kaytee
Member
Hi everyone... please bear with me while I attempt to explain this properly. It's gonna be long, I apologize in advance! 
One of my boys, Jon Snow, died at the beginning of August from pneumonia. He was under vet care and on a doxy/baytril combo but it wasn't enough and he couldn't fight it off. He was only 18 months, poor sweetpea.
His brother Samwell is now alone, after being with him and him alone since they were born. He was seriously depressed for weeks after Jon Snow died... he hid in the corner of his cage in his little cave and only came out to eat (he's a bit of a chunker and at least it didn't affect his appetite!). He didn't want me to pick him up-- he would scramble and scurry to get back to his cage. He just wanted to be left alone. It's the cleanest that cage has ever been because he wasn't using any of it. It broke my heart.
(Incidentally, for a few days after Jon died, Sam made the strangest sounds I've every heard come out of a rat... like mournful whimpers. I haven't found anything that indicates rats "cry" when upset but I can't think of any other explanation. He stopped after about three days.)
Anyway... he's coming around a bit now so I think I would like to get Sam some company so he's not so bored and lonely, but I have a bit of a dilemma. He's always been a bit of a sneezy guy, and the cage usually has porphyrin droplets sprinkled around. Vet initially treated him for this months ago and when it didn't go away she said he would just always be that way (?). I live in a small city so there are no rat specialists but I took the opportunity of visiting a bigger city recently to take him to a specialist, who started him on a doxy/baytril combo along with metacam and an immunity booster. She said his lungs sound good, he's in good health apart from the sneeziness. That was three weeks ago and he's sneezing less for sure, but it's not 100% gone.
So I'm not sure about getting him a cagemate if he's not fully healthy, but it seems as if he will never be sneeze-free, so is he doomed to spend the rest of his life alone? I would feel awful.
Meanwhile there's a sweetie at the SPCA who has been there 11 months... almost a whole year alone, poor thing. I'm dying to give him a happy life for whatever time he has left (not really sure how old he is) but don't want to make him sick, if Sam is contagious. Also, would that be too stressful, to introduce him to a new cagemate after he's been a hermit for a year? Has he lost the ability to be social?
So I am at a loss! Help! Any advice welcome.
One of my boys, Jon Snow, died at the beginning of August from pneumonia. He was under vet care and on a doxy/baytril combo but it wasn't enough and he couldn't fight it off. He was only 18 months, poor sweetpea.
His brother Samwell is now alone, after being with him and him alone since they were born. He was seriously depressed for weeks after Jon Snow died... he hid in the corner of his cage in his little cave and only came out to eat (he's a bit of a chunker and at least it didn't affect his appetite!). He didn't want me to pick him up-- he would scramble and scurry to get back to his cage. He just wanted to be left alone. It's the cleanest that cage has ever been because he wasn't using any of it. It broke my heart.
(Incidentally, for a few days after Jon died, Sam made the strangest sounds I've every heard come out of a rat... like mournful whimpers. I haven't found anything that indicates rats "cry" when upset but I can't think of any other explanation. He stopped after about three days.)
Anyway... he's coming around a bit now so I think I would like to get Sam some company so he's not so bored and lonely, but I have a bit of a dilemma. He's always been a bit of a sneezy guy, and the cage usually has porphyrin droplets sprinkled around. Vet initially treated him for this months ago and when it didn't go away she said he would just always be that way (?). I live in a small city so there are no rat specialists but I took the opportunity of visiting a bigger city recently to take him to a specialist, who started him on a doxy/baytril combo along with metacam and an immunity booster. She said his lungs sound good, he's in good health apart from the sneeziness. That was three weeks ago and he's sneezing less for sure, but it's not 100% gone.
So I'm not sure about getting him a cagemate if he's not fully healthy, but it seems as if he will never be sneeze-free, so is he doomed to spend the rest of his life alone? I would feel awful.
Meanwhile there's a sweetie at the SPCA who has been there 11 months... almost a whole year alone, poor thing. I'm dying to give him a happy life for whatever time he has left (not really sure how old he is) but don't want to make him sick, if Sam is contagious. Also, would that be too stressful, to introduce him to a new cagemate after he's been a hermit for a year? Has he lost the ability to be social?
So I am at a loss! Help! Any advice welcome.
