One of my babies died!!

[shade]

I can't beleive he's really gone. I posted about it in the gone board but I just need to find out why he died or what I did wrong.

Previous post: viewtopic.php?p=86510#p86510

Is it possible he had pneumonia and I just caught it too late? I feel like such a bad mommy. please if anyone has any idea of why he might have died, please let me know. All the other babies are healthy but I'm not sure what to do.

 

[jorats]

Sometimes babies do die without ever knowing the cause. It's truly heartbreaking. Unless you get a necropsy done, you'll never know and even with a general necropsy, you might not get answers. When rats are sick, they go downhill fast. Don't blame yourself over this... it's just one of those things. Check out all the others, make sure they are breathing fine. And I'm sure not having him dried enough after bath did not have anything to do with his passing.
Do you know if he fell? Internal bleeding might be a cause or even a internal tumours. But these things are out of your control and nothing to ever blame yourself for. :hugs:

 

[Dahlas]

I am very sorry this happened. Sometimes, like Jo said, young rats do just die. I had it happen to me. A young girl named Tawny....She seemed fine.....but was a bit quieter then her sisters....One night she seemed a bit agitated...and seemed to want me to hold her.....I took her out and held her and she suddenly jumped around and then she died...that fast...I didn't have time to do anything...I was so upset.
I felt so terrible that I had done something wrong....once I could calm down I realized I did what I could...I didn't do anything wrong....Maybe someone with more experience would have recognized the signs but I didn't. I couldn't keep beating myself up over it....and you can't either...Things happen...all we can do is our best.

 

[lindsayfawn]

aww sorry to hear about your little rattie

 

[Fidget]

Oh hon, I'm so sorry!
No way was it anything to do with the bath, you're too alert in your description of Hopper's trouble to have not noticed if he'd had trouble since it. And his siblings are fine.
Like Jo & Dahlas said, sadly it does happen sometimes. Some could have birth defects that we couldn't be aware of as they don't get the tests human babies do (and even human babies die unexpectedly sometimes).
Yeah, it's so wrong for a baby to die, especially when it's your baby, but don't blame yourself.

 

[PiedPiper]

Oh, how horrible! :sad3: I'm so sorry about the loss of your baby, but you did nothing wrong! Please don't think that!

I hope you're able to feel better soon. Hugs to you.

 

[shade]

Thank you everyone. It just bothers me that I don't know. Everyone else is healthy. I was reading some of the other ER threads and a rat that had pneumonia had the same symptoms that he had, which was partially why I thought of the bath.