Ratablog

Feeding frenzy!

Pictures!

Jim and George, posing so nicely. (This is just after they'd been wrestling.)

Shy Jack.

Oliver and Leather, making sure that dog food bag is really empty.

Misto washing up. (He's a very tidy rat.)

Fuzzy Rabskuttle.

Not fuzzy Arthur.

Misto washing up

Arthur eats an egg

I've heard that a simple hard bolied egg can keep them busy for hours. Well, maybe not that long, but it sure was funny...

Mr. Ratburn

I wasn't ready for another memorial so soon, and I really wasn't ready for it to be one of the young rats.

We lost Mr. Ratburn this morning.

I'm still in shock, I think; it was so unexpected.

Late last week Ratburn and Misto were both being a little grunty, so I took them in to the vet yesterday morning. They were both a bit congested, and the vet actually commended us on how quickly we catch the respiratory infections. We went home with Baytril and some triple antibiotic/steroid drops, which is the standard treatment we've been using for the URIs.

Yesterday Ratbun was fine. This morning I had to pull him out of his sleep sack for the meds, and at first we figured he was groggy from the rude awakening. But when we put him back in the cage he didn't seem right, so I brought him to the bed with me.

He didn't move around, and he was limp, almost like a rag doll. With the stethoscope I could hear his heart, but not air movement. Victor called the closest emergency vet, but they don't see rats. He called the emergency vet where we took Pinky; the one vet there that treats rats wasn't on til 6 pm. We looked up some other vets, but the next possibilities were over an hour away. Out of desperation, we called our regular vet and woke him up...8 am on Sunday morning. I felt bad about that, but I figure if he really didn't want calls, he wouldn't list his number. He said he'd meet us in the office around 10.

Briefly, Ratburn perked up...he moved around a little bit, opened his eyes, and his breathing, though shallow, was a bit stronger. He drank some soy milk. But in the next hour he faded again. I held him the whole time, and he had some gasps and some spasms just before he died, but never did he seem like he was in pain or distress...it really was just ebbing away.

Of course I can't understand why...he really didn't seem particularly sick, and the doctor agreed. One of the scary thoughts to me was something wrong with the medicine, but Misto seems absolutely fine (thankfully, and I will be watching him like a hawk.) I don't know if a hypersensitivity response to something in the meds would have brought on respiratory arrest. We are going to have an autopsy, because I'm afraid there's something contagious and I'm now worried about everyone.

I really loved Ratburn. Part of it was just his looks; I have a soft spot for double rexes because of Pinky. But Ratburn was a mommy's rat...during playtime he spent more time on me than the other three boys combined. He was a bully to Oliver, but I couldn't even hold that against him when he gave me little kisses. I will miss him more than I can say.

With his brother Arthur.

With me about three weeks ago.