Some good news today. Einstein's foot wound is, for all intents and purposes, healed. I think he may always have a bit of a scar there, but the skin is completely sealed and the swelling has gone down completely.
Beryl's tail wound looks really good too. I keep meaning to get pictures but then forget. And Stock's abscess looks good now too, looks like the rest of the pus has been mostly draining on its own -- it's not swelling back up, anyway. Flushed it out again today.
Also Stock and Beryl are submitting wonderfully to being held. They've both become master danglers and even big bad-boy Stock showered me in kisses when I got him out of his cage. He's a big ol' fatty, very solidly-built the way my Splinter is.
Since everybody's feeling so much better, I think I can try intros again. I'm going to start over at the bathtub and move forward from there, since I don't know how much the politics of the group will have changed without Locke. I do know that after he passed, all three of my boys were looking curiously around the cage like "hey, where'd that new guy go?" which did give me a little bit of a smile.
From talking to Simone, it sounds like 2 of Locke's sisters died of ppossible heart problems as well while being spayed. This makes me feel better about Locke but more worried about my boys. Anything I should be looking for aside from getting tired quickly, labored breathing, etc.?
I don't think that your attempt to treat his abcess caused him to pass; it sounds like he was already taxiing down the runway when you came to him. You were doing your best to give him love and care. His symptoms make me think perhaps he had a heart condition, like congestive heart failure or something congenital like myopathy. You did the best you could, and it was better than so many people give to their ratties. :hugs:
