Rat died... Info needed

[RatMummy2019]

Hey everyone.
i am new here and a first time time rat owner.

Unfortunately, today at 12:30am, my 15 month old rat, Pip, had a seizure.
Within one hour of his first seizure, he had two more so I rushed him to the emergency vets.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t go in with him due to covid-19.
After 2.5hrs he hadn’t come out of his seizure and when they check his reflexes, he wasn’t responding.

His brother unfortunately passed away on the vet table in front of me in January of this year as he had a suspected brain tumour and had seizures too, along with sudden aggression towards all his cage mates.

When they brought him out to me he was walking around in circles as was doing so previously.
With a broken heart I decided to have Pip euthanised and pass on peacefully.
I have brought his body back with me, it has roughly been 7.5hrs since he fell asleep forever.

He lived with 2 other cage mates who are not his biological brothers.

My question is, should I show Pip’s body to the other two or let them wonder what happened?
If you have been through this, what have you found is the better thing to do?
Also, would I have to put his body in the cage or could I show them his body as they are out having freeplay?

Thank you for any advice in advance.

 

[lilspaz68]

Rats are much more aware of their fellow rats illnesses than we are. I don't usually show the body to the cagemates but it really depends on the situation. I'm so sorry you lost both boys to seizures. Usually they would be injected with valium to pull them out of a seizure that won't stop then given oral phenobarbital to hopefully treat the seizures. If it was a true brain tumour this won't work but you often don't know until you try

 

[RatMummy2019]

Thank you for your response.

The vet said that he was a bit underweight and said that can be a sign of a brain tumour, even though he would eat as normal and did not appear to be underweight.
They also said he wasn’t groomimg himself properly, my partner and I noticed that his fur had changed texture and became a bit more rough though we saw him grooming, we just put it down to the other rats urinating on him.

Thank you though, I will do even more research in case this ever happens again. Fingers crossed it won’t.

 

[lilspaz68]

Sadly that's a very poor diagnosis from your vet. Brain tumours can have seizures and neuro symptoms but weight loss and losing condition aren't classic symptoms. Weight loss can be attributed to many many things so unless there were more obvious symptoms (eg. eating constantly but not able to gain weight, or even losing weight, etc) we really won't be able to help.

 

[Big Schpog]

I'm very sorry for your loss. You made the right call. There is no need to make a rat suffer. I only hope I can do the same when my heart rat Big Schpog's time comes.