Ratablog

Witter

Witter's last day.

This morning, Witter was pretty grunty, and it seemed to get worse in just the short time I had before I left for work. After some discussion, Abita decided to work at home, and I made the difficult decision to take him to the vet so he could be helped to his final nap. I wanted to get tomorrow morning; sadly, the vet would not be in until mid-morning...so I will leave work early today so that we can take him to the vet tonight.

I know it's the right decision, but it's never the easy one to make. What went into the decision is the fact that these little guys can go downhill very fast--on one of my rat discussion boards, there've been stories of relatively young rats being out for playtime, then dying a few hours later.

I'll get a picture or two before then, then both me and Abita can be there when he starts his last nap.

Witter

I suspect Witter won't make it to the end of the month. He's pictured above, doing something rare these days: eating. Not that it seems to be doing much good; we can definitely feel his bones and the lump is huge. Everything he's eating is being taken by the tumor. You can see it; it's that bit of white fur above his ear. It's that big.

Pssst

Pinky update

Pinky got a clean bill of health. Like I did with the frat boys, I probably over-reacted by taking her in to the vet, but since Bob's bout with pneumonia I have been very conservative when it comes to respiratory symptoms.

Anyway, her lungs didn't sound bad to the vet's trained ears, she's got no porphyrin, she's eating, and she's active, so I decided not to do the antibiotics. If she still sounds wheezy I may try out Witter's sauna, if she'll sit still long enough.

Another bit of good news: she's down to 640 g from a high of 650. I'm not alarmed by weight loss since I've been trying to get the girls to shed some grams...their diet isn't as strict as the fat boys', but the only treats they get now are dried peas, Regal Rat, and the occasional leftover vegetables from dinner.

Leather is looking pretty good too; all I need to do is get Schwartzy on program.

Rat Weights & Other News

Boy, am I behind on these. The good news is the Fat Rats are losing weight, while Witter isn't. The Fat Rat diet is working!

Witter--970g +70
Calle--1000g -75
Olie--880g -40
Metro--800g -20
Kono--780g -40

In other news, Witter had a gash on the back of his neck, and we have no idea how it got there. I felt a scab that was more than half hanging off this morning; I pulled it completely off, and when I examined where it came from, the wound it had been covering looked fresh. Hydrogen peroxide foamed up nicely when I put some on it; later in the morning, I dabbed some neosporin on it. This PM it looks much better. Hydrogen peroxide did not foam when I put some on it.

Pinky is also making some very minor respiratory sounds. If we hold her up to our ears, there's definitely a whistle to her breathing, rather than the rapid puffpuffpuff one would normally hear. If there's a problem, a round of antibiotics should clear it up.

Fratboys to the vet

This picture has nothing to do with the vet visit, but it's cute.

Anyway, boys went to the vet Wednesday. Jack had been sneezing quite a bit on Monday, and the vet had never met him or George, and I didn't want Jim to feel left out.

Actually, I figured if Jack had a respiratory infection, all three probably had a respiratory infection.

Luckily that was not the case; all three check out just fine. They hated the vet experience, though, and made the biggest, smelliest fear-poop mess I've ever had to clean in the travel cage.

Witter weight

About 900 grams, which is good. That's what he weighed when he saw Dr. K ten days ago, and I'm glad he hasn't lost any weight. He's still an active, happy little rat, who has started chewing a second shirt of mine...and I've just discovered a small hole in the one I'm wearing now.

Make that three shirts.