Godmother
Well-Known Member
I am grieving the loss of my Melissa :heart:, one of Corrie and Byron's daughters & sister to many ratties on this Forum.
She was one of the surprise litter born long after Corrie and Byron had been separated: just as I thought my fostering days were done, with Corrie's babies all adopted and twenty-three days gone by, Corrie got that telltale basketball figure and produced nine baby girls (delayed implantation strikes again!). I adopted five of those girls, and one of the fawn girls was Melissa.
Melissa was an adventurous little ratty in her youth; she sneaked over to Edith and Rhonda's cage and got a couple of bitten toes for her efforts. That was the first of several times I was up all night with my Melissa.
She was a sweetie, and she loved food of all kinds. She wasn't as good a climber as her sisters and her mama, which I thought was due to the injuries to her toes or due to her weight, but this may have been the first clue that her heart wasn't working as well as it should.
She began having serious respiratory problems at New Year's, was very close to death at one point, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Lasix and benazepril caused a near-miraculous recovery, and we had four more wonderful months with her. Suddenly , without warning, she took a turn for the worse.
I was out of town with my sister, and my husband didn't know what to do, so Linda did a wonderful job of giving Melissa a chance at recovery. Melissa rallied a couple of times, but the improvement didn't last. Her heart was failing fast.
Last night, seeing her deep costal breathing and her extremities turning blue & being unable to get her to take fluids, I called the on-call vet to see whether there was anything that could be done. But Melissa was in a Catch-22 situation: if she got enough Lasix to clear her lungs, she got dehydrated. When she drank enough to rehydrate, her heart couldn't clear her lungs. This was despite two days of Linda's constant nursing care (e.g. Lasix every four hours, fluids by syringe).
The vet was very compassionate, and she explained the medical issues to me. There was really no other humane option than to have Melissa pts, because nothing would have given her a lasting improvement.
My sister was there to share the sorrow as we patted Melissa and let her go to the Bridge.
My avatar is a recent photo of her in my arms. I will post some photos of her in her younger days.
Thanks so much to Linda! Without her care of Melissa, her last hours would have been much worse and I would not have had the chance to be with her at the end. Linda gave Melissa the second chance that Corrie did not get.
She was one of the surprise litter born long after Corrie and Byron had been separated: just as I thought my fostering days were done, with Corrie's babies all adopted and twenty-three days gone by, Corrie got that telltale basketball figure and produced nine baby girls (delayed implantation strikes again!). I adopted five of those girls, and one of the fawn girls was Melissa.
Melissa was an adventurous little ratty in her youth; she sneaked over to Edith and Rhonda's cage and got a couple of bitten toes for her efforts. That was the first of several times I was up all night with my Melissa.
She was a sweetie, and she loved food of all kinds. She wasn't as good a climber as her sisters and her mama, which I thought was due to the injuries to her toes or due to her weight, but this may have been the first clue that her heart wasn't working as well as it should.
She began having serious respiratory problems at New Year's, was very close to death at one point, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Lasix and benazepril caused a near-miraculous recovery, and we had four more wonderful months with her. Suddenly , without warning, she took a turn for the worse.
I was out of town with my sister, and my husband didn't know what to do, so Linda did a wonderful job of giving Melissa a chance at recovery. Melissa rallied a couple of times, but the improvement didn't last. Her heart was failing fast.
Last night, seeing her deep costal breathing and her extremities turning blue & being unable to get her to take fluids, I called the on-call vet to see whether there was anything that could be done. But Melissa was in a Catch-22 situation: if she got enough Lasix to clear her lungs, she got dehydrated. When she drank enough to rehydrate, her heart couldn't clear her lungs. This was despite two days of Linda's constant nursing care (e.g. Lasix every four hours, fluids by syringe).
The vet was very compassionate, and she explained the medical issues to me. There was really no other humane option than to have Melissa pts, because nothing would have given her a lasting improvement.
My sister was there to share the sorrow as we patted Melissa and let her go to the Bridge.
My avatar is a recent photo of her in my arms. I will post some photos of her in her younger days.
Thanks so much to Linda! Without her care of Melissa, her last hours would have been much worse and I would not have had the chance to be with her at the end. Linda gave Melissa the second chance that Corrie did not get.
