An Update on Sushi

Sushi has had a rough couple of months. She is still on ciproflaxin and prednisone twice a day and still has some respiratory issues. Every couple of weeks it seems like she really goes downhill, but then after a few days of staying quiet and mainly just eating and sleeping she bounces back. And when she bounces back, she does it with energy. Every time I find myself thinking that maybe this is enough to put her through, she scrambles to the front of the cage to see me, or dives into her food up to her chest. Even when she's sick, she doesn't seem to lose her appetite for life.

As long as she's still fighting, we'll fight with her.

Sushi takes her medicine.

Hungry

Sushi is feeling better. Her breathing is clearer, her balance is better, and her appetite is back with a vengeance.

An Update

I took a break from blogging last week because there hasn't really been anything good to report. Sushi is hanging in there but she's not great. She still eats like a horse and is her usual affectionate and talkative self. But she's also wobbly, periodically congested, and sleeping a lot.

There isn't a lot that we can do - she certainly isn't suffering. She is still on the antibiotic and prednisone. I hate seeing her like this. But sometimes, like last night, I'll walk by the cage and she'll be sitting in the front watching the world pass by, eyes bright, alert, eager, and aware. I'm grateful she still has those moments. She's a pretty special little rat.

Sushi (from August)

Sushi

After a week back on her antibiotic and antihistamine, Sushi seems to be holding strong. She still gets stuffed up when she's excited or right after she wakes up, but her appetite and activity level are back to normal. She drove me nuts tonight while I cleaned her cage - she spent the entire time trying to climb out of the cage and onto me.  She's a tough one to get mad at though.

Sushi

Sushi Update

After talking to the vet, Sushi is staying back on ciproflaxin for the time being, possibly for the rest of her life. There doesn't seem to be a real good answer as to why she takes a turn for the worse every time we take her off of it, but we're done screwing around with it. She's a great sport about taking her medicine twice a day, so if that is what it takes for her to stay healthy and live a happy, comfortable life, than that is what we'll do.

Sushi has a piece of watermelon.

Sushi

I'm a little nervous about Sushi today. We took her off the ciproflaxin Thursday night as planned, but kept her on the prednisone twice a day. By Sunday morning her breathing was congested again and by Sunday afternoon she was sliding down the ramp in the cage, rather than walking.

It doesn't make any sense to me that the ciproflaxin is the medication making such a difference for her - I really thought it was the pred. Regardless, she's clearly worse off after 48 hours without the antibiotic. We started her on it again last night and will call the vet today.

Sushi before her latest downturn.

Reunited...Again

Yesterday the girls finally rejoined each other again, after being apart since Wednesday night. That was when we found Sushi nearly unable to stand, definitely unable to navigate the ramp in their cage, and firmly sliding backward again on her recovery.

Dave called the vet and she is back on ciproflaxin and prednisone twice each day. There seems to be a pattern here - each time she seems back on the road to recovery and then suddenly she slides backward again. The consistent thing in each case is that it occurs about 2 days after she finishes her course of ciproflaxin and the prednisone goes to once per day. So now she's back on both and once she finishes the ciproflaxin on Thursday, the prednisone will stay at twice per day for now. Hopefully that will provide some indication of what is going on.

She's a trooper, but this is so tough on her. She hardly did anything but sleep from Wednesday through Sunday morning, but by Sunday night she'd perked up a bit and by Monday she seemed back to normal. Fortunately she never reached the level of dehydration experienced before and required no fluid injections - just her meds and some quiet rest.

Fingers crossed that she can beat this once and for all.

Sushi Update

Our favorite tiny rat really seems to have turned a corner. Her eyes are mostly clear, her breathing sounds better, and her activity level remains high. She still has trouble breathing in certain instances - when she's really excited or eating quickly - but overall seems far better than a week ago (not to mention two weeks ago!).

She is on antibiotics for a couple of more days. We're going to back off on the prednisone - down to once per day instead of twice - but she is probably going to be on that for at least a while longer. There can be some long term negative effects to prednisone, but since our little girl is 18 months old, we realistically don't need to worry too much about that. Her remaining life likely isn't long enough for any issues to surface (as sad as that is to say).

Together Again

Sleeping and sleepy.

Sushi was strong enough to rejoin her sister this weekend, after 6 days apart. They quickly nestled together and took a nap.

