Ratablog

Tonight, the dog preempts the rats

The real Abita is our aging beagle. We aren't sure how old she is; I adopted her in 1994 from a local shelter. She'd been picked up as a stray with a litter of puppies, so she was probably at least a year old, maybe as old as 7. (I'm inclined to think she was on the younger side of the original estimates.)

We don't know her background, or much of it. She comes from an area that was fairly rural, and she may have been a hunting dog...she did tree a racoon once. Then there was a time when my then-husband took the belt off of a pair of pants by pulling on the buckle...Abita saw the belt and she dove cowering under the bed, leading us to suspect she was abused.

In spite of whatever happened to her before I got her, she is the sweetest dog you could ever meet. Not the brightest, maybe, nor the best-behaved, but definitely the sweetest.

She's also a bit of a medical marvel. A few years ago the vet picked up a heart murmur and sent her to a cardiologist. Turns out she has a mitral valve prolapse. She went on heart medication, and after two years, the murmur was practically undetectable. She went off the drug. The murmur stayed gone. The cardiologist says he's never seen anything like it.

A couple years ago she went in to have a cyst removed. In the routine pre-op bloodwork they saw that her platelets were low, a condition called thrombocytopenia. After running a bunch of tests, all the vets could conclude was that she had it, but not why. They put her on prednisone and monitored her blood for several months, the platelets came back.

The next year we saw a new associate vet for her checkup. When I mentioned the thrombocytopenia, he flipped back through her chart (it's pretty thick). Then he said "Holy s*it!" He clapped his hand over his mouth, said "Excuse me, I'm sorry. But do you realize how low her platelet count was? You're lucky she didn't bleed to death!"

Last summer we saw another new associate vet. When I mentioned the thrombocytopenia, he went back through the chart, and when he got to the lab tests he said "Holy crap! This dog is lucky to be alive!"

Another year in there we found out that she had Lyme disease, but that seems like nothing comapred the the mysteriously repairing heart murmur and her survival with no platelets. The vet has said "Whatever you're doing, keep it up." I've wondered if she's part cat, and has nine lives.

I hope she has nine lives.

Last night...actually early this morning...she started throwing up. Vomiting isn't that unusual for a dog, and I had given her a new type of canned food for dinner. But she kept throwing up for several hours, and that's not typical even for a dog with a sensitive stomach. I took her to the vet as soon as they opened.

They put her on IV fluids and started running tests while I went to work. The vet called after lunch to tell me that her liver enzymes were elevated. When I got there after work, they'd done x-rays and seen some "areas of concern"...the vet was going to take the films to a radiologist tonight.

I got to bring Abita home tonight, but she goes back tomorrow to be hooked back up to the IV. She did pass a stool a bit ago that looked like it had some wood in it; I'm praying that the stupid dog just ate a rat chew stick and now that she's unblocked she'll be fine. In the meantime, I need to keep her with me to stop her from chewing on her IV port (she'll be wearing the dreaded e-collar tonight).

I joked to one of the vet techs earlier today that Abita's jealous of all the medical attention that the rats get, so I figure I'll give her a blog post too.

Leg degeneration

I mentioned that George is starting to drag his back legs. This is something that we've seen as a few of the old boys have gotten up there in age, and in one of the girls (Leather, but she was almost 3 years old.) There are a few things that can cause a rat to lose the use of the back legs; in our rats I believe all have been from spinal cord compression. Here are some good articles about it:

• Degenerative Osteoarthritis from the Rat Health Guide
• Elderly Rats and Hind Leg Degeneration from Pet Web Site
• Weakness in Older Rats: A Paralysis Primer from the Rat & Mouse Club of America

Generally when our rats have started having trouble with their back legs we have moved them into a flat cage (as I mentioned, I waited too long to do that with Leather, resulting in the accident and her broken leg.) Since George is only just starting to have problems (he's using his back feet, it's just an obvious effort for him to make them go where he wants them to go) I found a cage with solid plastic balconies and ramps...he can still go up and down, but there's no wire mesh for him to get caught. When the rats have gotten to the stage where they truly are dragging their legs, I replace the bedding with fleece blankets so it's softer, and I make sure they get the shallow food dishes so they don't have trouble eating.

We're back

The computer is fixed (thanks to Victor) and all 20 gigabytes of rat pictures are now safety backed up on multiple hard drives and burned to DVD. (Well, maybe a gig or two were pictures of the family and vacations, but most of the pictures were rats. I even found some old pictures of Rizzo and Krycek, our first rats, that I didn't know we had digitally.)

