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's Emergency Vet Visit

Sushi waits for the vet.

We woke up yesterday to Parker incessantly whining while staring at the rat cage. I like to imagine he's Lassie, which is absurd, but the fact is that Sushi was having a really hard time breathing and her gasping noises weren't loud enough to wake us up. Parker's whining was though and we quickly realized what was going on with poor Sushi.

We ended up sticking her in the bathroom with the shower running and the steam helped to improve her breathing temporarily. We then set up a humidifier in the bedroom to make things less dry and called the vet.

I was obviously pretty freaked out but the verdict from the vet wasn't too scary. She has an upper respiratory infection and is now on an antihistamine and antibiotics. The vet thinks we should see improvement pretty quickly but if we don't, she has to go back and have a chest xray. I'm not sure how the logistics of that work.

In good news, she's gained 40 grams since her surgery in October and is now at 298 grams. It looks like her remaining incisors never grew back after they broke off during surgery, which is a relief. Despite the infection, the vet thought her overall health was good.

Hopefully she will be back to being her usual bouncy self soon.

A Day in the Life of a Zoo Veterinarian

This isn't strictly rat related, but KQED has a great video and article on zoo veterinarian Mike Selig. You can find the video at science.kqed.org/quest/2011/11/29/a-day-with-zoo-veterinarian-mike-selig/. Dr. Selig demonstrates how he examines an elephant, helps a turtle with a shell issue, anesthetizes a two-toed sloth, and deworms naked mole rats.

Sushi's Teeth

This picture isn't very good, but it's important.

Do you see that large block Sushi is chewing on? It's monkey chow. Sushi can only eat monkey chow after she has her teeth trimmed, because otherwise it's too hard/big for her to break pieces off of. That picture was taken a few hours after Sushi's teeth were trimmed last week.

Her teeth trimming went well. She's at 238 grams. Her weight is pretty steady these days, and I don't expect we're going to see her get any bigger. She is ten months old.

We did receive amazing news from our vet. We've decided to go ahead with the surgery to pull all of Sushi's incisors. This is a drastic step but will overall improve her quality of life. Right now her upper incisors appear to be dying and her lower incisors are loose and wiggly, making eating difficult. Not to mention that she has to go under anesthetic once a month to get her incisors trimmed, something that is more dangerous each time.

Last month we received a quote for the surgery - $450-600, depending on how it goes. At Sushi's appointment last week though, our vet offered to do the surgery for cost. Essentially, we pay for her anesthesia and her medications and the clinic will cover the rest of the expenses. Why? Because they appreciate that we are willing to do the right thing for her, and have done everything we can for her up to this point.

That is amazing news. A huge thank you to everyone at Cedar Creek Veterinary Clinic and especially to Dr. Derek Nolan for helping us to get Sushi the care she needs. Her surgery will be next month.

Sushi's a pretty special rat.

Back to the Vet

Sushi is back to the vet this morning to get her teeth trimmed. We're going to try to do it without anesthetic first, which I don't think will be successful. She's so tiny and wiggly that I think it would be hard even if her teeth were only mildly crooked. I can't imagine it being successful with the degree of malocclusion she has. It is worth a try though; less risk to her and much cheaper overall.

I'm also curious to see how much she weighs. Her last visit was three and a half weeks ago and she was 181 grams. She is five and a half months old now and I do not think she has put on much weight in the last few weeks. She seems very healthy and her weight is good for her size, but she's overall very tiny.

She's cute though. You can't debate that.

Teeth Trimming Pt. 2

Yesterday I shared pictures of the first part of Sushi's teeth trimming process. Today I want to show what happens during the actual teeth trimming.

Once Sushi is asleep, she's taken out of the bell jar, but still needs to be given gas so she doesn't wake up too soon. The vet tried to use the tiny mask, but it was still too big.

Sushi could wear the mask as a hat!

Instead they ended up taking the tube off the mask and using that directly over her nose. Using only the tube also makes it easier to work on her teeth.

Malocclusion at its finest.

The above picture provides a good look at Sushi's teeth. You can see that there are two bottom teeth pointing to the side, and on the top there are also two teeth, even though it almost looks like just one. Her malocclusion is so severe that her teeth completely miss each other. Normally the top and bottom teeth line up and grind themselves down naturally. Sushi's teeth turn so quickly that they never touch. Unless they are trimmed, her bottom teeth grow into the inside of her right cheek and her top teeth grow into her left upper gums. There is only 3.5 weeks of growth in the above picture.

Rat teeth are similar to fingernails, in that they can be trimmed without pain, unless you get too close to the blood supply. Sushi's teeth are yellow and look disgusting, but they are actually completely healthy.

Beginning to trim the upper incisors.

The vet uses a diamond tipped saw to cut Sushi's teeth. According to one of Sushi's vets, the saw cuts through most teeth "like butter" but because of the strength of rat teeth, it does not cut quite as easily. Trimming the teeth takes a little bit of time and the vet has to be careful not to cut the teeth too short. The vet also has to be very careful not to cut the tongue, and the vet tech uses a cotton swab to keep the tongue out of the way.

With such a tiny patient, there isn't a lot of room to maneuver.

Once the top teeth are cut, there is more room to work on the bottom teeth.

The bottom teeth naturally aim straight at Sushi's cheek.

Near Sushi's foot is one of her just removed upper incisors.

Once the teeth are removed, the vet takes a few more moments to even them. Sometimes malocclusion can be helped by cutting the teeth at an angle, encouraging them to meet. Since Sushi's is so severe, it does not matter if the vet angles them or not. Instead they focus on getting them even and comfortable for her.

A slightly different blade is used to even the teeth.

In the end, her teeth look drastically different, guaranteeing Sushi a few more weeks of comfortable, pain-free life.

It's amazing that the removed teeth are nearly the length of Sushi's paws.

While we were waiting for Sushi to wake up, the vet also trimmed her claws. I am pretty sure Saké will not be nearly as cooperative when we trim her's.

Tomorrow I will post some pictures of Sushi slowly waking up. While I hate seeing her under anesthesia, she is a remarkably adorable sleepy rat.

Teeth Update

Good news from the vet this morning - Sushi has put on quite a bit of weight. Her growth looks like this:
Dec. 23 - 64 grams
January 17 - 120 grams
February 10 - 160 grams

She was right at the point where she needed her teeth trimmed - they were leaving slight grooves on her skin but hadn't actually broken through.

Dave was able to take a ton of great pictures while Sushi's teeth were trimmed and I will share them over the next couple of days. In the meantime, here she is right after she woke up with much shorter teeth:

Awake but too groggy to stand.