The reasons rats can die so fast

[Godmother]

so many of us have struggled with guilt when our ratties have gone from apparently healthy to dead in a couple of days, or even hours. We always wonder why we didn't notice something sooner.

The only way I can get my head around it is to think about how, in two of the common causes of death, exponential growth of bacteria or cancer cells is involved.

With exponential growth, the increase in the deadly cells is not apparent until things are near the end. For an example of exponential growth, remember the example of saving one penny on day 1, doubling it every day, and seeing the growth pattern. At first, the amount is very small, then suddenly it's huge.

I believe that bacterial growth and some cancer growth is like that. Here is a web site with a great illustration:
http://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/p ... /1100.html

See how things change in just one minute at the end ... http://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/p ... /1159.html

If we could only see that something was wrong early on, then maybe we could treat it in time. Problem is, the problem is invisible until it is too late.


Here's another web site with a great illustration of the problem: http://www.mathwarehouse.com/exponentia ... tivity.php

I also found this tidbit of information on Wikipedia. Human beings are built to perceive exponential growth as if it were linear (so it's hard for us to see what's happening):

Examples of exponential growth
Biology.
Microorganisms in a culture dish will grow exponentially, after the first microorganism appears and a lag phase, and until an essential nutrient is exhausted.
A virus (SARS, West Nile, smallpox) of sufficient infectivity (k > 0) will spread exponentially at first, if no artificial immunization is available. Each infected person can infect multiple new people.
Human population, if the number of births and deaths per person per year were to remain at current levels (but also see logistic growth).
Many responses of living beings to stimuli, including human perception, are logarithmic responses, which are the inverse of exponential responses; the loudness and frequency of sound are perceived logarithmically, even with very faint stimulus, within the limits of perception. This is the reason that exponentially increasing the brightness of visual stimuli is perceived by humans as a linear increase, rather than an exponential increase. This has survival value. Generally it is important for the organisms to respond to stimuli in a wide range of levels, from very low levels, to very high levels, while the accuracy of the estimation of differences at high levels of stimulus is much less important for survival.

Hope this helps.

 

[jorats]

For those with only one rat dying, I wouldn't think it was bacterial or viral because I would think several more should be affected.
In our case, it's most definitely what happened.
We've had deaths in the past of unknown cause but with a postmortem, we can get an idea. For exemple, Red died suddenly, we found out later it was a ruptured internal tumour. She was the picture of health all her life. Another rat was fine until he died, a postmortem showed infected fat around the kidneys, this can be due to a fall which we all know happens quite a bit with our rats.
Internal masses, tumours, abscesses, hemorrhage, heart failure and even chronic lung disease. I was shocked to find out that Boo had already started pulmonary abscesses. He had never shown any signs of sickness ever. But yet it had already started.
In young ones, I really do think that bad breeding as in poor genetics, removing the young too fast from mom does play an important role in their failure to thrive.

 

[MumsyRat]

You love your pets, keep them clean, provide them some form of exercise feed them well and provide fresh water. You take them to the vet when you think something is wrong. Unless you are Dr. Dolittle and can converse with them, you do the best you can do and you do all you can do. You can grieve and be heartbroken when a pet suffers a sudden death but guilt has no place in a sudden death scenario and it's a disservice to those who are still living.

 

[jorats]

I totally agree Mumsy!

 

[Godmother]

Yes, I realize that the guilt isn't rational, but so many people feel it anyway. It almost seems to be part of the grieving process.

 

[Moon]

With the number of babies that have passed lately, I really appreciate this post, Godmother. It does help put into perspective that we may not see that something is wrong until it is too late.

We need to always remember that our rats, as prey creatures, will hide symptoms of severe illness as long as possible. If their discomfort is only mild we may not ever see it, until it has reached a severe state.

 

[RatsForever]

Yes, I realize that the guilt isn't rational, but so many people feel it anyway. It almost seems to be part of the grieving process.

Thank you so much for this post Godmother. It makes me feel better as I always struggle with the unexpected deaths of my rats (including yours).

When it comes to the grieving process I think guilt is a rational (depending on how you define it) process for some people. I'm certainly not going to bore people on this thread with gerontology/sociology jargon, but guilt is a "normal" process when it comes to grief and dying.

This indeed a good thread...

 

[Dewi]

When it comes to the grieving process I think guilt is a rational (depending on how you define it) process for some people. I'm certainly not going to bore people on this thread with gerontology/sociology jargon, but guilt is a "normal" process when it comes to grief and dying.

This indeed a good thread...

Oh how I wish guilt wasn't a normal part of the greiving process. I find that the guilt I feel saddens my memories of my rats and other pets, even years after their passing.