Sushi is much better in terms of appetite and activity. Her breathing is still rough and we'll call the vet today to see if there is something else we should be doing. She sounds pretty good most of the time, but whenever she is excited, or when she is eating, she sounds pretty terrible. Our guess is that most of the time she is breathing through her mouth, hence she might sound better, but that when she is forced to breathe through her nose she starts to have problems. I'm also not sure of the long term effects of her being on the antibiotic and prednisone, so we'll see that the doctor has to say.

Content.

Still Improving

Sushi surprised us by climbing into the pipe suspended from the ceiling of the cage yesterday. Several separate times I saw her up there, which is a good sign. Her strength is obviously coming back. She's eating pretty good, although her skin is still pale. This makes me a bit nervous and we're still watching her very closely. Her breathing also sounds a bit rougher, but this might be because of her increased activity level; all of that mucus might just be finally loosening up.

We're going to keep her separated from Saké for another day, as much as I (and they) hate it. We just need to make sure that Sushi is eating and drinking regularly before they are back together.

In lieu of new Sushi picture, here's an adorable Friday picture of Saké:

Saké

Turning the Corner

Sushi

Sushi really is a strong little rat. Today she is walking better - still dragging her stomach a little but her speed is back and she is far steadier than a day ago. She is eating her liquid food like a champ, as well as starting to eat more of her regular food. We are still injecting fluids twice a day, but I hope we can stop that today or tomorrow morning.

Eating her liquid food

I'm also hopeful that in a day or so she will be strong enough to rejoin her sister. 

Saké

Update

Sushi demonstrates how one uses a towel to keep a rat upright.

Sushi is slowly bouncing back, although very slowly. Being sick for so long is obviously taking its toll, yet the little girl is a trooper. She's taking her medicine without a struggle, tolerating the horrible fluid injections with hardly a fight, and still manages to look happy to see us. She is eating her regular food now (in addition to liquid food we hand feed three times a day) and is walking around more, although she's definitely not as light on her feet as is normal. She is still a bit unstable when cleaning herself, but at  least she is feeling well enough to groom. She isn't out of the woods but she is doing well enough that I'm not terrified I'll find her dead every time I look in the cage.

The girls are separated again, because Sushi is too weak to navigate the ramp or stop her sister from pushing her around. Saké isn't pleased with the state of things.

Saké nests in the litter tray.

Hopefully Sushi continues to improve and they can be back together soon.

Sushi

Sushi hangs out in my lap while I work.

I worked from home this afternoon because our tiniest rat is really sick. Sushi took another downturn yesterday and returned to the vet first thing this morning.

She seemed almost back to normal after last week's scare, but on Sunday morning we noticed she seemed lethargic. We kept an eye on her and realized that she was not eating or drinking at all. By early evening her breathing had worsened and it was clear that her upper respiratory issues were back in full.

The news from the vet wasn't great this morning. Sushi's prognosis isn't good but she is a trooper and we're going to give her every chance. She is back on fluids twice a day, along with the antibiotic and anti-inflammatory. The vet gave her an injection of cortisone this morning to help with the inflammation, and her breathing has significantly improved since then. 

We can't do a lot to help her besides the meds and fluids, but she does seem to breathe better when she's laying more up right. She doesn't have the strength to hold herself up, so we are doing a lot of holding her in this position while she sleeps. I stayed home this afternoon and have been holding her for several hours. She is wrapped up in a towel and that, combined with the heat of my body, seems to be keeping her warm. She hasn't had any interest in food yet, but I'm hopeful she will eat some liquid food later today still.

This poor girl really has had too tough of a life. She's far too young for this.

Sisters Reunited

After two days apart, we were finally able to put the girls back together on Saturday night.

Which was good, because while Sushi was resting and looked like this:

a very bored Saké looked like this:

Saké destroyed the contents of her cage, jumped out at every person or cat who happened by, and even bit me during her time alone.

I'm not sure who was happier once the sisters were reunited - Saké or I.

The Hunchback of East Lansing

After Sushi came home from the vet last Thursday, we had to inject her with 10 ccs of sodium chloride under her skin every 12 hours. This was pretty horrific - it isn't technically hard but it hurt her, and since she is so tiny, there wasn't a lot of room for error. Not to mention how hard it is to focus and not screw up when you also have to pin down a frightened and loudly squeaking rat.

After the fluids were injected, Sushi would have a hunchback for a couple of hours, until they were absorbed.

