One of our friends lost a rat yesterday. She was nearly two and going in for tumor surgery, and she didn't recover from the anesthesia.
Our friend is devastated, of course. I can't even think of how to comfort her.
Rats usually recover well, but there's always the chance...
The alternative, letting the lumps grow, is a chance, too. A year ago I had to put Krycek to sleep. She had multiple tumors, and though I thought I was doing the right thing by not subjecting her to surgery, I found her one day bleeding from where the skin over the tumor had broken open. I thought my baby was going to bleed to death before I got her to the vet, and once at the vet I knew there was nothing to do but end it.
I have never felt so guilty.
My point is, you can never know for sure how it will end, so the right thing to do is the best you can do. Treat them with the love and respect they deserve, and know that they are fragile creatures with lifespans far shorter than ours. A day for them is so much greater a percentage of their whole life...it reminds me how precious a day is.
The "thing" on Bob's skin is a lump, a lump getting bigger every day. Bob's had quite a long life for a rat...39 months or so, the first 30 in a small shoebox of a cage in a lab. All I can do now is let him know, every day we have left, how precious he is.
Posted by Abita at December 9, 2003 07:20 PM