Ratablog

Some new pictures

Please bear with me if I screw this up...I'm experimenting with a way to post thumbnails that are linked to the larger picture.

Please give it a try...click on the thumbnails below!

Bob in his new hat. (Right, we haven't seen enough of Bob lately!)

Curly.

Leather: "Can't a girl have some privacy?"

Pinky

Schwartz

The Bob Show!

Abita talked about the Bob Cam. We honestly didn't expect it to get so popular on one of our rat forums. Here are some comments:

"I hope you know that I will spend the remainer of my vacation watching Bobcam, it is just so addicting."

"I see Bobaloo balls! I got to see him scurry out of the igloo, over to the side, and then take a napper ON the hat. I just do love him. He is too precious...Little wee old gent. "

"i sat there waiting for him to move his ratty balls and then when i saw him move i screamed out hes moving!!! and i told my mom about it and then she ran from the living room and was like awwwwww!!! lol"

"Bob rocks!" (Actually, he waddles.)

One of our friends designed t-shirts and greeting cards.

We got caught in the frenzy last night, ourselves. Long story short, we were at a nightclub in DC listening to a garage band that should've stayed in the garage, when Abita and I asked her sister if she could try to get Bobcam on her phone. She could & she did, and suddenly there were three adults, standing off to one side, laughing their heads off at the sight of Bob's tail.

Bob Cam

Yes, this is the height of geekdom.

But we got a cheap webcam during a shopping spree at Staples a few weeks ago (it was on sale, we had a coupon...), so now we have Bob live on line.

http://www.ratinabox.com/ratcam/bobcam.html

Maybe the oldest, least-mobile rat is not the most ideal candidate for the -Cam, though. Mostly you can see perhaps the edge of his back as he curls up in his igloo...

Also, he's only on when I'm home with the computer running. I'm not sure how much bandwidth it will eat.

But hey, I think he's more entertaining than half of what is on tv right now!

Belated birthday

We made it through Isabel just fine, thankfully. And after an evening of sleeping with the whole pack...rats, piggies, and dog...in one room, I can definitely attest to the fact that rats are much more active after dark. Much more active.

Schwartz, Calle, and Olie turned one on Saturday. As usual, as the youngest their birthday was pretty much overlooked and we didn't even get pictures. Poor neglected ratties...

Rats in storage.

The boys are taking it in stride.

Hurricane warning!

We're right in the path of Isabel. Yay.

Abita and I are almost certainly going to spend the night in the basement; so are the rats (and the guinea pigs and the dog). So...moving day.

The Rink Rats and Bob are in their normal cages...they were carried down (Bob by Abita; the Rink Rats in two travel cages, and the cages separately). The girls and Bob are in a smaller cage, as is Witter. They're taking it in stride (just a few minutes ago all four boys were in the hammock together: 3 kilos of pure rat love, and I'm amazed it hasn't come down) and the girls are just chilling out. Bob is in his igloo, and witter is lying down on the newspaper I'm using in his smaller cage.

The guinea pigs are in their regular cages, and somehow Harley flipped his igloo upside down.

The dog was trying to eat our lunches. I haven't decided what to do about her walks when the rain really starts coming down.

Sick ratties

You get to really feel for other rat owners. On our different rat lists, Person X will report a problem with their rat, and a few days later, Person Y will post a message asking Person X how their rat is doing. As Abita said before, we get to know the person and their love for their little friend, and we all share the happy times and the sad times and all the concerns in between. I, too, have cried at my desk, over the heartbreak of a friend losing a rat I've only seen in pictures.

I made friends with a girl in California, A, whose favorite rat, HA, is the Biggest Ham In The World...literally.

You think my rats are big? HA tips the scale at over a kilogram. He's a very mellow rat, who sits there patiently while A dresses him in a cowboy outfit, a doctor outfit, a tu-tu, as an Easter bunny, in a green bowler with a shamrock for St. Patricks day...you get the idea.

HA is very, very popular on the rat lists. HA has also just been diagnosed with a tumor near his genitilia. Sadly, A is visiting her father & stepmother, and will be for awhile (she's a minor). HA is with other family.

I can only imagine how frustrated the poor girl must be. Fortunately, HA is with A's aunt, a fellow Rat Person who happens to date a veterinarian. But still--you're supposed to be with your children when they're sick.

The rat lists are full of get-well wishes for HA.

Vermin on my Vermin, Part 3

Witter had a follow up with Dr. K yesterday. The only new thing to report was a large (and I mean large scab on his chin, about a fourth the size of my little fingernail) I had noticed the day before, the second time I had him out (the first was the birthday party). I immediately thought it was from him scratching; later on I thought, and Dr. K agreed, it was probably an injury of some sort--scratches normally don't remove all of the fur.

