Willow can't walk!

[raindrop]

I find with our pets it is how often you use their services depends on how accommodating the office is. If they know you quite well then usually you can get an appt. quite quickly.
Sometimes it has to do with how you express your urgency. Some of us can be more pushy :roll: than others. The vet situation is no different than our human health system . Hope things go well for you and Willow.

Ann

 

[jennifervb]

Well last night I had willow and Alice out to play., I put Alice back in the cage with her now that I know that she isn't pregnant and so she has a friend. I have them in the ferret cage becuase there was no way she'd be able to get up the stairs in the FN.

But last night she was running around fine? What's up with that? So maybe it was like you said lilspaz68, that she was in pain from a possible URI and just didn't want to move her legs. I've been giving her cranberry juice to help flush out her system. She's sleeping right now.

I got an appointment for her on Wednesday at 2:20, sucks there wasn't anything closer open but I'll take what I can get. I'm taking Raina in with me too because Dr.Lewis wanted to see her again to make sure she was healing good. Which she is, brave and strong little rattie that Raina.

I'm just hoping that Willow doesn't have anything too serious. Her symptoms from what I've been observing are, spotting blood when she pees, extreme hyper, off balance, she'll just let herself fall off of anything so I'm catching her most of the time so she doesn't hurt herself. She just goes full speed ahead and does really care if there's something in her way , she'll sometimes bump half into something before she corrects herself from fully hitting it then turns around and runs some more. All the rats I've had never did anything like this, so I find it kinda strange.

Hang in there Lindsay. Willow sounds to me to be of a very resilient character.... a little lady with some piss and vinegar in her (as my mom used to say to me... !!!).

Nice to see that SQ has your back! Dealing with vets can be troublesome. I wish I had a backup to call for me when things aren't running as they should!!!

virtual scritches, belly kisses and a smoooooooooooch on the head for Willow. :love6:

 

[lindsayfawn]

Well I didn't get to call and go in the vet yesterday 'cause I haven't been feeling so great. Had to push myself to take the girls in today.
Raina is healing very nicely the doc said.
She checked willow and said she couldn't feel anything strange and was impressed how strong she was. I brought in some papertowel that had the blood looking spots on it so she's concerned it's been a week of this going on and is concerned where she wasn't using her back legs for that day.
So i have to collect pee from willow and then bring her back in so she can run tests on the pee.
Willow has been doing pretty good, running around and doesn't seem to have trouble at all now to scratch herself where as before I had noticed she wouldn't move her leg far enough to scratch her tummy.
So this will be fun trying to collect pee *sighs* I'm going to put her in the hamster cage that I have for a little bit at a time to collect the pee. Unless anyone else has better suggestions?

 

[Argent]

You could keep her in a plastic bottomed cage (like the hamster cage I'm assuming) and don't put anything absorbant in it-when she pees it'll probably collect in a corner and you can just take her out and pour it into a container
Glad she seems so strong btw-she's a little fighter!

 

[mamarat]

If she makes a little puddle you can use a syringe to pick up the pee. That's what my vet had suggested for one of my boys.

 

[SQ]

Which vet did you see/

Hope you can take the pee in today or by tomorrow.

 

[lindsayfawn]

I saw Dr. Lewis.

I got about half a vile so far. Kinda sucks having to keep checking her to see if she peed, and she doesn't like it in that cage so she's climbing and hanging and trying to get out. Poor thing. Hopefully I can get enough to take it in tomorrow before work.

 

[lindsayfawn]

sweet I have one little vile of pee already! just need to get one more and we'll be set to give it to them tomorrow yay!

 

[SQ]

How much do you need?
I would think half a vial would be enough.
You know to fridge it?

Too bad you didn't take her to a vet more knowledgeable about rats ...

 

[lindsayfawn]

she wanted two of those candy corn type looking viles if possible, I have one full and a half of the other one so that should be good enough. Willow didn't like it in that cage very much.
Yeah I have it in the fridge. Hopefully they can find out what's goin on with her. Her pee doesn't look like it has blood in it though. kinda yellow and cloudy

 

[Willow Bean]

The cloudiness may mean that there are white blood cells in the urine which means that she has an infection which is being fought off. It would be nice if there were some bloody urine to show the vet as well, but it is possible that the white blood cells are doing their job against the infection and so that's why there's an absence of red blood cells. ...Guess who had several UTIs when she was younger... LOL!

 

[lindsayfawn]

well hopefully she can just give her baytril and that will cure it, she's such a hyper and stronger little bugger lol
just hope she doesn't have anything serious

 

[Willow Bean]

I would continue the cranberry juice after the next vet visit as well, if the vet says that it's okay. It will help flush out her system. Be sure to ask the vet though, as he/she might not think that too much juice is good for a rattie.

 

[jorats]

If your cranberry juice has a lot of sugar, then I wouldn't give it. Cranberry juice never helped for me. I'm prone to UTIs as well and man, they hurt like hell.
Baytril will get her fixed up.
I'm very happy to read that she's not pregnant...There are so many ratties needing good homes already.

 

[SQ]

That is so true Jorats ... around 115 rescue ratties needing homes in NB and over 50 rescue ratties needing homes in NS if you count the 4 litters plus the ratties on kijiji being rehomed.

 

[lindsayfawn]

I dropped of the urine sample today so hopefully they'll call soon and let me know what's goin on.
The vet said I can give her the cranberry juice 'cuase it will help. It helped me when I had a URI. She really likes it too so that's a plus. It's 100% cranberry juice non of the sugar crap lol
Yeah it's good she's not pregnant even if I was getting kinda excited about it.

 

[lindsayfawn]

well Dr. Lewis called this morning and said she didn't find blood in urine sample and didn't find anything else so willow must have corrected what ever was goin on with herself.
so maybe the redness in the pee could be porphine? from change of diet? She's been acting fine ever since that little escapade so I'll keep an eye on her.

 

[jorats]

At first, I thought perhaps it was just porphyrin.
She may have been pregnant but reabsorbed the babies. And the fact that she couldn't move her leg, maybe she just sprained and it's totally unrelated?

At least it's good news!

 

[Willow Bean]

YAY!! I'm so happy to hear that your little Willow is going to be okay!! ^_^ *huge healing vibes for her* :001: :001: :001:

 

[dubchick]

shes a tough cookie thats for sure.. that girl has a lot of heart and spunk.lol. i love my lil girl ...