my heart goes out to you, I know how difficult this is.
I don't know if this story will help you or not, but even though it's still very fresh and painful for me, I will share it in case it does:
I just lost my oldest rat ever, Elyse- although she was not "mine" for most of her life. She came into my life at the age of 2, with a tumor that needed to removed, and that was successfully with no ill effects, even though the vet used staples (not commonly used for the type and area where the tumor was, but it was what the vet was comfortable with)
she was happy and healthy, in spite of sprouting 3 more tumors (all fairly slow growing, thankfully)
On Feb 16th, she showed signs of rapid breathing and didn't want to eat- which is very unusual for her!
Took her to a vet, who diagnosed her with a heart condition. She was given a shot of lasix, and started on benazapril with oral lasix and was doing, eh, so-so on this treatment. She lost her appetite, which concerned me, but I noticed one day when I was late with her meds that her appetite had returned. Checked into it, lasix can cause trouble with appetite. So I weaned her off the lasix and she seemed happy- because she could eat! and she seemed to enjoy hanging out with me. In fact, in the last 10 days or so, she got horribly upset if she could not be in the same room with me, so she spent her days on the sofa, and I laid with her on my chest for hours, and it was nice to spend this time together.
she had a very brief periods where she did not look so good, and I was worried, but she continued to eat, and as far as I knew, a rat close to death, or any animal, really, will not eat.
She looked more and more tired and on Sunday Feb 27th, I believed that she was going to leave me, just fade away from old age and not necessarily from the bad heart- because with a heart problem, there is eventually respiratory distress. I never saw her gasp for breath. She laid on my chest for several hours and I cried and said goodbye to her, convinced she was about to slip away. She was barely moving. I told her about all the new friends she'd see on the "other side" and how she would be reunited with rats she'd known in the past.
Then- I had to pee! really bad. I didn't want to disturb her but I moved ever so slightly, and she popped her head up and immediately licked my face!!!!!!
yeh, so, that was one heck of a roller coaster day, you could say.
On Monday I was just not sure, I thought perhaps she was rallying, I"d added back some lasix...
but on Tuesday, after sharing a video of her showing that she was really breathing quite fast, which is not comfortable of course. I made the decision to bring her to the vet
I called her previous owner to drive us there.
Then, while I was getting the carrier ready, I gave the girls a bowl of baby food peas. Elyse was eating them like crazy! I almost called and cancelled the vet, but I"m glad I did not.
When we got the vet, Elyse was gasping for breath. I asked them to put her on oxygen, having no clue if this would help or not
A short time later they came and told me she had passed.
Amazingly she had hidden just how sick she really was, til the very last minutes. This still stuns me.
I feel some regret, as I had never ever wanted her to experience the horror of not being able to breathe. I am grateful that that period of her life was very very short, but still, it happened.
I am also at peace with her passing this way because now I have a better perspective on the passings of most of my other rats:
I have taken most of of my older rats in early, partly-or mostly- because I do not drive and must arrange transportation to get to the vets. I never wanted a rat of mine to be in distress and me not have the means to get them help immediately.
I have always wondered if I was cutting their lives short, and what would have happened if I had waited...
I can say without hesitation, that I made the right decision in every single case when it came to bringing them in before they deteriorated to a truly bad state.
I no longer doubt that, and I no longer worry that I shortened a good life.
I wish I had taken Elyse to the ER vet the Sunday before she died, but I didn't, and we had that day and a half more together, and I learned, sadly at her expense, that rats can and do hide their illness very very well-
and that it really is better to be a day early than a day late.
Maybe take a video of Momo, or ask others to take a good look at her, and give you their thoughts...?
Elyse was breathing rapidly, and that was really most of the time, but I did not want to see it. I adored this girl and as long as she was eating and wanted to be with me, I did not want to see the signs that said, she really was tired and needed to be helped on her way. I posted her videos on FB and kind friends helped me to see that she was not really all that comfortable.
I am not saying you are wrong about Momo, but I know how easy it is to fool ourselves into thinking things are better than they really are. I am glad Momo is mostly herself. That's nice.
I hope you have some really GOOD time left with her and that when you make it, you are at peace with your decision. If you do not plan to take her in to say goodbye soon, I would definitely get a vet to check out her bleeding and see if she needs an antibiotic and possibly even pain meds.
wishing you both the very best.
