FeloniousMonk
New Member
I am a nurse and I have 2 male rats about 3 years old. This morning I went to check in with some breakfast and saw my rat Franklin’s testicles were swollen and a little red/purple. I take him out of the cage and to my horror the back of his scrotum had ruptured and hard giant lumps of feces were sticking out. Immediately I knew this was a scrotal fecal fistula, (rectoscrotal fistula as we call it in health care) and for a little animal like this, a death sentence.
I moped around for a half hour not knowing what to do. This was my very first rat. He is a pretty special little guy. Just months old I had taught him to do spins, beg with his hands together, jump to me on command, and put his toys away.
Selfishly, because I knew better, I had him sit for an hour in a warm bath to see if I could loosen anything up and attempt a debridement, but no go. Even if I had cleaned everything out, I would have needed to suture the rupture without any sort of anesthesia which I know would have been futile and/inhumane. As much as I love my rats, I cannot justify a several hundred to thousands of dollars in surgery, especially with a 3 year old rat.
Now I have to put him down. I called around and all the vets in my area are either permanently out of business or closed down due to Covid.
The nearest one to me is 77 miles away and they will be closed by the time I get there. They also want to charge me $180. Not cool.. it’s a rat, not a dog. Seems this is going to be on my hands.
I’m going out soon to get all his favorite foods, and maybe a canister of CO2. I have 2 well used options and then recently brought as a suggestion/offer a 3rd. CO2, but as I have read it does cause pain and distress despite what others say. Blunt force trauma, which seems the most humane but hardest for me. If I go this route it will be a 22cal pellet to the back of the head with an air rifle. Or I can overdose him, which is most familiar and in my wheelhouse since my job is basically fixing problems with medication.
Working as a nurse, I have made some pretty unique friendships. One of these people, who’ve I’ve actually become pretty close with over the years wound up on my watch after a car accident. It required him to stay a few days in my care. After about 24hrs I realized he was withdrawing and come to find out he’s a junky. A very successful and functional junky but junky none the less. He owns several businesses and drives a car that cost more than my house, ok maybe not more but it’s close. He offered to give me two syringes full of morphine and ketamine. Now I’ve used ketamine hundreds of times on patients with broken bones which need to be reset awaiting surgery. The stuff works in a instant to rip away all memory, experience, and active consciousness. The morphine would painlessly and almost as quickly induce acute respiratory distress. A one two punch with zero pain or problem. All dosage information I’ve already obtained from my databases.
Yes I know I’m asking for an opinion on a very controversial method here but look at this this way. If I go back to school for 2 years for my doctorate (which I plan to do in a couple years), the curriculum holding very little information that wasn’t taught in my masters program, I’d be able to prescribe and dose humans with these very drugs, and were talking about a rat. So let’s use some logic here.
My options are obliterate his skull with blunt force trauma, suffocate him with co2, or let him go painlessly with medication. It sounds clear cut right? My only issue is it’s illegal for me to touch/use these medications in this way. I’m not worried about cops. Only the moral implications of it. So my question is which should I choose. A truly painless way to put down my pet, or obey laws that are really meant to control things that don’t apply to this situation.
Edit: I forgot to add, this would all be done via Dorsal Tail IV. I worked a project with lab rats which required 2 IV injections a day. I got good enough to do it without the bag/tube restraints. So I’m not suggesting subQ, intracardic, or IM injection.
I moped around for a half hour not knowing what to do. This was my very first rat. He is a pretty special little guy. Just months old I had taught him to do spins, beg with his hands together, jump to me on command, and put his toys away.
Selfishly, because I knew better, I had him sit for an hour in a warm bath to see if I could loosen anything up and attempt a debridement, but no go. Even if I had cleaned everything out, I would have needed to suture the rupture without any sort of anesthesia which I know would have been futile and/inhumane. As much as I love my rats, I cannot justify a several hundred to thousands of dollars in surgery, especially with a 3 year old rat.
Now I have to put him down. I called around and all the vets in my area are either permanently out of business or closed down due to Covid.
The nearest one to me is 77 miles away and they will be closed by the time I get there. They also want to charge me $180. Not cool.. it’s a rat, not a dog. Seems this is going to be on my hands.
I’m going out soon to get all his favorite foods, and maybe a canister of CO2. I have 2 well used options and then recently brought as a suggestion/offer a 3rd. CO2, but as I have read it does cause pain and distress despite what others say. Blunt force trauma, which seems the most humane but hardest for me. If I go this route it will be a 22cal pellet to the back of the head with an air rifle. Or I can overdose him, which is most familiar and in my wheelhouse since my job is basically fixing problems with medication.
Working as a nurse, I have made some pretty unique friendships. One of these people, who’ve I’ve actually become pretty close with over the years wound up on my watch after a car accident. It required him to stay a few days in my care. After about 24hrs I realized he was withdrawing and come to find out he’s a junky. A very successful and functional junky but junky none the less. He owns several businesses and drives a car that cost more than my house, ok maybe not more but it’s close. He offered to give me two syringes full of morphine and ketamine. Now I’ve used ketamine hundreds of times on patients with broken bones which need to be reset awaiting surgery. The stuff works in a instant to rip away all memory, experience, and active consciousness. The morphine would painlessly and almost as quickly induce acute respiratory distress. A one two punch with zero pain or problem. All dosage information I’ve already obtained from my databases.
Yes I know I’m asking for an opinion on a very controversial method here but look at this this way. If I go back to school for 2 years for my doctorate (which I plan to do in a couple years), the curriculum holding very little information that wasn’t taught in my masters program, I’d be able to prescribe and dose humans with these very drugs, and were talking about a rat. So let’s use some logic here.
My options are obliterate his skull with blunt force trauma, suffocate him with co2, or let him go painlessly with medication. It sounds clear cut right? My only issue is it’s illegal for me to touch/use these medications in this way. I’m not worried about cops. Only the moral implications of it. So my question is which should I choose. A truly painless way to put down my pet, or obey laws that are really meant to control things that don’t apply to this situation.
Edit: I forgot to add, this would all be done via Dorsal Tail IV. I worked a project with lab rats which required 2 IV injections a day. I got good enough to do it without the bag/tube restraints. So I’m not suggesting subQ, intracardic, or IM injection.
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