Hope's Rescued rats, adoptables and lifers- December Update

[Godmother]

You are busy!! Looks like you have things under control, which is amazing.

 

[Claireybell2477]

You're amazing. I am in awe of you. You do so much and totally keep on top of it. Timmy looks so much better its unreal. He looks healthier and more filled out now. He's lovely.

 

[hopefloats]

My days are long. I get up at 2:45 in the morning do meds that I have to, leave for work at 3:45am so I can be at my store which is about 45 minutes away by 4:30 am. I work 10 hours a day, drive home get home usually around 3:30, shower, try to shove food in my mouth, then I do rat stuff for an hour or pick up around the house and so on. About 6pm, i settle for some quiet time then about 7:30pm I am out like a light. It is schedule. I clean cages every friday night after work upstairs then on saturday I do the ones downstairs. We will randomly switch blankets out when they get them to gross or if needed. Days off I do about 4 to 5 loads of rat laundry, then I do my house laundry, running back and forth to vet visits and calling adopter references. I get tired, really tired but I never skip out on it. I complain and get grumpy sometimes or sometimes I will have minor melt downs usually after a death and the next day I am back up doing it again. I thought I would be tired and burnt out, one day maybe but caring for them is pretty much my life outside of work. I am busy far to busy some times but there are days I just sit and let rats out order take out food and dont move off the chair except to make coffee and switch rats out. I have been doing the cages after work so I can enjoy some of my off days but I am still just tired LOL I am in bed early no matter what the day is usually.

My handicap bubs will be 2 years old this month Turtle, Lily, Liam, Roo, and willow are left. Turtle has PT. I watched her for days trying to figure it out she was struggling with her hands but due to her handicap it is harder to judge. We started her on treatment and she seems to be doing better as far as using her hands. Her teeth are over growing. We had them trimmed yesterday, but she is still eating. I spoon feed her baby food she loves it but she is damn messy with it. I had to give her a bath tonight and she has always been a vocal girl she squeaks when any rat is near here, most of the time. If she is eating she is squeaking constantly to tell them to back off. She is the same way when she is trying to sleep and a rat touches her or we do. She has always been like that. She is still a very small girl but not really losing so much weight. Her body shape has gotten worse but after the pt meds she has been moving a little better. Tonight after her bath she was a bit angry with me and was running away faster than I have seen her move in weeks She was squeaking most of the time as well.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8zPHEvNctI[/ame]

I love this girl.

Timmy is up to 62g today. Yay! i am so excited he is finally gaining. Now I am off to check emails, reply, gander at the forum then hit the sack!

Tomorrow i am picking up 2 boys from someone who contacted me sounded very young on the phone. 8 months old they said but hand friendly. sadly they are from this same petstore that gave me so many horrible gene rats. The handicap bubs, maisey and happy with their belly issues who died before a year old for both of them and numerous others that have lived very short lives.

 

[Joanne]

It's amazing that the handicapped bubs have gotten to live out a normal life. How great is that! And good to hear Timmy is putting on some weight (finally!)

 

[SterlingRats0408]

Timmy looks amazing! He's adorable and even my not-so-rat-loving mom loves watching the video updates.

 

[hopefloats]

Some of the biggest moments here are some of the smallest most overlooked by most rat owners. The moments we feed a rat that you can feel every single bone in their tail and body knowing they have went days without real food. The moment you removed the tumor that has crippled them for months and witness them finding out it is gone. The moment you give a hammock to rat that never even had a box or the moment you take them out of a tank type cage and give them the gift of a real cage. This is that moment. Two scared boys not sure of their environment. Something most of us cannot imagine not giving to our rats but so many rats are not given these small luxuries at all.


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8KPz2QWJeg[/ame]


max is my Ludo all over again. I am in awe and sad over him. From the moment i seen him

the former owner said she had them for around 8 months from the demon pet store. They have bugs but were treated with revo and moved into a real cage. seem like sweet boys. Just a bit scared today.

 

[RatPack]

Handsome men! I just want to squish and kiss their faces Thankfully they have you now to love and care for them.

 

[trihkal]

I can understand why those are huge moments for you. I feel like experiencing those things must make your busy schedule and heartache worth it. I'm glad they are with you where we can know they are safe and will be safe forever.

