A Rat's Bucket List

[kernol89]

Banana PUDDING !:woohoonaner: ... have him eat lots for my babies too!

It's on his list!

 

[kernol89]

Glad he had fun and glad he survived his trip to the beach.
Maybe you took precautions, had him in a cage, I don't know ....

but very dangerous, glad a predator did not get him

Yeh we took his carrier with us in case we needed it but he was fine. I live in England in a seaside city, right across the road from the beach so no predators around here, the worst he could get is a fly in his throat!

 

[Sheldon]

I don't think it would matter either way. If he is old and feeble then he is right next to you.

 

[2Rats]

WoW -- I think I almost see a smile on Arthur's face! He looks very comfortable & happy & loved.
What a doll he is. I don't know what is wrong with him, but he looks just great in that pic.

 

[kernol89]

unfortunately the little guy has had a respiratory infection since the day we got him and no matter what we tried it's always got worse

We finally saw a specialist who said we've done all we can. he's only 2, i was hoping we'd get a little longer with him but he's just not feeling too well anymore

 

[SQ]

Likely too late but,

did you try baytril + azithromycin (10 mg/Ib, twice a day for at least 6 weeks)?
or baytril + azithromycin + doxy ?

Does he have a heart issue?

as for predators, I was thinking of birds, they swoop in, grab and are gone with your pet before you can do anything

 

[Joanne]

I'm glad he had a wonderful time at the beach
(Or is it a jolly good time in England? LOL)

 

[2Rats]

I'm glad he had a wonderful time at the beach
(Or is it a jolly good time in England? LOL)

I think it's jolly good :giggle:...
kernol89 - you know we had to say that !.
I know we say REALLY strange things here in Texas ya'll !

 

[Sheldon]

Yeah, like "fixin ta," "y'ant to," & "prolly."

 

[kernol89]

Likely too late but,

did you try baytril + azithromycin (10 mg/Ib, twice a day for at least 6 weeks)?
or baytril + azithromycin + doxy ?

Does he have a heart issue?

as for predators, I was thinking of birds, they swoop in, grab and are gone with your pet before you can do anything

Yeh he's tried a few different combinations of things, all long courses. Now he's on 'pulses' of doxy and baytril (two weeks on, two weeks off, two weeks on, etc). He's also been on metacam forever and has now started on a nebuliser 3 times a day.

 

[kernol89]

I think it's jolly good :giggle:...
kernol89 - you know we had to say that !.
I know we say REALLY strange things here in Texas ya'll !

Well I'm actually from Aus but living in England at the moment so I'm more inclined to say things like 'you little ripper!' haha

 

[2Rats]

Yeh he's tried a few different combinations of things, all long courses. Now he's on 'pulses' of doxy and baytril (two weeks on, two weeks off, two weeks on, etc). He's also been on metacam forever and has now started on a nebuliser 3 times a day.

I knew in my heart that you had tried numerous ways to make him better.
No doubt in my mind. Bless you for being such a wonderful mom/mum:love4:
Arthur is a VERY blessed rattie!

 

[kernol89]

As everyone on here would probably agree, ratties are like your children. Gotta do what you can to make sure they're all right!

 

[2Rats]

From the pics you posted it looks like he has black eyes, not ruby color?
I love the "whiteish" rats w/ "normal colored eyes". I don't see that at all around my area of the country!

So what is the story on him? If you have time, I was just curious how he came to be a part of your life. :cookie2:

 

[kernol89]

I got him from a pet shop that had a 'good reputation' I regret that now, both the boys I got have mycoplasma. Arthur's not albino so I think that's why he has black eyes? He used to have a grey racing stripe that went right from the top of his head to his tail, but it faded out as he grew older. He was almost going to be called mo, short for mohawk, but I decided he looked more like a little old man so I called him Arthur. Since then I adopted Dot (she has a dot on the center of her forehead) from a rodent rescue place. She came from a hoarder who died and had LOADS of rats, so she's a real bossy boots, always stealing food and shrieking at the boys if they go into one of her houses. We got Dot because the boys fought loads, even after getting them neutered there was constantly fur flying and they just wouldn't quit. Dot gets along with both of them so we switch her between cages but since finding out Arthur is on his way out, I tried putting them all in one cage and like some kind of miracle they are all getting along. Now Melvin ...who used to hate Arthur... actually seems to be looking after him. I caught him the other day getting a sheet and tucking him and Arthur into their little nest together!
Basically, I couldn't have a dog (it's hard to find anywhere in the city that I live that has a garden or allows pets) so I decided rats were the next best thing! So glad I have them now, they're such good pets! We also adopted some gerbils recently that are proving to be very fun! Mental little critters.

 

[2Rats]

Thanks for sharing. Seems that all rats I see here that are any solid whitish color all have the pink/ruby eyes/albinos. I have yet to see one like your Arthur that has the dark eyes. I am just not a "fan" of the pink eyes. I do have one rattie that has them & of course I love her dearly. She can't help the way she was born - LoL! So glad Melvin had a change of heart...tucking his brother in with him sounds so adorable.:love6:
I think a gerbil is the only rodent I have NOT owned before. They are cute little boogers. I have to say I don't know much about them.

 

[dspch911]

We too had a boy that had chronic myco that lived on doxy and baytril. He did even better when we added theophylline. I find that the nebulizer actually does more harm - my boys seemed to come out worse than when they when in the cage (or whatever your using) for the treatment so we stopped given them. However, he did recently pass and it turned out he had some form of lung cancer.

Your boy is gorgeous! If he's still eating, playing, and showing no signs of respiratory distress (gasping for air, blue/purple tongue, feet, tail or cool to touch) I would keep doing what your doing. I too agree with 2rats your a great rat mommy.

 

[Aida]

That rattie looks very happy, and 2 is still not that old!
Could you maybe post a video of him, so we could see his breathing?
I wouldn't give up on him just yet, and instead keep trying to treat him somehow. It all depends on what the vet offers, and sometimes when it comes to rats(which are a pretty uncommon pet), they are not that knowledgeable about the new treatments and advancements.

 

[kernol89]

Thanks Aida. Our local vets kinda ran out of ideas so they referred us to a rat specialist out of area. Unfortunately when we met the rat guy the first thing he said was that he was quite depressed with the situation because our local vets had tried everything we could try and that he didn't have much else to bring to the table except for putting him on the nebuliser.

Arthur sounds pretty horrible. Really crackly and very mucousy. He's constantly very noisey.

The specialist basically said what dspch911 said; if he stops eating or starts gasping/breathing through his mouth, then that's when we need to take him straight in to be put to sleep. He was certain that Arthur now has abscesses on his lungs. He gave me the option of keeping Arthur in overnight so he could do a chest xray but it wouldn't change his treatment options so I decided against it as I didn't want to stress the mini beast.

Thanks dspch911 for your story and im so sorry to hear you lost your little guy recently, but it really helps to hear someone's gone through the same thing. I'm glad to know i made the right choice by keeping him going a while longer, but at the same time I don't really want to wait until he gets to a point where he's feeling so unwell that he can't eat or feels like he can't breath... so I haven't really made a decision yet of when we will get him put to sleep, but at this stage I'm not ready to make that choice.

We decided we're going to give all 3 of them a birthday party in a couple of week's as a part of Arthur's bucket list, it will be around this time of year the the boys will turn 2 so I'm really excited for that! Once we've started ticking some stuff off his bucket list I think I'll feel in a better place to decide when to put him to sleep.

 

[minnieflower]

This is a beautiful idea. I think I'm gonna use it for all my oldies when their time is near. Your boy is gorgeous and I'm sure hes enjoying all his fun activities and good food.