitting somewhere (he seemed fine earlier), with some sort of slimy, slightly foamy stuff coming out of his mouth. And he isn't even grooming it away. I've never seen anything like that with a rat (they don't vomit or anything). He seemed fine earlier, not even an hour ago when I filled their bowls with food and gave them some treats. And then suddenly he's like this! I hope he'll be okay until I can get him to the vet tomorrow morning, and that whatever is afflicting him is not contagious, or that the food is somehow contaminated with something and they are all going to die (I have given them from this box the last few days already though). Sick rats are bad enough, but a rat sick with something you've never seen before and can't gauge is ten times worse. Please cross your fingers for the poor guy. He's not even a year old. And why do these things always happen in the middle of the night?

My four rats are now in their rowdy adolescence/early adulthood, and scuffle quite a bit. It's not that they injure each other seriously *knocks on wood*, but now I have squeaking balls of squabbling rats roll around, that box and kick and claw at each other, and for some reason they really like to do that on my bed. Perhaps because it is soft. Unfortunately I am also often on said bed while they do this, and they aren't considerate of me while they fight and move around in this space I already occupy. So I end up with scratches.

Just now Rusty practically gouged my right arm (bleeding scratches!) as he ran and scrabbled across me. I think they don't realize that non-furred animals don't take to claw contact quite as easily. I try to startle them out of the fights and relocate them to the floor, but it has little educational effect so far. They still think my bed is a great place to settle their differences.

...but not yet. Meanwhile my rats still won't come out to play. This rather sucks, not least because with them in the cage all the time I have much less contact with them, than if they were running outside where I sit, reading fanfic, watching tv, wasting my time on the internet, etc. I mean, I do go up the cage of course to pet them, and bribe them with treats and such, but I'm not standing next to a cage door for hours on end. I'm used to my rats just coming up to me throughout the evening whenever they want. Of course right now these don't.

If I had wanted to feel snubbed by my pets I would have gotten a cat. :(

My last rats wanted to explore outside the cage by day three that they were living with me (though I didn't let them go there before they were somewhat comfortable with being picked up), and I could let them out by this time. With my current group I've been keeping the cage open in the evening the last two days, but only Silas has been even curious about the ramp leading outside, but hasn't dared to climb down. And they all still prefer to hang out in the upper levels. (Which is why for example I don't think Rusty has even noticed that ramp's existence).

They all climb onto me (especially with food encouragement) and I can pick them up, though there are different comfort levels, and again Silas is the one who comes to me most often. They also now mostly grasp the concept of the "treat noise" (though I have to say, this group doesn't seem the brightest bunch). But they are still surprisingly timid. I never had to encourage rats to come out and take possession of all space offered for exploring. What I'm used to is to frantically try to limit young rats' curiosity, and to prevent them from escaping somewhere as soon as the cage door opens, not having to entice them to come out.

Leo
28.9.2009 - 15.12.2011

Leo was euthanized this morning. The antibiotic-resistant myco pneumonia he fought tenaciously for so many months finally worsened so much that he couldn't eat or breathe right anymore. The death of his brother Noah just over three weeks ago had not helped either, and maybe he just didn't have the strength anymore to hold on longer. But two years and almost three months is not a bad age for a rat. He was clingy this morning like last night, preferring to sit on my arm or huddle against my neck, even in the vet's waiting room with all the dogs, instead of staying in his transport box and be petted there. So I held him there and then until the end as he got the injection. He's now buried next to his brother.

Leo had lived with me since he was five weeks old, and he lived up to his name. He was the first of the three little ones I had gotten to venture out of hiding and to explore, the first one to dare to go on all levels of the cage and then outside, and as a young rat he was the one who always tried and succeeded to escape the room they were allowed in and to try to explore elsewhere. So several times I had to fish him out from under shelves in the not rat-safe room, covered in dust bunnies, because I had missed how he had managed to get across the doorway barrier again. He was bold, but never aggressive, and the liveliest of my last three. Even as he got older and was already sick with myco, he loved to climb everywhere and to run around and check all his favorite spots. He would jump on my bed in the evenings, though his patience to just cuddle was often limited. He was still a sweet rat, and liked to be petted and to groom you back if you scritched him. He had a strong will to live, and so he survived with the pneumonia far longer than I had dared to hope when the last antibiotics failed way back in April. Since then he got twice weekly injections for most of the time to help symptomatically, but he didn't let this keep him down.

( here's some photos of Leo )

Four more people commented on the drawble post I made last week:
( four images )

In unrelated good news, Leo's weight loss seems to have stopped or at least slowed since Friday (he moves around while I want to weigh him which increases inaccuracies), and he's been a little livelier and ventured out of the cage more the last evenings, climbing and checking out all his favorite spots instead of just sitting in the cage like a picture of misery. So I hope that he maybe wants to hang in there a little longer despite having lost his brother and last rat company.

Noah
28.9.2009 - 21.11.2011

Noah was euthanized this afternoon. I held him in my arms as he got the injection and petted and cuddled him to the end. Much of the weekend I offered him his favorite foods, because the extra tasty special treats were the only stuff he was still eating (he still lost another 13g from Friday to today though). So he got cooked egg, cream of wheat pudding, whipped cream, small pieces of chocolate with hazelnuts... and I tried to cuddle a bit with him too, but he was always anxious to get back into the cage and just wanted to hide in his favorite spots.

Noah had lived with me since he was five weeks old, and he was a great companion and sweet natured dumbo rat with a gorgeous and very soft Russian blue coat. He'd come if I called for him, of course especially for food, but also for belly scritches and getting petted. Whenever I came to the cage he'd come forward to greet me too.

( here's some photos of Noah )