I wasn't sure if I should put this in Health or General Rat Chat, but decided that even though there's many medical cases, hopefully there is a lot of happy endings so more suitable here 
It all starts off with a friend, who was looking for 1-2 older friendly females for her very elderly girl. She ends up connecting with a woman whose Kijiji ad says different ages and not a lot else besides some cramped pics. She was told that she had older females and I told her to pick me up a pair of 1 year olds or thereabout for my Montreal lass Marie who was alone. She returns with 6 rats, none old, mostly 3-4 months old with 2 that were 5-6 months of age, if that. Then the story gets more convoluted and over time it finally comes out. The woman's daughter moved out and left her rats behind. Mom went and bought new cages (with sadly wide bar spacing) and everyone got out and the oops litters started. Unfortunately we don't know how many generations were born but the mistakes kept happening. So much that once we got truly involved, there was 3 litters born within a space of 2 weeks. After the initial pull of 6 of which I took in 3 baby girls, the first rescue friend took in the mom with a combined litter (a weekish apart in age, the youngest being almost newborns), and their mom, 5 "older" females, and a bunch of young girls. One of the girls had a lump on her hip and didn't move right. She seemed a bit uncomfortable and my friend sent me pics and video. The next day she told me this little girl was in real pain, so I called my vet, got a 3 pm appontment fit-in, and rushed to my friends to pick her up and a friend. I named the 2 girls Maisie (leg lump) and Gilly
The lump felt smaller than it appeared like it was above some other malformation in the leg and after my vet examined her, he agreed. We decided to x-ray to figure out what was going on, but suspecting a fracture or a dislocation. We discovered osteosarcoma (bone cancer) instead which was absolutely shocking in such a young rat. The lump was where the cancer had spread to the tissue which was a terrible sign. We decided an emergency amputation was the only way to save this young girls life.
Pics of the x-rays
It was going to be a chancy surgery and we decided that if my vet opened her up and found her riddled with cancer above where the leg was going to be removed that we would let her go on the table, and not wake her up. The next day was horrible, waiting to hear the outcome, expecting the worst but my vet is fantastic and has pulled some crazy surgeries out of his hat. I got a text that the surgery was going very well, but sadly just as he was dong the last sutures her heart stopped. The surgery would've been a complete success but she just didn't make it. :'( RIP Maisie. :'(
I went over again to check Mom as my friend told me her mouth was a mess, at this time I also did a quick triage of the newbies and found one of the older girls was sick, and had a cataract in her left eye. This was a genetic condition sadly and she was very frightened. I checked mom's teeth and found a horror show...terrible malocclusion or teeth growing crooked. I had to do an emergency clipping as she was suffering, and we couldn't get her to a vet without her babies potentially dying.
Mom before the trim...
after her emergency trim
Post to be continued...
It all starts off with a friend, who was looking for 1-2 older friendly females for her very elderly girl. She ends up connecting with a woman whose Kijiji ad says different ages and not a lot else besides some cramped pics. She was told that she had older females and I told her to pick me up a pair of 1 year olds or thereabout for my Montreal lass Marie who was alone. She returns with 6 rats, none old, mostly 3-4 months old with 2 that were 5-6 months of age, if that. Then the story gets more convoluted and over time it finally comes out. The woman's daughter moved out and left her rats behind. Mom went and bought new cages (with sadly wide bar spacing) and everyone got out and the oops litters started. Unfortunately we don't know how many generations were born but the mistakes kept happening. So much that once we got truly involved, there was 3 litters born within a space of 2 weeks. After the initial pull of 6 of which I took in 3 baby girls, the first rescue friend took in the mom with a combined litter (a weekish apart in age, the youngest being almost newborns), and their mom, 5 "older" females, and a bunch of young girls. One of the girls had a lump on her hip and didn't move right. She seemed a bit uncomfortable and my friend sent me pics and video. The next day she told me this little girl was in real pain, so I called my vet, got a 3 pm appontment fit-in, and rushed to my friends to pick her up and a friend. I named the 2 girls Maisie (leg lump) and Gilly
The lump felt smaller than it appeared like it was above some other malformation in the leg and after my vet examined her, he agreed. We decided to x-ray to figure out what was going on, but suspecting a fracture or a dislocation. We discovered osteosarcoma (bone cancer) instead which was absolutely shocking in such a young rat. The lump was where the cancer had spread to the tissue which was a terrible sign. We decided an emergency amputation was the only way to save this young girls life.
Pics of the x-rays
It was going to be a chancy surgery and we decided that if my vet opened her up and found her riddled with cancer above where the leg was going to be removed that we would let her go on the table, and not wake her up. The next day was horrible, waiting to hear the outcome, expecting the worst but my vet is fantastic and has pulled some crazy surgeries out of his hat. I got a text that the surgery was going very well, but sadly just as he was dong the last sutures her heart stopped.
The surgery would've been a complete success but she just didn't make it. :'( RIP Maisie. :'(I went over again to check Mom as my friend told me her mouth was a mess, at this time I also did a quick triage of the newbies and found one of the older girls was sick, and had a cataract in her left eye. This was a genetic condition sadly and she was very frightened. I checked mom's teeth and found a horror show...terrible malocclusion or teeth growing crooked. I had to do an emergency clipping as she was suffering, and we couldn't get her to a vet without her babies potentially dying.
Mom before the trim...
after her emergency trim
Post to be continued...
