Ratablog

Zack

Curly, Leather and I were at the vet last week (guess who caught Schwartz's sneezes?) As usual, the cage attracted a bit of attention in the waiting room, including that of a little boy. He shyly peeked in the cage, then asked "Are those mice?"

"No, they're rats."

"Did you catch them?"

"No, they're pets. Curly [pointing him out] used to be a lab rat at a university."

The kid sat down with his mother. A minute later I heard her say "No, you have a dog, two cats, and a hamster. You may not have a rat too."

(She smiled at me, though, so I knew she didn't think I was trying to corrupt her kid.)

The boy came back and started asking questions. He was particularly intrigued by how they both stuffed themselves into the tissue box I had in the carry cage. I told him how they love all types of boxes, chewing their own doors and windows, stashing their treasures and making their nests. All of a sudden the mother says "You don't need a rat, Zack, you are a rat!"

Apparently the little boy has a habbit of taking big boxes (like the one his neighbor's tv came in) and making forts in his room. He even likes to sleep in his box, and hide his toys there.

I was quite tickled by the story, and when I told Victor he decided that our next rat gets named "Zack."

No, he hasn't fallen, and he can get up.

Olie caught grooming himself.

Bill

Please welcome our first ever guest Rat in a Box, Bill from Connecticut!

We have a special place in our hearts for Bill, who survived a broken leg (and a very unuseful emergency vet visit) last spring. The poor boy has been through a lot, so who can blame him for just wanting to curl up in his box?

Our thanks to Ratqueen for sharing Bill's picture, and lots of scritches to sweet Bill.

UPDATE: We recieved more details on little Bill's life from his mum, Ratqueen. Here's what she had to say...

Bill came to me as a newborn with his mother and 11 siblings in April 2002. They were to be live frozen by a pet store that was going out of business. Bill's childhood was pretty uneventful, but in the spring of 2003 disaster struck. We came home one night and Bill was bleeding in the cage. We think a cagemate bit him. We rushed to an e-vet, who managed to botch the repair, not catching on that Bill had broken his leg. For a week and a half Bill had to fight for his life - some days we thought his leg would have to be amputated, others it looked as though Bill would lose his battle altogether. His foot was horrifically enlarged and he couldn't use it at all. By some miracle I got up one morning and went to check on him and during the night his foot had drained and was almost normal sized, and he was moving arond the cage. The eventual verdict was that the leg HAD been broken, and had fused bent so he can't use it anymore. Once healed, Bill was unable to climb up the five foot tall cage his brothers live in, and he was uninterested in having their company. He has been living alone since then, through several failed introductions including to two babies who he was wholly uninterested in. Bill is happiest, and can almost always be found, in a small, square tissue box. He doens't like the full sized ones. Bill builds elaborate beds in his boxes and sleeps with his head poking out the front on a Bill-made pillow. He adores yogurt and apple-raspberry baby food. Bill can always use well wishes, as he's never really gotten well after being injured, and seems to catch anything that considers entering our house.

It seems we do a lot for our rats, and we do. After all, they're not just our pets--they're our friends and loved ones, too.

Schwartz at the vet

Schwartz went to the vet today. Her lungs are clear and everything sounds good, so we'll keep her on the Baytril and gentamicin for two weeks are expect that should take care of the infection. She sounds loads better than she did Saturday.

The only thing the vet noted was, well, her rather large size. She's up to 677 grams. One of the techs assumed she was pregnant.

As I was leaving the vet suggested a few extra laps around the track. Now that I think about it, when the girls come out to play, Schwartz does have a habit of hiding quietly under the blanket rather than running about like Pinky...not that Pinky doesn't have her own chunk issues.

Well, no more spaghetti for awhile.

Monkey noises

Schwartz is now making the infamous "monkey noises" that signal an upper respiratory infection. (By "monkey noise" I mean just that...imagine a kid saying "ee ooh ahh" and pretending to be a chimp or something...that's what it sounds like.) When I got home from running errands last night I heard it for the first time, and she also had a fair amount of porphyrin around her nose. Of course this happens on a Saturday night.

I still had Baytril left from Curly's last URI as well as some Gentamicin, so I went ahead and started her on the antibiotics. She's still noisy, but none of the other critical signs, like ungroomed fur or lethergy. I'll call the vet first thing tomorrow and hope they can see her quickly.

I'm not even sure if she realizes she's sick...she's certainly annoyed by the extra attention, although she enjoys the creme de coconut I use to hide the Baytril. Poor berkblob.

Pictures!

As promised:



Click on a thumbnail. (I'm still playing around with photo display ideas.)

Vermin update

The ectoparasite shampoo really seemed to help the scabs on Schwartz and Curly, but I gave them another Frontline spray this evening, too. Pinky never seems to be bothered by the mites (because she has such sparse fur, maybe?), but I'm not sure why Leather was spared this time. I'm still not 100% sure it even is mites and not Leather being a much-too-aggressive groomer...but they are healing up whatever it is, to my relief.

I'm also very pleased to report that Curly's necrotic lump is actually shrinking. Essentially the scabby-looking tissue seems to be falling off. There's still what looks like a flat scab, so I can't see what is underneath, but the lump itself is much, much smaller.

Victor had the good camera out during playtime last night, so we should have some pictures soon.

Vermin on the Vermin, part four

This time, it's Abita's girls & Curly. It's either vermin, or Leather is chewing up everybody. More scabs, especially on Curly and Schwartz, while Leather has a pretty good amount of porphyrin staining on her shoulder. Pinky, being practically hairless, amazingly enough has just one small scab. On a double rex darn near anything could cause a scab.

Tonight was bath night for the girls & Curly. Curly pooped like a guinea pig, Leather struggled with a strength that a rat that small shouldn't have, and Schwartz and Pinky screamed like...well, they screamed like girls.

And I can't wait to do this again in two weeks.

Curly

Leather

She chewed a hole in the pretty fleece hammock.

But just look at that face...