fenshae
Well-Known Member
*sigh* I knew that this would be a rough year for me, and now that's true. If you count the doomed babies, I've gone from 11 rats in the house down to 7 in the expanse of like 2 months and I don't think I'm done yet. It's just SO HARD when your babies all start getting old, especially when there's bad genes in the mix.
Anyway. Patient in question now is Wesley. He's about 23 months old. A bit of backstory: he was one of two litters of babies born to a pair of escaped females that had gone feral in the local Petco (which is an awful store). The mom was killed in a trap and the orphan babies were found in a nest in the dog food aisle, along with the other litter elsewhere in the store. The babies (I think there were 18 in all) were taken home by an employee and fostered on a breeding female they had, I'm presuming as a feeder-breeder. It was at that point that they called me -- they had worked with me at a different job and knew I liked rats -- to see about rehoming. I agreed to take some babies.
Then shortly after they weaned, a large number, I think it was five, all came down with headtilt simultaneously. This was too much for her and she decided it wasn't worth it to treat all of them and dumped them back at the store as snake food. :rant:
Anyway. I managed to get him and his brother Basil out. They were about 8 weeks by that point. He's been tilty the entire time I've owned him; I took him to the vet and there was no sign of infection at all but we did put him on a full course of baytril. The head tilt never went away but he never had any balance symptoms the way that Sweeney did when HE was tilty.
So, yeah. That was September of '09. He's been astonishingly healthy ever since, except for a tendency to look dirty on one side -- the side opposite to which he tilts. I don't know if it's uneven rusting or actual dirt, but he often had a wide arc of orangeish fur. I assumed that was from him not grooming on that side on account of head tilt. I've never given him a bath for fear of stressing him out (he doesn't like being held, much less being drenched) and before now it wasn't that bad.
Recently, the discoloration has spread all over his fur. I know it's not the cage because 1.) I clean it and 2.) all the other rats are pearly white. he's also been losing weight. I didn't notice at first because he's always been very slim compared to the others. He's a very go-go-go active rat. But he's got a big frame and he's looking gaunt now, shaped more like a ferret than a rat, and he seems to have lost a lot of muscle tone. I'm trying to beef him up with lots of high-nutrient, fatty food...he gets oatmeal mixed with peanut butter, avocado slices, I'm gonna try him on eggs...
But anyway. I looked him over and I can't see anything really WRONG with him. His eyes and nose are clear. No plugs, no bumps, no scabs, no scrapes. He's acting normal enough. He still runs to the cage bars and climbs up them (although maybe not as gracefully as he once did), he eats like a horse. He's just skinnier than I'd like and dirtier. He walks flat-footed and low to the ground and just seems....tottering and old. But he shouldn't seem so old at 23 months, should he?
*sigh*
....here's a not-so-fantastic cellphone camera pic. I still haven't found batteries for the camera. Money's been insanely tight lately and camera batteries are low on my list of priorities. (please ignore my pile o'laundry in the background lol)
Anyway. Patient in question now is Wesley. He's about 23 months old. A bit of backstory: he was one of two litters of babies born to a pair of escaped females that had gone feral in the local Petco (which is an awful store). The mom was killed in a trap and the orphan babies were found in a nest in the dog food aisle, along with the other litter elsewhere in the store. The babies (I think there were 18 in all) were taken home by an employee and fostered on a breeding female they had, I'm presuming as a feeder-breeder. It was at that point that they called me -- they had worked with me at a different job and knew I liked rats -- to see about rehoming. I agreed to take some babies.
Then shortly after they weaned, a large number, I think it was five, all came down with headtilt simultaneously. This was too much for her and she decided it wasn't worth it to treat all of them and dumped them back at the store as snake food. :rant:
Anyway. I managed to get him and his brother Basil out. They were about 8 weeks by that point. He's been tilty the entire time I've owned him; I took him to the vet and there was no sign of infection at all but we did put him on a full course of baytril. The head tilt never went away but he never had any balance symptoms the way that Sweeney did when HE was tilty.
So, yeah. That was September of '09. He's been astonishingly healthy ever since, except for a tendency to look dirty on one side -- the side opposite to which he tilts. I don't know if it's uneven rusting or actual dirt, but he often had a wide arc of orangeish fur. I assumed that was from him not grooming on that side on account of head tilt. I've never given him a bath for fear of stressing him out (he doesn't like being held, much less being drenched) and before now it wasn't that bad.
Recently, the discoloration has spread all over his fur. I know it's not the cage because 1.) I clean it and 2.) all the other rats are pearly white. he's also been losing weight. I didn't notice at first because he's always been very slim compared to the others. He's a very go-go-go active rat. But he's got a big frame and he's looking gaunt now, shaped more like a ferret than a rat, and he seems to have lost a lot of muscle tone. I'm trying to beef him up with lots of high-nutrient, fatty food...he gets oatmeal mixed with peanut butter, avocado slices, I'm gonna try him on eggs...
But anyway. I looked him over and I can't see anything really WRONG with him. His eyes and nose are clear. No plugs, no bumps, no scabs, no scrapes. He's acting normal enough. He still runs to the cage bars and climbs up them (although maybe not as gracefully as he once did), he eats like a horse. He's just skinnier than I'd like and dirtier. He walks flat-footed and low to the ground and just seems....tottering and old. But he shouldn't seem so old at 23 months, should he?
*sigh*
....here's a not-so-fantastic cellphone camera pic. I still haven't found batteries for the camera. Money's been insanely tight lately and camera batteries are low on my list of priorities. (please ignore my pile o'laundry in the background lol)
I'm debating whether to try my luck again with Dr. Cook. She's twice as expensive and not nearly as knowledgeable (and much harder to convince to give you treatment if she didn't think of it herself). When I called 'em a few minutes ago they were closed so I'm not even sure what their schedule will look like (they're a smaller clinic so they tend to have longer wait times). Mer. 
