bribery and twix's necropsy

[twitch]

yesterday was bribery and twix's necropsies and it went very well. i only had a momentary panic attack when she pulled bribery out and put him on the table. i was able to control myself quickly enough that i don't think she noticed anything either, which i am rather proud of. and i feel better having it done.

bribery
bribery's left lung was 75% compacted and of the remaining 25% only half of that was able to function, so about 15% capacity in the left lung. in his right lung 50% was compacted and of the remaining 50% only half of that was functionable, so 25% lung capacity in the right lung. this means he was working to breathe with only 40% lung capacity. when we opened the lungs there were no tumors but it was packed heavily with infection. as we could not treat him with antibiotics due to his allergy with it, this was to be expected.

however, when i talked with this vet about what drugs he was on and the other vet had concluded from his lack of real progress while on the drugs and his bounce back while off of them she was disappointed in the vet. she thought it was too early to have decided that he was allergic to all antibiotics as we had not actually switched families of antibiotics. she also thought that we kept trying the wrong drugs for too long. however, at the point of his death there was no antibiotic that could have penetrated that heavy an infection.

we also found that there was a good deal of internal bleeding, unfortunately we could not determine from where or the cause of all that blood.

he had no tumors.

so from bribery i learned the hard way to do my own very thorough research on the drugs available to rats and to not wait as long hoping for a response when one should have been seen already. it something i should have known better already but something i will not fail in again.


twix
she definitely had lymphosarcoma, there was never anything we could have ever done for her to save her from that. however, there were large portions of infections caused by the growth of the tumor. i do not think treating the infections would have changed my mind on when to help twix cross, however, she may have been more comfortable during her last times and perhaps she would have been more comfortable for a couple more days as well... i don't know. i do not feel bad for helping her cross when i did though. i had no way of knowing of the infection and though it may have been a source of discomfort along side the tumors, the weight and placement of the tumors were also impeding on her.

however, from that we have learned that the tumors can cause infections. so i will be adding a antibiotic regimen when i notice lumps regardless of the feel of them from now on. this has also directly helped tasche, as we suspect her to have the same thing as twix. she will be going in to see the vet this afternoon for a convenia shot. it has greatly helped kill infection in the lungs, there is no reason to believe that it wouldn't kill abscess created by tumors either. and being in the system without relying on a human multiple times a day to make sure it stays strong in the system eliminates the chance of human error due to forgetfulness or other time interferences.

now that i know i have a vet that is willing to do these necropsies for me and let me be there to learn directly i will be doing a necropsy for each passed rat that i have between now and when this vet retires next october. hopefully that will not be many rats though. i will post about each that do happen though.

 

[jorats]

You are going to learn so much through all these postmortems. It had really helped us here.
My dog was given convenia to prevent abscesses from his attack by another dog so it's should work in rats in the same way as well. I'm glad to hear that it seems to work for the lungs.
We've had rats with near zero lung capacity, in one postmortem the lung detached itself and fell in the abdomen. We also have seen that long term Zithromax seem to have cut through the infections in the lungs in one rat.
That's good to know and sure makes a lot of sense that when a rat has a mass, there's bound to be infections... starting on meds is wise.
It's too bad not everybody can have a necropsy done on their rats. It would certainly take the guesswork out of self diagnosing which is done far too often.

 

[Dewi]

Thanks for the update twix. It's very interesting and also good to know that infections can develop from tumours. I'll also use antibiotics if tumours develop with my rats. Do you think that after the necroscopy it is possible to wrap up the remains (in a cloth) for a burial. Just wondering for myself in case I decide to get a necroscopy done on Banko's body (currently in the freezer), as I like my deceased pets being burried in the garden.

 

[Alicemcmallis]

This is great information to share twitch, thank you for doing the necropsies and posting here about the results.

One of my guinea pigs had lymphosarcoma which were originally diagnosed as abscesses after doing fine needle aspirates on 4 of the 5 lumps she had. Luckily I decided to surgically remove the one large "abscess" under her chin and the vet saw that it was a tumour, with infection surrounding it. We put her on antibiotics and prednisone which increased her appetite and energy levels significantly for the next few weeks until she died.

Dewi, my vet wraps them up for me in towels and then in a bag, instructs me repeatedly not to open it (doesn't want me seeing them like that) and then I take them home. Any vet will do this for you, but a lot of people don't take them home so be sure to ask just in case they assume you don't want the body back.

 

[twitch]

i took my bodies back, seeing as i had them in the freezer awaiting cremation it was just assumed i would want them back and i was right there too. if you were having them done and getting the information after the fact i think all you would have to do is ask for them to wrap the bodies and return them to you. i'm sure they would even wrap them in whatever you bring with you to wrap them in if you wanted them to be with a favorite hammock or blanket. i have mine cremated so on the box that i have them in i put a warning that a necropsy was done. they have probably seen it all but it doesn't hurt to warn them. the bodies are pretty much still whole though, so burial should not be an issue.

 

[Godmother]

Thanks for the info. It is easier to cope with their deaths if we at least learn something for next time.