Ratablog

Bandit

As Abita mentioned before, Bandit is scabby. What she didn't mention is that he's also become bitey--again.

Before the trip to the vet, Abita tried to get him out of the cage but he wouldn't come out of a box he was hiding in. I reached into the box and Bandit let me know he didn't want to go to the vet when he bit my left pinkie.

It bled...and bled and bled and bled. We got him to the vet, where scrapings from two places showed no evidence of parasites, and I got home and my finger was still bleeding. After about three hours I went to my primary care where some steri-strips finally got the bleeding stopped.

(I'm also on some antibiotics that don't exactly agree with me, but that's not important right now.)

We had some hints he might be reverting to his old bitey ways. A couple of times when we tried to pick up Kanga (before she passed), Bandit nipped at us--we thought he might have been protecting her. Last Friday, the day before the vet trip, he bit at me without breaking the skin. I was wondering if he was bi-polar and was just entering the manic phase.

In an attempt to narrow down the cause of the scabs we separated Bandit from Oliver and Neiko, as one cause of scabs might be injuries from the other rats. In order to improve his mood, I've also started trust training him again.

Just four days later the scabs are not as severe and I can't detect any new ones. His mood also seems to have improved, though there may be one of two reasons for that: It may have been the trust training, or it may be he's just more comfortable without the scabs and is therefore in a better mood.

Abita and I are also wondering about the cause of his scabs. Because we don't want him to forget his cagemates I've been taking Bandit out with Oliver and Neiko for playtime and he's never been attacked. He squabbles with Oliver a bit but Oliver always submits. Neiko grooms him, but I think it's more her way of getting him to groom her in return. Nothing suggests he's anything but the alpha and I'm not sure attacks from the other rats are the reason behind his scabs.

Abita and I think there may be another possibility: We wonder if he may have developed an allergy to the bedding we use. Oliver and Neiko are on Carefresh (regular Carefresh, not the Ultra); while Bandit's in a single cage he's been on fleece blankets. A permanent change in bedding may be in order.

So, in a nutshell: Bandit's scabs seem to be going away, his mood is improving a bit, and when we put him back in with Neiko and Oliver it may well be on fleece blankets.

Artax is a monkey

I say that several times a night: Artax is a monkey! He is very high energy, and hysterical to watch.

A couple of weeks ago I stopped by my parents' house when I was taking the boys to the vet. My 3-year-old nephew was there, and when I introduced the boys I said "Artax is a monkey."

My nephew said "No, you're silly. Artax is a mouse!"

I insisted, and eventually got him to say it too. Now if I ask "What is Artax?" my nephew grins and says "A monkey!"

Victor says "That kid is going to be so messed up when he gets to kindergarden."

I'm trying to train our monkey to use the wheel. He prefers tipping it over and climbing it to running inside, though.

It's raining, it's pouring

We've been having a lot of stormy weather, which has kept me off the computer. For a quick update before the thunder starts:

-Neiko is hanging in there, still grooming the guys and still eating with great relish. We are waiting for her to let us know when she's ready to join her sisters. It is strange to have just one girl.

-Bandit is scabby. We took him in for a skin scraping to see if he had mites, but surprisingly the vet found no bugs. Now we're trying to figure out if he's allergic to something or if Oliver and Neiko have been over-grooming when we aren't watching. Right now he's back in a separate cage except for supervised playtimes, poor guy. Hopefully he won't revert completely to his old lone wolf ways.

-Kado's respiratory troubles were getting worse in spite of the antibiotics, and he dropped quite a bit of weight. We tried a nebulized bronchodilator, which did nothing, so last week the doctor gave him dexamethasone for the nebulizer and Lasix to hopefully move some fluid out of his lungs. After just three days he sounds like a new rat, and he's back to chasing and flipping Artax. Hopefully this will give the antibiotic a chance to take hold and he won't need the steroids long term, because he is hating the nebulizer.

-Rufus' leg is all healed up and most of his fur has grown back. You'd never know he'd been injured.

I think that was everybody, and believe it or not, I'm hearing thunder again.

Missing Roo

It's hard to walk into the rat room and not see Roo's head pop up in greeting. She was always curious and loving and eager to crawl onto my shoulder when I took her out of the cage.

In the waiting room at the e-vet four days ago I cuddled with her and she crawled up toward my shoulder. She didn't quite make it all the way, so I cupped my hand over her to hold her in place. Abita asked if I had my cameraphone; I didn't and she didn't have hers. I turned around and I saw why she wanted a camera--in the reflection Roo was curled on my shoulder, her head against my neck.

See ya later, sweetie.

Roo - 16 June 2006

We let Roo go this morning. It was difficult, but she was in pain: the lump grew so large that she couldn't keep both feet on the ground, and this morning her left foot was swollen and red. When she touched it, rolling over or grooming, she squealed. We were waiting for her to tell us it was time, and this was it.

Roo had such personality...she was curious and friendly. As tired and hurting as she must have been, even the vet and vet tech today saw how sweet she was.

Sad news from a friend

I was just reading through my e-mail and had a note from Colleen, with sad news: her Rufus passed away on Sunday.

Our thoughts are with her and Rufus' brother Reuben.

And a few more playtime pictures

Neiko and Oliver

Bandit

Rufus healing up

Here he is with is gimpy leg...the fur (where they shaved him to put on this cast) is growing back and he's using it more every day.

Rufus update

The vet is very happy with how Rufus is healing up. He's still favoring the leg, but he is starting to use his hand (paw?) again. I wanted to get a picture of him without the cast, but he just won't hold still.

See what I mean?

The overall update

It was neither the best nor worst of weekends here.

Rufus did decide that he'd had enough of the cast, and by Saturday night he'd chewed a good section off. I was afraid that he'd somehow catch the trailing bandages that were still attached and hurt himself more trying to pull free, so we took off what we could. All he has left now is one piece of tape, and since it's stuck to his fur, I'll let the vet get that next week.

He's favoring the leg and not using his paw, but I expect it will take several weeks to heal fully. In the meantime...last night he made a lot of noise in the cage, and when I got up this morning I realized why:

He'd pulled pretty much the whole cage into his box, including two food bowls.

I gave him a second blanket for the cage floor, but if I get up tomorrow and that's stuffed in the box too, I won't be surprised. I'm hoping it means he's feeling ok that he has the energy to build nests.

Last week Kado had a checkup to see how his respiratory infection was coming along, and the good news was that he sounded much better. That was Tuesday. By Thursday, he sounded as bad as he did when we first went to the vet. He's back on the Zithromax twice a day, and I'm hoping we see improvement in the next couple of days, or we'll be hauling out the nebulizer. I can't believe we have another chronic respiratory problem already...it breaks my heart when I hear him wheeze.

But the real heartbreak is Roo. Her weight is starting to disappear except for the tumor, and this weekend we started seeing signs that I didn't want to see. She's had some diarrhea today, and the lump is getting in the way of her movement. She's either having trouble grooming or it's bothering her, because there's one spot that she seems to be chewing at. And remember I said the other day she was still bright-eyed? Tonight, the light is dim.

Our plan is to let her go this week, unless we see a change for the better in the next day...sometimes it's hard to know the exact right moment, and we need to be sure.

Here's her picture. As I've said, her tumor is massive and disturbing-looking, so I'm embedding it in case people'd rather not see.

Roo

Rufus's new cast

I got a few pictures of Rufus and his new purple cast this AM. It's been hot and I think he pulled the blanket up so he could rest on the cooler metal. Abita thought he looked a little sad, which he may. I mean, his leg is in a cast!

It's a pretty large picture, so you'll have to click to see it.

Rufus & his purple cast