The mystery is how he did it. He's an alone rat, and I can't see anything in his cage that would do that. It's weird.

He's still looking good; any scabs are small and not really cause for concern. Dr. K's advice was to continue on with what we're doing, but if it seems to get worse, stop the treatments for two weeks (to get the poison out of his system) then we'll try ivermectin injections.

Sad goodbyes

I've said many times since I came to know rats that the only drawback is their short lifespan.

Most people roll their eyes if you mention taking a rat to the vet for tumor surgery or shake their heads at the idea of daily Lasix for a rat's congestive heart failure. Fewer people understand how you could sit at your desk and cry over the passing of a rat.

Luckily I have met the people who do understand. Even though I haven't met many of them in person, they've been sympathetic when our rats have been sick and they've helped us celebrate recoveries and milestones like the birthdays. And we've come to know their rats, too, and to share the celebrations, the worries, and the last sad goodbyes.

That's why I can sit at my desk and cry for Maggie and Samba.

Birthday bash

Bob, age 3

Curly, age 3

Witter, age 1 1/2

Pinky, age 1

Kono and Metro, age 1

Leather, age 1

Calle, age 1

Olie, age 1

Cinnamon Schwartz, age 1

You can also see the whole huge birthday party album.

Happy birthday, Leather, Kono, and Metro!

Baby Kono and Metro...or is it Baby Metro and Kono?

Baby Leather

Leather today

Metro and Kono today

Leather, Metro, and Kono are one year old today. We tried to get them all lined up for a picture; we were rewarded with lots of pictures of rat butts, two-and-a-half rats, and three rats so far apart we couldn't tell who was who.

Later, we'll have more pictures of the Rat Birthday Party, and we should have lots of pictures of rat butts, two-and-a-half and three-and-a-half rats, and multiple rats so far apart we won't be able to tell who is who.

Ratties wanna cracker?

When the girls and Curly were out playing on the bed tonight, I gave them each a cracker. (Kashi's cheese "Tasty Little Crackers"--healthy junk food.) Each rat munched awhile, then Curly got bored, dropped his cracker, and wandered off.

He wandered over to Schwartz...and proceeded to steal her cracker.

No problem. Schwartz took Pinky's cracker.

Pinky spied Curly's abandoned cracker.

Leather looked up from her cracker to see Pinky going for Curly's cracker and decided she could beat Pinky to it.

Curly took Leather's cracker.

And so on, and so on. It took them a half an hour to eat the crackers, and I was rolling the whole time. They are better than the Three Stooges.

Happy Birthday, Pinky!

Today is Pinky's first birthday.

Most pictures of Pinky are a bit blurry, because as soon as she sees you she starts coming toward you...she is our most social rat.

We'll have plenty of proper party food later this month, when we do the group celebration. For tonight, she was happy enough to have corn on the cob.

Vermin on my Vermin, Part 2

I took Witter back to visit Dr. K this morning. I was thinking he looked better--his scabs are healing, he's not scratching as much, and there might be only one new scab. In a nutshell, the topical Frontline seems to be working.

Dr. K came into the exam room, and after just a quick glance, she, too, could tell he was doing better. She felt him up again, and she thought the "new" scab was an old one.

So we talked about it, and I decided to not go thru with an Ivermectin injection. The big reason was that he had had two topicals on him fairly recently; with the scabs some of them certainly worked into his bloodstream, and I don't want to risk poisoning him. Another factor was, simply, what we were trying was already working--why mess with success?

So, I'll keep the follow up appointment on the fifteenth, unless he takes a major downturn. But I feel real good about Witter--and Dr. K. We probably have a third vet lined up, just in case.

New hammocks!

Our wonderful friend in Oregon sent these handmade fleece hammocks. They are soft, cuddly, and beautiful. Bob peed in his already...but that's Bob's way of saying he loves it. (I tell myself that because of how he pees on me...)

There's vermin on my vermin.

Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.

So wrote the mathematician Augustus de Morgan. It's true, you know.

If you've read Witter's story, you know we adopted him because of mites (and if you don't know his story, take a moment to check out the link--we're not going anywhere).

The mites are back, seemingly with a vengeance. I noticed he was getting scabby and, on Monday, I gave him a couple of squirts of Frontline. It's what we treated everyone with in May, when they all had lice, and Witter had mites. It worked then, and I figure it would work now.

(By the way, I forgot to mention Witter was also scratching himself a lot. I don't recommend automatically squirting rats with Frontline every time you see a scab; things such as diet and injury (duh) can also result in a scabby rat.)

