Ratablog

Rufus' Bob Hat

We have been using these kids' fleece hats as rat accessories for years, but no one has taken to the hats the way Bob did, so they are forevermore known as "Bob hats."

Set the VCR!

For anybody in the states who gets the National Geographic tv channel:

"Rat Genius" at 9P et/pt
Rats are associated with disease and filth, but they’ve outsmarted our best efforts to combat them. NGC takes an in-depth look at these clever creatures to reveal their supreme agility, remarkable adaptability and shockingly witty minds.

I don't usually let the rats watch tv, but perhaps I'll let them stay up for this.

Update:
We watched the show, and it was pretty good. Interestingly, the featured rat-plagued city was our own hometown. The science-y stuff about how rats think and communicate was very cool, and we had to burst out laughing at the end, when the narrator ominously predicts that perhaps someday "we will be working for the rats."

Rest of the Halloween pictures

Artax

Kado

Punk rock Rufus

And since we have the camera out

Teddy the guinea pig

...and the dog

Waiting for the Great Pumpkin

Bandit

Oliver

More to come...

New Rodent Species Cataloged!

Last year a new rodent species was cataloged in Laos. Now, a new mouse has been discovered and cataloged in Cyprus. Yeah...Europe. You'd figure they'd have found everything there was to find by now, wouldn't you?

(That's rhetorical, BTW.)

Take a look at the article. He's a cute little fellow.

Spam II

By the looks of my overflowing inbox, it looks like Rufus was sending out more spam today. Amazingly I did mange to find Colleen's e-mail in there amongst the "we can't deliver your message"s, and she sent us this very funny and appropriate cartoon. (Thanks, Colleen!)

Everybody knows Morty and Max, right? You gotta read Morty and Max!

Anyway, it struck me that our web host has a strict no-spam policy, so I did e-mail them to let them know that our address has been spoofed. But if we disappear for awhile, blame whoever stole our good name to try to sell diet pills.

Quickie Rattie Update

Rufus: Still shaved, but today is the first day where I can't see a single scab or scratch on his back. The bumbles on his feet just look like red bumps. Kinda big red bumps, but his feet look much better. UPDATE ON 12 OCTOBER: I discovered one small scratch on his back. Dunno how he reaches all the way back there, but I can't deny the evidence of the scratch.

Kado: Eating food and gaining some weight. As far as we can tell, there are no teeth erupting, and we smell his mouth frequently, for sign of infection. So far, so good. He's a lot more active and he actually seems a lot happier these days, unless...

Artax: Seems to enjoy annoying Kado. Kado is trying to eat, you know, and Artax gets on one of the ramps near him and just puts his hand on Kado's back just to hear him complain. I swear Artax is saying, "Does this bother you? Does this bother you?"

Oliver: His back legs have really gone, but he can get up and down the ramps. He likes sitting in the big chair on the top shelf, sitting in his box with Bandit, and eating...still.

Bandit: He frequently seems scared or nervous, but has made absolutely no aggresive move toward me (or my fingers) in recent memory, provided it's not coming at him from between the bars of the cage. In other words, don't stick your fingers thru the cage! Enjoys sitting inside his box with Oliver and huffing and puffing at anything that comes at him from the cage bars.

If the rats were sending spam, I am grounding them

*Sigh*

We were out of town this weekend, and came home to nearly 600 new e-mail messages. Thankfully we have broadband.

Unfortunately, the messages aren't 600 new rat fans. It looks like our e-mail address was hijacked by somebody selling a herbal weight loss formula.

Honestly, none of the rats would ever endorse such a thing. And while Bandit and Artax are both keeping up their naughty minion ways, neither would stoop so law as to be sending spam.

Good news

Rufus is looking loads better (unless you count the funky haircut).

And Oliver has figured out how to move up and down in the new cage. Today we found him in the hammock:

I lied. Here are pictures.

Now that Rufus is already looking better, I'm not as horrified by the scabs from Monday. Still, in case anybody is eating dinner, I'll stick the pictures in the extended entry:

Here he was Monday night:

And tonight. In real life he looks even better than in the picture. The scabs are drying up and falling right off.

Happy news

Kado had a checkup today, and it was all good: the tooth hasn't regrown so far (the vet is still worried that there was some root left of the left bottom tooth), his lungs sound ok, and he's gained about 40 grams.

Rufus is a little perkier today, and the scabs actually look better already. (I expect the prednisone is the reason for that.) I'm going to have to post some pictures, now that I know he's not miserable. We'll call it his halloween costume.

And this isn't as happy, but it isn't totally bad...Oliver and Bandit moved into the old man condo tonight. Oliver's legs are really starting to drag, and we don't want him to end up like Leather with a broken leg from catching a foot in the wire mesh. The new cage has solid ramps and shelves, so there's still has some room to move about. Bandit has been exploring like mad, but I'm not entirely sure if Oliver can get up the ramps. They aren't any steeper than the wire ramps in the old cage, but with his massive bulk, Ol might have been relying on hooking his front paws in the mesh and pulling himself, and he can't get purchase on the solid ramps. He has food, water, and a house on the lower level, though, and I think this is the best way to keep him and Bandit together.

No laughing at Rufus

Poor little guy is now a nearly-nekkid rat.

Actually he breaks my heart, poor guy. We knew he had a few scabs, but we didn't see any bugs, so we sort of wrote the scabs off as too many treats. (We first noticed this with Krycek, one of the original two...when we gave her too many yogies or peanuts, she'd get scabby around the shoulders.) This morning it occurred to me that if he has a staph infection on his feet, it might explain the skin scabs too.

Rufus spent today at the vet, getting his feet and the scabs checked out. They said they'd need to shave him. Once they started shaving, they didn't stop...all that's left with fur is his face and his rump. And he is not happy.

Without the fur, he is much, much scabbier than we realized. He got a shot of ivermectin for any lice or mites that might be causing this, plus prednisone for the itching and Baytril for the sores on his feet, and topically we're swabbing him with Nolvasan and antibiotic ointment. Kado is on a lot of meds, but Rufus just shot past him in the pharmaceutical race.

Rufus is a moping little man right now...he turned his nose up at guacamole (but did nibble the chocolate oatmeal treat) and he doesn't want to come out for pictures.

Bumblefoot?

It looks like we may have our first case of bumblefoot (more technically, ulcerative pododermatitis here. Victor just noticed the sores on Rufus' feet tonight:

There is one ulcer on the back of each foot. Here's a close-up:

We didn't think this required the Sunday night emergency vet, since Rufus is walking around perfectly happy. We just cleaned his feet and his cage with Nolvasan for now, and we'll take him to the regular vet as soon as we can.