The raised area above her head/behind her ears is actually the balloon of fluid. She was a trooper to put up with us doing that to her. Originally the vet said every 12 hours for 7 days but he also said that if we got past 48 hours and she was eating her normal food (which has a heavy water content), then we could stop. I was grateful that at 48 hours she was eating and happily put the needles and syringes away.

An Update on Sushi

After 48 hours of fluid injections, liquid food, and laxatives, Sushi began looking better this weekend. She is now eating her regular mush of lab blocks and baby cereal and has shown interest in soaked monkey chow again. Her eyes are brighter, she is more stable, and her energy is back as well.

However, I think the brightest moment in all of this was Thursday after work, when I ran down the hall to check on her. I wasn't sure what we'd find after her visit to the vet that morning.

Amazingly, I found this:

Although wobbly, Sushi was at her food dish, eating. She didn't eat a lot but the fact that she showed any interest in food at all was heartening. It's obvious in the picture how sick she was - her eyes were rimmed with mucus and her ears have almost no color. But she was eating - and shortly after I took this picture she eagerly ate her special liquid diet from the vet.

She might be tiny, but she is a trooper.

Sushi

At the vet...again

We've had a rough day with Sushi. Yesterday afternoon we got home at 6 and she was playing and acting completely normal. But at 8:30 I found her laying in an odd position in their cage, looking like someone had just tossed her there. I picked her up, she took a single step and fell over. Her body and tail were cold, her eyes were glazed over and covered in mucus, and she was completely limp. Her breathing was clear but she was motionless - even her whiskers were still.

Dave made up a mixture of water, sugar, and salt and she was willing to eat a bit of that through a syringe. She spent the evening mostly laying quietly, eyes open and staring. Periodically she would get up, take a few steps, and then fall over. I wasn't sure she would survive the night, but when I got up around 3 a.m. she staggered to the front of the cage to see me and willingly took about .8cc of the water/sugar/salt mixture.

We took her to the vet first thing this morning. She's down to 270 grams (she was 298 grams last week). The vet initially thought she had some sort of blockage, but xrays revealed that everything in her abdomen looked okay, except for a very full cecum.  The vet couldn't find any other obvious signs of what is going on - her downturn was so sudden and serious that he thinks something must have caused it. This isn't just a slow decline from not eating. He didn't think this was related to the upper respiratory infection we've been dealing with, although the prednisone could cause her stomach to be upset and thus make her eat/drink less. 

Right now though, the issue is her dehydration. She is very weak and we need to get fluids and food into her. The vet gave her fluids under her skin while we were there, and sent us home with instructions to continue doing this twice a day for the next 7 days. She also gets a laxative twice a day, along with special liquid food. Hopefully once her cecum is cleaned out she'll feel better and the fluids should help with the lethargy and weakness. I'm not sure if the real issue will become evident at some point, or if the only issue is her dehydration.

The next 24 hours are critical, and the vet wouldn't say what he thought her prognosis was.  She was willing to eat some of the liquid food a couple of hours after her fluids this morning and she was walking around slowly, so I am hopeful. I am not looking forward to injecting the fluids twice a day - she put up quite a fight for the vet when he did it this morning, which was amazing considering how weak she is. They could hospitalize her for a few days and take care of it there, but if we're able to handle it at home, she'll probably do better in her own environment with Saké to keep her company.

So, think positive thoughts for a very tiny, beloved rat.

Sushi Update

A much healthier Sushi

Sushi has improved drastically since going to the vet last week for an upper respiratory infection. Her breathing is mostly clear, other than a little bit of sneezing and sniffles. Her nose and eyes also look better. Her appetite (which never really waned) is 100% and she also is back to being her normal energetic self.

Sushi Takes Her Medicine

I cannot imagine how Sushi could be better about taking her medicine (Ciprofloxacin and Prednisone).

It helps that she seems to like the taste of both medicines. After her surgery in the fall she was also on Ciprofoxacin but also Meloxicam, which she hated the taste of. As a result, it took an enormous amount of skill and luck to get any of the meds in her mouth. This time around it only takes one person to treat her, which is a bit of a relief, since she has about fifteen more days of Prednisone ahead of her. 

Sushi's Feeling Better

Sushi demonstrates how to take medicine.

Sushi is doing better today. Her eyes and nose are much cleaner and her breathing, while not yet clear, is greatly improved.

Holding onto the syringe, not pushing it away...

Her appetite also seems good. She ate her monkey chow this morning and immediately dove into her dinner tonight.

I'm not sure she could cooperate more than this.