 

[hopefloats]

I dont know how this happened but my sweet turtle and Georgia both died last night. Both had PT and went downhill last night, they passed with each other.

feel bad for having more to say about Turtle than I did for Georgia. I have had Turtle since birth. We have journeyed down such a long happy road that It is hard to think about losing her. Finding out you have two litters from two mommas that has deformed rats is quite the mind blowing experience. One I will never experience again, nor have I witnessed anyone who has babies that were like mine. I love all the rats that come here. They all break my heart a little more when they leave us but at the same time, their lives are what keeps me going. Turtle was born so tiny. Her siblings outgrew her so fast it was scary. I worried more about turtle than any other baby. Her and my little hopper stayed the smallest for the longest. It was pure joy when they hit milestones their siblings hit weeks prior. Even eating was harder when they were little but they figure it out. I doomed these babies to death. I swore they wouldnt make it to 6 months. I mean how could they with how deformed they were? They showed me. She would of been 2 on december 27th. We were almost there for my sweet girl but she made it to 2 regardless of the few days left. Which I am grateful for. She never really walked, she could but she spent almost all of her time on her side. This cause urine scald and eye issues for her for most of her life. Ones we fought often. She was the sweetest girl in the world. She was always willing to give kisses even when she had her teeth out of control she would still try. I dont know how I will react when I lose the final 4 of these guys and their 3 siblings I know my heart will never be the same. I am so glad I was able to have this with them. To be a part of their ENTIRE life. I will miss turtle in the cage though, it wont be the same. Play hard at the bridge baby girl. I bet you are upright like you never were. Enjoy your new legs and your hopper. I miss you two so much.

Georgia came in from another rescue. I found out they had them and offered to take her in since she had a tumor. We had that tumor removed, it filled up with fluids, took her in to have it drained. It filled a bit more then finally healed. She was doing great after her tumor removal about 2 weeks ago I noticed her not using her hands. Sadly she had Pt as well. She did well on the meds, I took her to the vet last week for Dr. K to look at her, he was even happy with how she looked and sadly last night she wasnt moving and she lost her battle. She was a very sweet, shy girl. She liked me when I had food and that was it. She was hating the PT meds, I had to force them into her but she took them. I just hate losing the battle so soon after we started it. Play hard baby girl I am sorry we couldnt help you more, we tried.

 

[Joanne]

Noooo, not Turtle! I'm so sorry you have lost your special little girl. I'm so thankful she came into your hands so she actually had a chance at a full life. It's hard to believe it has been almost two years.
Safe travels to the Bridge Miss Turtle and Georgia. They'll be good company for each other...

 

[trihkal]

I am so sorry for your losses. Turtle sounds like she was so special so I think it's understandable you had a lot to say about her. You still took great care of Georgia and that's what matters. She was safe with you. You are amazing. I hope the ratties will give you some love. Hugs from all the way in Canada.

 

[hopefloats]

I think little timmy is about as healed as he will get. He only has a slight tilt which I will be surprised if it goes away completely. He is active and still a little brat.


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=outOeh5XbLM&feature=youtu.be[/ame]

 

[Joanne]

Awww, it's so nice to see him bright and lively.
He doesn't seem to be circling as much either.

 

[hopefloats]

It will be mostly happy anyway. Not a good time here at all. Here is our list of ailments. We need to order food from oxbow again and well our vet bills are adding up.

We are drowning in health problems.
Irish- PT
Maggie - PT
Katara- Removed tumor 2 times, vet said we cannot do it again, it came back.
PJ- Breathing issues
Juney Large tumor we cant remove
Brain- Slowly down, hed meds for being sickly.
Rex-Senior lung issues
Glenn-Lung issues, fast breathing
Willy Chronic lungs
Ethel Tumor belly near back leg
Josie chest tumor
Sally Inguinal Tumor
Jazzy, Chronic Lungs, tumor belly near leg
Liam- Pulmonary abscesses
Lilly Chronic urine scald battles
Allanah lung issues
Abraham- Blind in one eye
Timmy Tiltly
Sully- Head tilt
Hershel- Head tilt
Daryl Heart problem and tumor
Medusa tumor
Cruella porphy body and losing weight.


Sally is not doing well and I am not sure why. I am going to try to get her in tomorrow after work to see if they have an idea.

That is all we have that is dire at the moment. Thankfully. I cannot take on much more this weekend.

Now onto happy

one of astryd's baby boys was adopted today. He will join Tars another young boy.

