Hello Everyone!
I am new here and I’m very grateful for this safe space to get any help and or guidance in reference to my girls. A quick rundown about us; I have two hooded sisters I rescued from the SPCA over a year ago. Pippi is the large food loving non dominant one, and Mazey the adventurous runt and dominate one lol. They came from a home where they were cage bound and were never handled. I had only had hamsters as a kid but always wanted rats and especially for my young daughter to witness how amazing they are. The girls were already over 10 months old when I adopted them, so now they are over 2 years old! It took 3 months to get them used to us and about 6 months for Pippi to not nip at us when approaching her in the cage. They went with us to vacation for a week in a camper and anytime we left the house for a trip. We have allowed them to free roam under supervision since the first week. Mazey is super adventurous and so we have to watch her carefully, and when she finds a comfy spot to sleep we are spent looking for her forever because she will not wake and come to us. Now for the unfortunate part; August of this year we found a peasize lump behind Pippis front leg. I thought (the vet did too) that the best thing was to remove it before it grew larger. It was a whomping $340, but I knew that lumps should get removed asap….But I was wrong. Unfortunately she didn’t recover from surgery. She was perfect before going in and came out damaged. That’s the best way to describe it. I had major regret since she was normal before it. The vet said she unfortunately had a bad reaction to the meds they administered and developed severe head tilt. A week after surgery she was back to her normal self and the wound was healing but with the head tilt was slowing her down and making her wobble a lot losing balance. I had to make the cage safe and make it one level from this point on. Then we discovered she was now also blind. We learned this by how we would follow the borders of the room. Ugh, poor thing. A couple months passed and we noticed she wasn’t moving. We thought she was a goner. We made her comfortable, wrapped her in a blanket and I was able to administer baby Tylenol to help with any pain. She wasn’t moving and or reacting for 8hrs besides having random body spasms. Later in the evening she perked up and was eating sitting up and drinking. We were speechless. I was making plans to get her to the vet and or bury her so it was like a back from the dead scenario. So she perked back to life BUT now drags her hind legs! This baby is a fighter, my goodness! She doesn’t squeak or bite at us as she moves, eats and drinks so I can’t bring myself to put her down. There’s been No
Major signs of suffering for me to make that decision, but if it comes we are ready. We monitor her closely everyday, and it’s just been an emotional journey. A few weeks ago I discovered her saturated in lice/mites and eggs. Devastating! Got the kitten Revolution from the vet and she also had an olive oil rub down. We Did the freezing and washing of everything and put the sister the temporary cage for a week. Her sister also took revolution and had a olive oil rub down. It’s now been almost 3 weeks. Both of them don’t have the darker colored bugs you can see with your eyes. Yay! Those are gone! But I do see what I believe to be eggs or mites.They are clear none moving specks along the hair line. I want them gone. Especially if they are sucking on the girls. I’m wondering if I should go ahead with the second dose of revolution? That is what the vet normally recommends but I’m apprehensive because Pippi’s so frail and NOW I hear a slight popping sound from her nose when she’s breathing. Could this be an URI due to the first Revolution dose? Now I’m thinking I need to get a nebulizer treatment going. What would that be? All I want for Christmas is to make Pippi comfortable and continue to spoil her. She’s such a trooper and obviously it’s just not her time to go. Any advice on the eggs/mites and the sound from her nose? The vets around us are super busy and to get an appointment with the experienced one will take weeks. The other one, isnt well experienced with rats. I have a home nebulizer (the kind you stick to your face) I’m willing to make anything work. Thank you for reading our rat saga. We love our girls and I’m really giving it everything I got to keep them happy and healthy. Here’s a photo of our fighter; Pippi
I am new here and I’m very grateful for this safe space to get any help and or guidance in reference to my girls. A quick rundown about us; I have two hooded sisters I rescued from the SPCA over a year ago. Pippi is the large food loving non dominant one, and Mazey the adventurous runt and dominate one lol. They came from a home where they were cage bound and were never handled. I had only had hamsters as a kid but always wanted rats and especially for my young daughter to witness how amazing they are. The girls were already over 10 months old when I adopted them, so now they are over 2 years old! It took 3 months to get them used to us and about 6 months for Pippi to not nip at us when approaching her in the cage. They went with us to vacation for a week in a camper and anytime we left the house for a trip. We have allowed them to free roam under supervision since the first week. Mazey is super adventurous and so we have to watch her carefully, and when she finds a comfy spot to sleep we are spent looking for her forever because she will not wake and come to us. Now for the unfortunate part; August of this year we found a peasize lump behind Pippis front leg. I thought (the vet did too) that the best thing was to remove it before it grew larger. It was a whomping $340, but I knew that lumps should get removed asap….But I was wrong. Unfortunately she didn’t recover from surgery. She was perfect before going in and came out damaged. That’s the best way to describe it. I had major regret since she was normal before it. The vet said she unfortunately had a bad reaction to the meds they administered and developed severe head tilt. A week after surgery she was back to her normal self and the wound was healing but with the head tilt was slowing her down and making her wobble a lot losing balance. I had to make the cage safe and make it one level from this point on. Then we discovered she was now also blind. We learned this by how we would follow the borders of the room. Ugh, poor thing. A couple months passed and we noticed she wasn’t moving. We thought she was a goner. We made her comfortable, wrapped her in a blanket and I was able to administer baby Tylenol to help with any pain. She wasn’t moving and or reacting for 8hrs besides having random body spasms. Later in the evening she perked up and was eating sitting up and drinking. We were speechless. I was making plans to get her to the vet and or bury her so it was like a back from the dead scenario. So she perked back to life BUT now drags her hind legs! This baby is a fighter, my goodness! She doesn’t squeak or bite at us as she moves, eats and drinks so I can’t bring myself to put her down. There’s been No
Major signs of suffering for me to make that decision, but if it comes we are ready. We monitor her closely everyday, and it’s just been an emotional journey. A few weeks ago I discovered her saturated in lice/mites and eggs. Devastating! Got the kitten Revolution from the vet and she also had an olive oil rub down. We Did the freezing and washing of everything and put the sister the temporary cage for a week. Her sister also took revolution and had a olive oil rub down. It’s now been almost 3 weeks. Both of them don’t have the darker colored bugs you can see with your eyes. Yay! Those are gone! But I do see what I believe to be eggs or mites.They are clear none moving specks along the hair line. I want them gone. Especially if they are sucking on the girls. I’m wondering if I should go ahead with the second dose of revolution? That is what the vet normally recommends but I’m apprehensive because Pippi’s so frail and NOW I hear a slight popping sound from her nose when she’s breathing. Could this be an URI due to the first Revolution dose? Now I’m thinking I need to get a nebulizer treatment going. What would that be? All I want for Christmas is to make Pippi comfortable and continue to spoil her. She’s such a trooper and obviously it’s just not her time to go. Any advice on the eggs/mites and the sound from her nose? The vets around us are super busy and to get an appointment with the experienced one will take weeks. The other one, isnt well experienced with rats. I have a home nebulizer (the kind you stick to your face) I’m willing to make anything work. Thank you for reading our rat saga. We love our girls and I’m really giving it everything I got to keep them happy and healthy. Here’s a photo of our fighter; Pippi