Tuesday, though, the area around his eye was scratched and bloody. I figure the mites migrated from his body to his face, and I can't spray there. He looked awful--like he had gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson. And he was still scratching a lot.

Abita and I decided a vet visit was in order, out of concern for his eye, and to myself, maybe treating the mites a bit more aggresively. The problem was which vet to take him to.

Our regular vet, Dr. G, is fantastic. But I'm sorry to say his office is more than five miles away, and his hours are 8 AM to 6 PM, M-F, and that's not exactly convenient for me, for what I see as a minor problem. Even on a drop-off basis, I can't get to work before 10.

There is another exotics vet available who I like (we checked her out with one of my guinea pigs, and Abita is friends with one of the vet techs there) but similar problems. Kind of difficult to get to, especially during rush hour, and limited hours.

However, walking distance from the house, is a new vet who handles exotics. I talked to the receptionist a bit on Tuesday...on Tuesdays and Thursdays their office hours are until 7 PM. Much more convenient for me.

I feel you can't have too many vets, and a minor problem is a good opportunity to see how your vet handles your pet--you get to see her in action, talk to her, listen to what questions she asks you, how she answers your questions...you walk out with an idea of how she would handle your pet in an emergency. So, I made an appointment, and we saw Dr. K tonight.

I'm happy to say I have a real good feeling about Dr. K. She gave Witter a thorough exam (no fecal test, even though he gave us plenty of samples), asked lots of questions--ones you'd think a vet would ask, such as about diet and medical history, plus a few others you might not think of, but Abita and I, as rat people, were glad to hear: What is his bedding? How big is his cage?

And she kept calling him, "Beautiful." Good sign, that.

She couldn't determine what was causing the itching, but that doesn't count as a strike against her. She tried the scotch-tape trick (Stick a piece of tape against rat; look at tape under microscope. The idea is the little vermin stick to the tape, and stay still long enough for you to figure out what they are), but while there weren't any lice or mites on the tape, that might mean there just weren't any beneath the tape where it was stuck.

Of course, it could mean Witter doesn't have mites, and the problem is something else. But...Witter is in general good health. His appetite is good, he's active, he's grooming. He doesn't look sick, which means he probably isn't.

So we're gonna treat for mites. The treatment for mites won't harm Witter (if done properly. As with any treatment, problems occur if it's done improperly); either he'll stop scratching, which means the treatment worked and the lice/mites are gone, or he'll keep scratching, which means there's something else, and we start checking other things.

I've decided on a slighly more aggresive treatment: Ivermectin injections. Basically, the injection will make Witter poisonous to whatever parasite bites him. The problem is with the dose: Too much and Witter is toast. It's a slightly risky treatment, and I know of some rat people who have lost their rats to a too-strong dose, but I'd really like Witter to be parasite-free, and I wonder just how good a job the Frontline did the first time.

Witter will get his first injection this Saturday, then again about ten days later. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Guacamole

Here's today's cute embedded picture...Schwartz and Pinky enjoying some guacamole.

They love it. By the time I turned around to take pictures of the boys, they had finished theirs already.

Schwartz says "It's ok, it's the good kind of fat!"

Curly's vet visit

Okay, Curly's vet visit. My little old man was getting sick again...I got home from work Friday and he was sneezing constantly. I kept a close eye on him all weekend, and it was occasional but too much for my comfort.

Since Curly is 3 years old, I don't want to risk letting any respiratory infection progress to pneumonia. So, although sneezing was his only symptom (he was still grooming fine, eating like a pig, active and happy), we went to the vet. He's had several respiratory infections, unfortunately, but a round of antibiotics seems to clear them up. We've switched around the medicines: Baytril, doxycycline, and Bactrim orally, with gentamicin drops in the nose; this course we're going with Baytril and gentamicin.

The other thing that prompted Curly's appointment is a lump on his shoulder. I noticed the lump, then about the size of a baby pea, in the spring. It has grown slowly and I was hoping it wouldn't cause trouble, but now the skin has gotten kind of scabby and dry. It didn't seem like an abscess...no pus, no smell...but I wanted the doc to take a look. He said that the tissue is necrotic (i.e., dying). Normally I'd have it surgically removed, but I don't want to put Curly through anesthesia while he's sick...or at all, if we can help it, because of his age. So we are going to carefully monitor the tissue, too, in hopes that it gets no worse. Luckily Curly isn't bothered by it at all.

Here is a picture of the necrotic lump. I won't embed that picture...I've seen ickier things in dermatology textbooks, but I don't want to inflict non-cute pictures on the general readership.