It was feeding time with the ratties.
Liam, Roo, Lily and Willow

Irish my pt boy, Maggie my pt girl and katara had tumors removed 2 times and it came back we cant remove it again These are siblings to my handicap rats.

we have two groups of girls, our younger girls and these girls who are older. There are 9 in this group. This is the group Georgia was from.
Josie, Stella, Jade, Jazzy and cashew. Pretty healthy group one tumor on Josie and Jazzy has chronic lung problems.

Daryl is now alone. The fighting with him and Bumblebee drove me mad. So they are loners for now.

Max of max and shadow. The new guys.

The monster group of girls. I found a tumor on Ethel who is just a year old. Depressing. 17 girls and 2 boys.

The gun boys Goldies remaining sons.

Grant the himi daddy to astyrd's babies. You can see where they get their good looks from he is a stunner. Oliver the black and white hooded, the blur of black and white fur is Martin and the black mismarked bareback is daddy he came in with the babies in the small tank a few months ago. All his babies were happy and adopted He was neutered and is still here.

Astryd's sons are amazing little guys.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVILu8VJdlA[/ame]

 

[Claireybell2477]

Do you have a donation or just giving page at all? I can only imagine what those bills must be piling up to! I would like to donate a little to you, at least so you can get some meds for at least one or two ratties - it'd be my pleasure. Is there a way I can donate to you? It brings me great comfort knowing what you do for these furries and I'd be very happy to give a little. Please let me know xx

 

[hopefloats]

Do you have a donation or just giving page at all? I can only imagine what those bills must be piling up to! I would like to donate a little to you, at least so you can get some meds for at least one or two ratties - it'd be my pleasure. Is there a way I can donate to you? It brings me great comfort knowing what you do for these furries and I'd be very happy to give a little. Please let me know xx

We never deny donations.... Rescues can barely make it on their own money alone. We do paypal [email protected]. Anything helps not matter how much or how little. :inlove:

 

[hopefloats]

My hours suck a lot of the time. I leave for work about 3:45am and get home about 3:30 pm. I work 10 hours a day and I drive about 45 minutes to work. Now that I have my own store, I work monday through friday. So getting to the vets office can be impossible. Especially during an emergency. I cleaned cages yesterday and found sally circling. she was in pain you could see it in her face. I grabbed her she tried to bite me, that isnt uncommon shes has bitten me before but we love the biters just as much. I had to wrap her in a blanket and stick her in my basket for bottles and carry her and Charlie my known mean boy biter downstairs. I pulled elvis out of his single cage and put those two in there. he went up in their cage.

Poor sally was in the worst pain I have seen. We gave pain meds. And tried to keep her comfortable. I have an amazing rat friend, Jim. He drove from lake station which is where my work is, to my house in laporte, then to my vet in granger. That is about 1.5 hour drive to get her there. My vet took on look at her and knew there was no saving her but said it was not her tumor that was causing this pain. He told me she was limp and pretty out of it and he thinks we should help her pass. He called me back to tell me he didnt have to do anything, she passed already.

I had him do a necropsy on her so I could know what went wrong. I felt horrible for seeing her like this and for not being able to save her. Sadly there was nothing we could do for her. He said her cavity was full of blood and it looked like her lung was mush. It was in such horrible shape he couldnt tell if a tumor ruptured or what happened. He was grossed out and we give him some doozies in nasty.

Sally has been here for a few months. She was given to us by one of the guys at the animal control i guess his nephew lost interest in her. She ended being the answer to our prayers for charlie the lone boy we picked up in June/2013. He was neutered and still mean. He hated other rats but took to her. She wasnt real big on being picked up nor was she to much of people rat but she LOVED spending her days hissing at the other rats in the rat room and her nights laying with my sweet charlie. Sadly he is alone now and I am not sure who I can try with him. I will see in a few days/week once he has time to adjust to sally being gone.

Rest well baby girl. We tried so hard to save you.

 

[Joanne]

I'm sorry Sally left in such distress. You made a big difference in her last few months and that is what she took with her to the Bridge. I hope having Sally as a companion has shown Charlie the value of companionship and that he will be a bit more open going forward.

 

[trihkal]

So sorry there has already been another loss. I'm also sorry that your plan to feel happy hasn't gone so well. I hope things start to improve. <3

 

[Claireybell2477]

We never deny donations.... Rescues can barely make it on their own money alone. We do paypal [email protected]. Anything helps not matter how much or how little. :inlove:

Merry Christmas from a grateful animal lover here in the UK. I have donated to your paypal, please let me know you got the donation. I've never used paypal in that way before so I hope I got it right! xx