Giant Rat Invasion!

I posted a while ago about giant pouched rats and their use in revealing landmines (bentorats.blogspot.com/2011/09/herorats.html). They are rats that can serve a real need, in part because of their size.

But I was surprised to see an article in Time about how they are currently invading the Florida Keys. Invasive species are a concern regardless of if we're talking about pythons, earthworms, or fish, so I understand the concern and need to stop their spread in Florida. But still, I wouldn't mind seeing one.

Lazy Medicating

When your rat is on three separate medications, it can take a while to get through them all. It helps though if she is particularly cooperative.

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.