Ok, so I'm just REEEEEALLY paranoid, right?

[Debbie]

We had Rudy neutered. He met the girls 2 weeks later. Our vet has ALWAYS said 3 weeks at least. But Rudy showed no interest in playing leap frog with the girls. I mean NONE and I watched them VERY closely...like in my lap close. 2 of the girls were already spayed (so no worries there :wink2: ). Noelle is well over two (her previous owner told me she was 5 years old, then said "maybe 3"....yeah right on both :? ). Noelle shows no signs of still going into heat.

I watched Rudy with Noelle very carefully as they went through intro's at 2 weeks and 4 days, they all moved in together.

It's been 22 days. I've noticed that Noelle has put on weight since I got her (we've had her for about 2 months...so they usually gain when we start them on that good eaten). It wasn't until last night that I said to my husband "if I didn't know better, I'd guess she was pregant". Because she's a bit on the pear shaped side. I can see the area where her nipples are, but they aren't pronounced..I imagine they would look this way on a PEW though?

But now I'm all paranoid. I've had just one litter of babies, and I adopted the whole family when the babies were 9 days old....so I've not seen a pregant female in person before.

Really, what are the odds that a neutered male two and a half week post surgery, could get a 2+ year old female pregnant? I'm sure it's got to be possible....but really....what do ya'll think?

I know, I probably sound like some silly dork. But I just have to ask. And I can try to get picks of her...but you'll say her belly looks preggo...I just know it. so before I do that, I'm asking folks based on the background of these two...to see what you think the odds are.

The other thing I was a bit nervous about, was pyometra. She's the only female in my house that is not spayed...and of course i didn't have it done due to her age. She doesn't act ill, but I hate not knowing what's going on their uterine area, when we all know the benefits of spaying.

Sorry, I always seem to get overly paranoid about everyone, when I'm about to lose a few others. :sad3:

 

[SQ]

highly unlikely ....
but a first litter after 8 months of age is very, very dangerous for the mom.

 

[jorats]

Extremely unlikely... I'd get her checked by a vet asap, that could be a tumour. :sad3:

 

[Debbie]

Yeah, I pretty much decided I would be taking her in with Sadie tomorrow. :? :sad3: I've had several with internal tumors, and have gotten pretty good about being able to feel them. Our Ginger has a lump about the size of a blueberry in her intestines and I found that. So I'm hoping since I can't feel anything but kidney's, that Noelle will be ok. But it would be safe to have the vet check her too.

Hopefully, Noelle will be one of along line of females that suddenly got fat, that I took in, just to be told "she's just fat" :?

 

[jorats]

Fingers crossed she just likes her food too much.

 

[mamarat]

Good luck!

 

[Debbie]

Noelle saw the vet yesterday. The xrays didn't show any evidence of babies, but the vet did feel something abnormal in her uterine area. Noelle has several bouts of stretching oddly and then her fur would puff up.

So we've started her on Baytril and have her booked for a spay on Monday. She was back home happily muching her food last night. So hopefully, the spay will go well tomorrow and she'll be feeling much better soon.

She is an older gal, but was otherwise perfectly healthy before this incident. Our surgeon is very fast and good. Noelle will be in the best of hands.

Fingers crossed our gal will do fine through surgery.

 

[jorats]

Oh thank god you brought her straight away to the vets! She's such a sweet looking girl.

 

[Godmother]

So glad that she is not going to have babies. I wish her the best of luck and a speedy recovery from her surgery.

 

[mamarat]

Good thoughts for your sweetie. She's beautiful. :heart:

 

[lindsayfawn]

I hope her surgery goes well!

 

[Sharlees rattakisses]

What a beauty!! :cuddle: Here's to a speedy recovery!! :heart:

 

[Debbie]

Thanks guys :hugs:

I dropped Noelle off at the vet this morning for her spay. I should hear something within the next few hours.

She was all snuggled in her carrier with her warm snuggle safe, lots of fleece and munching a piece of my cranberry scone, when I left.

She's still looking good and scarfed her dinner last night, like normal. She's still stretching oddly, so I"ll be interested to see what the vet finds. Now watch, he's going to tell me that everything "looked normal" :gaah:

Anyway, good thoughts for our pretty princess, ok? I'll keep you all posted.

 

[Dahlas]

Hope she is okay and that her spay goes well.....yes please keep us posted.

 

[Debbie]

Well, Noelle is coming back home without having surgery today. The surgeon called to say that he detected several heart issues in Noelle (i.e. murmur, gallop rhythm, missed beats) and he didn't want to risk her life when he didn't have enough evidence that a uterine problem exists.

I've personally had 3 different girls that ended up having vaginal bleeding and required a spay....in all three cases, the girls displayed sudden heart issues right before surgery. My assumption, this was from the toxins from the uterine infection.

So in Noelle's case, I'm not convinced the heart issues aren't a result of a possible uterine issue. So I'm not ruling it out in Noelle's case (IMHO).

He did ramble on about heart issues throwing clots and could cause some back leg weakness, or gut upset causing the stretching (which I've never seen before). So at this point, I'm not sure I'm in agreement with him. But what I do agree about.....I don't want to risk surgery just yet.

We are going to get her on Enalapril and see how she does on the Baytril over the next week (unless she looks worse) to see if we can get her in better shape, before addressing the spay again.

 

[jorats]

Oh boy... that's a bummer.

 

[Godmother]

That's a new take on things. Must be hard when you were hoping for a full resolution of the problem by today. Please keep us posted.

 

[mamarat]

I hope you get an answer to Noelle's problems. It's so much harder not knowing. :hugs:

 

[Debbie]

Yeah, I had a long talk with the vet last night (again, the surgeon is my vet's boss and they often differ in opinion and that's really frustrating for me. I always tend to agree with my vet, but need the other for his excellent surgical abilities). She still thinks it's something uterine and i totally agree. Noelle is still doing her odd stretching and seems uncomfortable at times. Thankfully, she doesn't act ill otherwise...so we'll give the baytril and enalapril a bit more time. I'd rather see her in a bit of occasional discomfort while we try the meds, than risk her life during surgery with a bad ticker.

Just hoping the next few days we'll see her feeling a little better, indicating there is some infection and the baytril is helping.

I TOTALLY hate not knowing and getting a resolution for sure!

 

[jorats]

One things for sure your surgeon vet is pretty good if he can detect heart anomalies in a rat. It usually takes a trained ear to catch those.