"Post-Mortem" Diagnosis...What do you think happened?

[fenshae]

It's funny, but I think every time a rat dies, I become a better owner. I have to compulsively research rats (even more!) to see what I did wrong and how I can do things better next time. I'll admit, I have a LOT left to learn, but at least I'm willing to put in the effort, right?

Anyway. My most recent "learn everything you can about rats" phase has got me thinking an awful lot about my very first rat, Squeakers.

I got her in October of '04 with her cagemate Athena. Both were PEW "small" size feeders -- however old that would make her. In hindsight, I realize that she was never a healthy rat. She was about half of Athena's size and had a sort of ruffled "fluffy" look, not sleek like a female should look at all. She squeaked quite a lot and was also a little sneezy. She had a good, active life, never seemed particularly sick, but she was also never very active. She died 12/7/04 (so 2 months after I got her).

Earlier that day, I noticed (right before going to take a chemistry final -- I blame her for failing it!) that she had "puffed up" hugely; she was much, much bigger than normal. She seemed fine otherwise, was still eating and whatnot, so I tried to ignore it so I could go take my test. Late that night, I found Athena on the far side of the cage looking dejected and Squeakers lying sprawled out on the bottom floor, looking a little "out of it". She'd declined VERY rapidly from that morning -- still bloated, and with labored breathing. When I went to pick her up, she was limp in my hand and her back feet were blue. I held her for about an hour (having absolutely no idea what to do for her -- didn't know a vet in town at the time and certainly not one at 2am) and she finally passed.

I had NO IDEA what happened to her. At the time, I attributed it it to her having maybe eaten something; there was a towel that I kept draped over the cage that I saw she had pulled in and chewed big holes through (she was a big nest-builder) and I guessed maybe she had eaten some of the towel and gotten impacted. But rats generally don't ingest things that they chew, so that doesn't seem like as likely of an explanation.

What else could it have been? Megacolon, maybe? I've never heard of megacolon in a PEW, but I've never heard of a lot of things

Just wondering, really. Obviously, that was like 5 years ago and it doesn't matter NOW...but I've always wondered what was wrong with dear ol' Squeakers.

 

[Joanne]

Hmmm, hard to say. A few clues:
Blue = not enough oxygenated blood. That means there was either a problem with the blood circulatory system, or the pulmonary system.
Bloated, laboured breathing.
Blue Bloaters in humans is someone with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Just one definition from the web:
A "blue bloater" is a person that actually suffers from chronic bronchitis. Chronic bronchitis is caused by excessive mucus production with airway obstruction and notable hyperplasia of mucus-producing glands. Unlike emphysema, the pulmonary capillary bed is undamaged. Instead, the body responds to the increased obstruction by decreasing ventilation and increasing cardiac output. This is a horrible mismatch within the body that results in a rapid circulation in a poorly ventilated lung leading to hypoxemia and polycythemia. With this occurring, as well as increased carbon dioxide retention, these people have signs of heart failure and are labeled as "blue bloaters". The prognosis for a "blue bloater" is very poor.
I would think that in rats mycoplasmosis could present in that way.
If it wasn't a problem with her lungs, then it was her heart. Congestive heart failure?
However, it sounds like an acute problem (ie relatively rapid onset.) Maybe she had a collapsed lung?
Anyway, all guesses without a body to examine....

I know how you feel though - anything to prevent tragedy in the future...

 

[jorats]

Going by our own very many postmortems... I'd say it was either a heart problem or respiratory, both seem to be common in some rats. With heart problems bloating is a symptom/sign as well as being blue. But the bloating is also seen in some with respiratory issues, meaning she was taking in air in the stomach instead of her lungs.

 

[fenshae]

It does seem likely that it was some kind of chronic respiratory condition that just came to a head one day -- like I said, she'd never been a particularly healthy rat, and she was always very sneezy. Oddly, she never had any poryphin issues or gasping attacks -- either one of those I would have noticed even as inexperienced as I was. Very, very interesting.

Many years later, just a few months ago actually, my old girl Velvet also displayed some bloating symptoms, which is what made me think of this. She was 33 months and had struggled on and off with respiratory problems her whole life but always pulled through quite well. She started to lose weight rapidly (although she was eating fine) and became very bloated. I was at a really unfortunate point in my life when I absolutely did not have money for a vet, and she passed quietly in her sleep before I could get together any cash -- about 3 days after I noticed the bloating. I suspicion that she had an internal tumor of some kind, since over half of her eight babies all died of tumors (one internal, three aggressively cancerous, one benign) and because of the "wasting" she had as she was losing weight. Although the bloating pattern was similar, the rest of the disease progression wasn't at all.

Hmm.

Incidentally....why is it that sick rats always get that "fluffy" unkempt look? I always used to point out the sick rats in our Petsmart shipments about a day or two before they'd present any other symptoms because they ALL get that certain "look". Know what I'm talking about? Maybe I'm going nuts....

 

[Joanne]

Incidentally....why is it that sick rats always get that "fluffy" unkempt look? I always used to point out the sick rats in our Petsmart shipments about a day or two before they'd present any other symptoms because they ALL get that certain "look". Know what I'm talking about? Maybe I'm going nuts....

It is called a 'staring coat'. One definition:
staring coat
a dry haircoat lacking in luster, usually carrying dandruff or scurf. May be caused by poor cutaneous circulation and lack of sebaceous secretion resulting from a general state of ill health such as in any toxemia.