In rat news, today was moving day for George and Jack. George is started to drag his back legs, and after Leather's broken leg last year, I decided not to take chances with the wire mesh ramps. The boys are now in a SuperPet cage with plastic ramps and balconies. It's smaller than the Martin's, but it should be plenty roomy for two lazy old men.

After I give the old cage a good scrubbing, we'll be able to use it as a "neutral" cage when we start introducing Bandit to Oliver and the girls. The stitches should come out Saturday. His incision looks like it healed up fine, and he's a very good boy about taking his medicine.

We mix it in Coco Lopez pina colada mix. I got the tip from a house rabbit forum the first time Rizzo had to take Baytril, and most of the rats have loved it. (Cream of Coconut works too. I wonder if the Coco Lopez people would like to know this?)

Bandit's latest picture

Poor guy. We are so mean...

We aren't trying to humiliate him. This is educational, for people who might be considering this surgery, so they know what happens. Really.

In seriousness, you can see that the vet used stainless steel sutures to prevent chewing, and you can see that it is looking nice and clean. Sometimes the area will abscess, but he is on Bactrim to hopefully prevent that, too.

Weekend update

Bandit is doing fine, being a good boy and leaving his stitches alone, and still acting like he's full of testosterone. (Or maybe that one bite meant that he wasn't pleased with what we did to him?)

Rabskuttle went to the vet Friday for a checkup on his wheezes, and we've bumped him up to aminophylline in addition to the zithromycin. He'd lost about 4o grams since his last visit (in late December, I think). Arthur had actually lost more weight...80 g. I could tell he was losing, but since he'd gotten so chubby I wasn't worried. Now, though, I don't want him to lose any more and end up like Kanga.

In many of our rats, as soon as they make it to 2, they start dropping weight. That's why I quit being so concerned about how squishy they are before 2.

In non-rat updates, my computer bit the dust this weekend, so posting may be light until the parts come in for Victor to work his computer magic. (By the way, if you haven't backed up your rat pictures lately, go do it now! I've been a basket case worrying about how many digital pictures I've lost, especially ones of Jim.)

Bandit is home and recovering

When I picked him up at the vet this afternoon he was actually really perky, but in the last few hours all he's really wanted to do is curl up and sleep. (I guess that's what happens when the ketamine wears off.) Right now Victor is giving him an antibiotic and ketoprofen mixed with yogurt, so hopefuuly the ketoprofen will make him a bit more comfy.

Oh, and I don't know if Bandit will take much comfort in this, but he's not alone...poor Naughty Little Riff!

Bandit--Before

They're not long for this world. He's always been so proud of his doo-dads.

A Decision for Bandit

We haven't posted anything about Bandit lately, so first things first. Today's Bandit picture:

Little does he know he'll soon be singing soprano. We've decided to have him neutered, and The Big Snip is this Thursday. He's been a good boy, mostly, and right now he's being downright delightful, but he's still biting me. He got me three times last week, drawing blood twice. I admit one of the times I was teasing him a bit, but the other two were completely uncalled for.

UPDATED: I forgot to mention the other reason for getting him neutered--we want to introduce him to other rats, both boys and girls.

Ratatouille

It seems like a natural recipe to try, but this was actually the first time I made ratatouille. The experts thought it was fine (though it doesn't look so appetizing in the pictures).

Roo

Jack

And of course, we humans had to quote frequently from the "Basil the Rat" episode of Fawlty Towers. ("The chef put too much basil in the ratatouille." "He put Basil in the ratatouille?!")

Fuzzy Rabskuttle

I'm trying out a new camera. The autofocus seems to work, I need to figure out how to adjust the depth of field, and Rabby did not like the red eye reduction flash!

Oliver and his girls

I ended up with one of Victor's CompactFlash cards, and I found this shot of Oliver and the girls. It's a touch out of focus, but still, I love those little noses. That's Roo on top, big ol' Oliver on the right, and Neiko on the bottom.

Doesn't Oliver look smug?

Update: Now it's less blurry! Thank you to Eanna for fixing the picture!

The report from the vet

Dr. F just called me with the results of Jim's necropsy. I hope I get this right, since I didn't take notes (if anyone ever finds this post because you're doing research on a rat with a medical problem, e-mail me and I'll put you in touch with our vets). I'm putting this in the extended entry, because I'm having to sort of detatch and be clinical, and it might be disturbing to some.

