crumbilina
Well-Known Member
I woke up this morning to an email from Hamilton Animal Control, my local city run facility. The email stated that they had a rat there, young, who was dropped off by the young boy (and his mom) who saved him after he was thrown from a car. He has a bloated tummy and an injured tail and he isn't eating very well. They wanted to know if I could come and get him. Of course I said yes.
The story goes like this. The young boy and his mother were driving. They saw a person throw something out their car window as they were driving. The little boy saw the thing run away from the side of the road, told his mom to stop and went searching for the creature. He found a young rat whom he named Whiskers. They dropped him off at Animal Control before heading home.
I now have Mr. Whiskers at home. His tummy is bloated but I don't think there is internal bleeding since his poops are normal and the skin is not discoloured. If he wasn't obviously a male rat, I would think that he was a very pregnant young girl. His breathing is icky, but nothing that a treatment of baytril/doxy won't fix, the breathing is more likely due to the stress of what he has been through in the last 24 hours. He is puffy and seems sore. His tail is discoloured - but upon closer inspection I think it is just dirt. His tail is warm and seems to be functioning normally. The tail injury is luckily right at the end. It looks awful, but seems to be healing. I am going to wait a bit to clean it up, as he seems kind of unsure of things right now. It is not bleeding, so thats a plus. All he has done so far is sleep, which is a bit alarming for a rat as young as he is... but again, I'm certain that the last 24 hours have been pure hell for him, plus who knows where he was before that. He weighs 136g and has not touched his oatmeal yet.
He has a vet appointment tomorrow morning. I think he will be ok. Just thought that I would share his story and a couple pictures of him.
The story goes like this. The young boy and his mother were driving. They saw a person throw something out their car window as they were driving. The little boy saw the thing run away from the side of the road, told his mom to stop and went searching for the creature. He found a young rat whom he named Whiskers. They dropped him off at Animal Control before heading home.
I now have Mr. Whiskers at home. His tummy is bloated but I don't think there is internal bleeding since his poops are normal and the skin is not discoloured. If he wasn't obviously a male rat, I would think that he was a very pregnant young girl. His breathing is icky, but nothing that a treatment of baytril/doxy won't fix, the breathing is more likely due to the stress of what he has been through in the last 24 hours. He is puffy and seems sore. His tail is discoloured - but upon closer inspection I think it is just dirt. His tail is warm and seems to be functioning normally. The tail injury is luckily right at the end. It looks awful, but seems to be healing. I am going to wait a bit to clean it up, as he seems kind of unsure of things right now. It is not bleeding, so thats a plus. All he has done so far is sleep, which is a bit alarming for a rat as young as he is... but again, I'm certain that the last 24 hours have been pure hell for him, plus who knows where he was before that. He weighs 136g and has not touched his oatmeal yet.
He has a vet appointment tomorrow morning. I think he will be ok. Just thought that I would share his story and a couple pictures of him.
