Keeping an EYE on Butter Bean RIP

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Your kind words me so much to me. Thank you for your continued support.

I've asked my vet for a necropsy. I need to know and I want her to learn from this.
 
Yes, I can understand your need to know exactly what occurred medically here, if for no other reason than it can help you recognize the same/similar symptoms in a future rat and can cater your care accordingly.

I sometimes wonder if I should do it with my current girl whenever she goes, as I'm at a loss as to what's going on; sometimes it seems like PT, but then she'll scratch at her ears, shake her head if I touch near her ears, has strong front and back legs (doesn't grip food, but hangs on with front paws and back legs scramble like mad). It is the most frustrating thing to not know what is going on with your rat, to have the vet's shrug and say 'could be this, could be that', and you're treating based upon assumptions and trying to rule things out. It's just that I've always buried my rats in our special place for them in our yard; I wonder if the vet would return the remains afterwards for burial.

There's an ache every time we lose a rat. Here I've been thinking these last few months that I didn't know if I could stand going through this sort of thing any more after caring for rats for 13 years straight. Well...saw a little lonely boy alone in Petsmart this past weekend; watched his brothers get adopted over the last few weeks, and he was by himself; about 10 to 12 weeks old. I pined over him all week and finally went and got him two days ago - his name is Alistair - and I'm out another $350 having just purchased him his own Critter Nation cage; will get him a brother soon so he isn't alone.

So much for thinking I can go without rats. The losses always hurt so much - but the idea of not having rats is equally painful. I guess I'm going to have to do what you and everyone else here do when we lose one; grieve because we need to let the grief go, but celebrate the fact that THAT rat had a great life on earth with a person who loved them dearly. You loved your Butter Bean dearly; all of his photos reflect that, so be proud and somehow allow the joy of the life he had with you help heal the grief in your heart. You wouldn't have had it any other way. :heart:
 
Oh, poor sweet Butter Bean... I know you're kicking up your heels at the Rainbow Bridge, but we do miss your darling face down here.

Do let us know if the necropsy reveals anything, Jo - I think we'd all like to learn what it was so we can address it if our own rats ever (heavens forbid) have something similar.
 
I just got the call today. Butter Bean had no abscess or tumour. My vet is completely baffled. She's never seen that before. He had facial muscle atrophy, then in his brain on the side of the dead eye, the bone was very rough and the brain was stuck to it. He did have a PT starting but not enough to do what happened. She said no antibiotics could of helped him. She said maybe meningitis but because he's an older rat, it's not the contagious, maybe just encephalitis. I'm going to be watching his brothers like a hawk.
 
That's awful, I'm so sorry. My husband had encephalitis, it can be caused by almost anything, it just takes bacteria or viruses to break the blood-brain barrier.
 
Oh gosh, poor Butter Bean.

I really wish I had the extra money to ask for a necropsy on Jezebel. I wonder if it would have showed similar results.
 
rhapsody said:
Oh gosh, poor Butter Bean.

I really wish I had the extra money to ask for a necropsy on Jezebel. I wonder if it would have showed similar results.
Click to expand...
That would have been interesting to see. They had the very same symptoms.

Luckily for me, my vet didn't charge me for the necropsy.
 
How awful; worse, how can we ever know exactly what it is when things like this happen? We base our medical treatment on what's often associated with particular symptoms, and all we can do is our best. I'm so sorry to hear this. It makes me think of my own girl because she's overcoming most PT symptoms (even did the Cheerio test well today) and yet something neurological is going on. I've wondered about sinusitis and ears; the whole 'head' area from the head shaking and such - how do we know about something like this until 'after the fact'? It's scary. All we can all do is do the best we can, and you certainly did your best, Jorats. Hugs. :heart:
 
Carol, what about an xray? I had one done on butter bean to see what was going on in his jaw and eye. It didn't tell us much other than a slight infection but maybe with your sweetie, there will be something else?
 
I've asked my vet about xray twice and he says it wouldn't show anything. You know, I may insist that he do one the next time I'm there in another two weeks, to see if there's any sinus infection or anything that 'shows' on an xray. I can't see how it would hurt. I will see if he will do this for me; I'm paying him, so I don't see why not. Thanks for making me think of this again.
 

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