Jim didn't seem to have a tumor, what he had were plaques that had grown in the digestive tract, specifically the area where the small and large intestines come together. It sounds like his GI tract was pretty much blocked, which explains the weight loss. I'm wondering how long it was like that, though...he was eating solid food up until Saturday, and his stools were still solid (though small) on Saturday morning. The only food in his stomach at the time of death was liquid, which makes sense, because all he really ate Sunday was yogurt and baby food. His bowels were empty.

On Sunday he basically couldn't breathe. Dr. F saw some of the same plaques on his lungs, but not built up the way they were in his intestines.

As to what the plaques are...that we don't know. They could be cancer, or a bacterial growth of some kind.

I guess this really doesn't answer many of the questions. In a way, I was probably just looking to validate the decision to put Jim to sleep. I can imagine that he must have been horribly uncomfortable with his GI tract blocked, and I can only hope now that the poor guy wasn't in agony for a long time.

More pictures

Today I sorted through pictures of Jim. That did make the two years seems like a pretty long time, when I remembered how small he was, and saw pictures of him with the older generation rats. Still, I wish we'd had more time.

Here are some of the pictures:

March 2004, just after George and Jack moved in, when Jim was still bigger.

This reminded me of the picture I just posted in the last week or so. Hard to believe they were ever so small.

September 2004. (Now you see how he got so big.)

In his nest ball February 25. I think he still looks pretty robust, although he'd started losing weight by this point.

Sunday before we left for the vet.

There are more pictures in the Gallery.

Thank you all for your good thoughts through this.

Jim - ? 2003 - 5 March 2006

We let Jim go.

On the way to the vet he was gasping for air. They put him on oxygen right away, but even 90 minutes in the O2 tank didn't seem to help him much. The x-ray didn't show anything remarkable in his lungs, and the best the emergency vet could offer was leaving Jim there overnight to have more tests next week. At best, the vet said, the prognosis was "guarded to poor."

At Jim's age, and with the rapididty with which these symptoms flared up and knocked him down, I didn't have confidence that they could fix whatever was wrong. I didn't want his final days to be spent alone in a hospital tank.

I will talk to Dr. F tomorrow about doing a necropsy...I do want to know what it was that took Jim so quickly, and Dr. F seems to be interested in learning all he can, too.

Jim had an inauspicious start as a feeder down in southwest Virginia, but he grew faster than the snake did and was surrendered to the Rockingham-Harrisonburg SPCA. He was known there as Ratty Lumpkin, and the day we picked him up we tried on many names (Harrison, Madison, James) as we drove up I-81. By the time we got home we'd settled on the unassuming and friendly "Jim," which fit him very well. He was a happy and hyper baby, never destructive or mean, just active. He mellowed into sweet, if not so bright, boy...George often took advantage of Jim's less-than-clever stashing.

I'm going to have a hard time looking at the nest ball and not seeing Jim in it...it was always his favorite spot.

Rest easy, my sweet boy. You'll always be my funny valentine rat.

This morning's Jim update

Things aren't looking better this morning. Jim's breathing sounds much worse...I actually gave him a dose of aminophylline about two hours ago, but I don't think it helped at all.

I moved him into the "hospital cage" in my bedroom so that I could better monitor what he eats and how he's pooping...it looked like he might have had some diarrhea last night, but it's hard to tell who does what in a community cage.

He's curled up in his nest ball now, but his fur is sticking up, and his chest is heaving. My poor old man. I feel so useless, not being able to make him better.

Jim at the doc, again

I took Jim in to the vet today, a bit early for his re-check. His eyes are doing well (it was corneal neovascularization that he has), but he's been...not himself, I guess...for the last couple of days.

I mentioned that they are all slowing down, which I attributed to age, but it was more than that with Jim. His coat looked a bit too ungroomed, and he was a bit too lethargic. Last night he was snuffly, so I figured he was coming down a respiratory infection.

He does, in fact, have upper respiratory congestion, but his lungs are clear. He's on antibiotics for the sniffles. But more worrisome is the mass that the vet felt in Jim's abdomen. It's deep in there...you can't see a lump by looking at him...just under an inch across, and irregularly shaped. And it wasn't there just thirteen days ago, when the vet gave him a pretty good going-over as he showed the student how to examine rats.

We'll go back in another 13 days, hopefully with the infection under control, to see how to proceed. In the meantime I will try to subjugate my worry by spoiling Jim completely.

And now for something completely different.

Nothing special going on with our rats at the moment, but I thought you all would enjoy watching a hamster video.