Curly is getting his Baytril in cream of coconut syrup, which he loves. Last night the girls were asleep in the cuddle cup on the upper floor of the cage and Curly was in the tube on the lower floor. I thought, instead of disturbing him, I'll just give him his meds in the cage. Ha! As soon as he took his first lick, the girls zoomed down: Curly has something we don't! We want it! We don't know what it is, but if Curly has it, we must have it too!

I managed to hold them off with my right hand while feeding him with my left, but from now on, even if the girls are fast asleep, Curly comes out for his medicine.

Why I have so much laundry

I took Curly to the vet straight from work (he actually went to work with me-that was neat. I should bring a rat every day.)...he pooped all over my shirt.

Changed into sweats at home. We had to give Witter a bath. Soaked me through. I put on pajamas.

After cleaning Bob's cage I kept him out on my lap while I used the computer...and I just felt that warm, wet feeling.

I am running out of dry clothes. I'm going to do laundry, and I'll post a vet update tomorrow.

Choking (Does the rat appear to be vomiting?)

*One in series of post to documents our experiences with a variety of health problems and how we, with our vet's guidance, treated them. This is in no way an attempt to create a comprehensive health care guide. We aren't vets, we just spend a lot of time (and money) at our vet's office...and unfortunately that is because there are a lot of health problems possible with rats. If I can give only one piece of advice to a new rat owner, it is get a good vet. Experience treating rats is good (I was quite pleased when our vet picked up Rizzo for the first time and said "These are my favorite of the pocket pets"), but so is a willingness to research and listen to what you've learned on your own.

One evening I was working on the computer when I heard a cough from Rizzo's cage. I looked up to see foamy liquid coming from her mouth. The noise she made and the stuff from her mouth looked for all the world like a dog about to vomit, but rats don't vomit. I'd heard that little tidbit for years before I had rats. As usual, this happened several hours after the vet closed, so I went to the Panicked Internet Search...where I found, and fairly quickly, instructions for assisting a choking rat.

Here's what happened...apparently Riz had something caught in her throat. Luckily she was breathing, I could see her chest move and she was not turning blue. But if she'd stopped breathing, I was getting ready to perform what's known as the "ratty fling" to dislodge whatever was stuck. Here is Debbie "The Rat Lady" Ducommun's description from the Rat Fan Club First Aid page:

Hold your rat firmly around the neck with one hand, and by the base of the tail with the other to hold her securely. Make sure there are no objects within an arm's length. Lift the rat overhead and bring her down in a rapid arc, so that at the end of the path she's tail up and head down. This can be repeated 3-4 times, then give the rat a rest, check her breathing, and see if anything is visible in the mouth. This is extremely effective in dislodging objects in the throat. However, do not use this procedure if your rat can breathe, or you might make it worse.

I spent the better part of the night practicing the rat fling (without a rat in hand, of course) and watching Riz to make sure she kept breathing. Eventually the drooling and coughing stopped. I don't think she ever coughed up the offending food, I think it dissolved sufficiently for her to swallow. As soon as she could she went back to eating. Eventually I was able to sleep, but that took longer.

I'm not sure what she choked on, either. It must have been a piece of her rat food mix, and she was eating too fast. I have seen warnings to avoid very soft and sticky foods like peanut butter and soft bread, though, because they are choking hazards.

Lumps (Tumors and Abscesses)

*One in series of post to documents our experiences with a variety of health problems and how we, with our vet's guidance, treated them. This is in no way an attempt to create a comprehensive health care guide. We aren't vets, we just spend a lot of time (and money) at our vet's office...and unfortunately that is because there are a lot of health problems possible with rats. If I can give only one piece of advice to a new rat owner, it is get a good vet. Experience treating rats is good (I was quite pleased when our vet picked up Rizzo for the first time and said "These are my favorite of the pocket pets"), but so is a willingness to research and listen to what you've learned on your own.

Lumps

Rats, female rats in particular, are prone to tumors. I'd read that plenty of times, so when Rizzo developed a pea-sized lump near her jaw, I figured it was a tumor. Another vet trip. The vet removed the lump, but in this case it wasn't a tumor, it was an abscess.

Abscesses occur when pus collects at the site of an infection. The abscess is actually the body's way of containing the infection so it doesn't spread, but it doesn't always work, and a burst abscess can spread the infection dangerously through the body. An abscess can be red or feel warm to the touch, and if it does open there is generally a foul odor. In most cases, treatment for an abscess involves draining the pus, careful cleaning, and antibiotics. In Rizzo's case, the vet removed the entire unopened abscess so further draining wasn't necessary. Calle, though, had one that we didn't discover as a lump, we thought he had a bite wound. In his case the vet left the wound open so it would drain. He had three medications: the systemic antibiotic, a solution to flush the wound twice a day, and a topical ointment like Neosporin.

Rizzo and Krycek did both develop the tumors eventually, though. Coincidentally, the first lumps appeared almost simulaneously, Krycek's on her shoulder and Rizzo's in her abdomen. Both girls had surgery. Krycek recovered uneventfully, but Rizzo chewed her sutures out overnight. On the second try the vet gave her internal sutures, which caused a little irritation but at least they kept the wound close.

To keep a rat from chewing out the stitches you can use a collar, but you have to make sure the rat is still able to drink, and you'll probably need to help her eat. I've never gone that route myself. Other people have had success using a body stocking to cover the stitches. On subsequent surgeries with our rats the vet has used combination of internal and external sutures. Rats do heal up quickly, luckily, and Rizzo is the only one who has needed multiple trips for restitching.

Krycek wasn't even through her two-week post-op antibiotic course when I found another lump. By this time she was two years old or perhaps older, and she looked so miserable with the stitches and the medicine that I decided not to put her through more surgery. The vet advised that the lump would grow and probably more tumors would show up as well, and that once the tumors were large enough to impair her quality of life we'd have to put her to sleep. It was not an easy decision to make. However, the lump did not grow as fast as I had feared, and even when two more tumors grew on her chest, she really didn't seem affected by them. Eventually she did need a ramp to get to her upper shelf in her cage, but as she got older I couldn't tell if her decreased mobility was because of the lumps or her age. She lived another seven months with the tumors. I had to put her to sleep when the abdominal tumor ulcerated and began to bleed, but even on the morning of the last vet trip she was eating yogies from my hand a building nests with the tissue paper in her cage. Rizzo's course was similar, multiple abdominal tumors. She was also put to sleep; her largest tumor began to turn black and I didn't want it to open like Krycek's did. And in Rizzo's case, two nights before going to the vet, my ever-active and exploring girl did not want to leave my lap. Never had she elected to spend an evening curled up with me instead of doing her own thing, and I felt like it was her way of telling me goodbye.

Blood or porphyrin?

*One in series of post to documents our experiences with a variety of health problems and how we, with our vet's guidance, treated them. This is in no way an attempt to create a comprehensive health care guide. We aren't vets, we just spend a lot of time (and money) at our vet's office...and unfortunately that is because there are a lot of health problems possible with rats. If I can give only one piece of advice to a new rat owner, it is get a good vet. Experience treating rats is good (I was quite pleased when our vet picked up Rizzo for the first time and said "These are my favorite of the pocket pets"), but so is a willingness to research and listen to what you've learned on your own.

Almost immediately upon bring Rizzo and Krycek home I started seeing red stains in their bedding. My first assumption was, of course, blood, although I didn't see any wounds on either of them. I hit the search engines and found that rats produce porphyrin, a red discharge, around their eyes and nose, particularly when they are ill or stressed. The question of what caused the red stains was quickly answered: I woke up one day to such quantities of red, not just on the bedding but on the walls behind the cage, that it was clearly blood. The rats, cage and all, went directly to the vet for our first panicked emergency visit. He found very small nicks on both rats, either scratches or bites, and that began the days of separate cages for the girls.

I am still not completely sure how to tell the difference between blood stains and porphyrin stains. I think that the porphyrin is lighter (looks maybe like watered-down blood) and when we've seen porphyrin staining, it's usually a fine mist pattern from a rat's sneeze.

Why is the rat in a box?

Here's Leather, obliging me with another illustration for the Rat in a Box site.

Why, exactly, did we choose "Rat in a Box" as our site name?

Victor and I had decided a while ago to register a domain. The name I'd used on my Tripod site, 4 Legs Good, seemed appropriate for a page devoted to pets, but unfortunately all its variations were already taken. We started brain storming rat-related phrases and names, but found that the obvious ones (rat race, rat pack, rat maze, even rat dance) were pretty much taken, too.

Going through digital pictures one day I had realized that I had a ton of pictures of various rats in various boxes, and I'd put together a quick "Rat in a Box" gallery then. When our Whois search showed that as an available name, we grabbed it.

It isn't a name with a huge amount of meaning behind it, although Bob and Curly, being old psych lab rats, may have done some Skinner Box time in their school days. I just thought it sounded fun to say, and it was easy to spell.

And because boxes are favorite toys here, we won't run out of illustrative pictures any time soon. If you have a cute Rat in a Box picture (and aren't they all cute?) that you'd like to share, send it in!