Carrie was a Good Pet

Sorry that it’s been over a month since I’ve posted. It was a busy time during which I was back at the veterinarian twice; the last visit was to finally put Carolina rat to sleep. After Sugar had her dental incident, I found a lump under Carolina’s jaw. Thinking this was surely a tumor, I made an appointment to have the vet look at her with the likelihood she would be euthanized. If you recall, I had done the same thing a few weeks prior and what I thought was a tumor was a very treatable ear infection.

Once again, this “tumor” turned out to actually be an abscess. We suspected she got it from being bitten by the new, young rat I picked up at the Bird Expo. We named her Fiona after a character on one of our favorite TV shows, Burn Notice. Little Fiona was chosen from a group of about 20 young rats held in a 10 gallon aquarium. She hadn’t learned any manners yet and was rather food aggressive. I had kept her separated from my two rats for only a few days when I probably should have quarantined her longer. Regardless, her sharp little teeth must have punctured Carrie’s skin when they were fed together and the wound festered on the inside and got infected.

The plan was to put her on antibiotics again and allow the abscess to drain. It was a busy Saturday morning at the vet, so I had to wait about an hour for the doctor to numb the area and then open the abscess with a small incision. I was sent home with instructions to use a warm compress on the wound two to three times a day. I knew this was not something I had time for, but I didn’t want to euthanize this rat when she still had so much spirit left. I took her home and put her in a separate cage where she wouldn’t have to climb and could eat unchallenged. She still came out to visit with the other rats, but had to be supervised.

When we treated her abscess, we took her to the kitchen in a little, soft, dog house designed for a stuffed animal. Carrie seemed to really like it in there and would just curl up stay put. What she didn’t like was the warm compresses. This rat weighs less than a pound so I was surprised at how she could push my hand away with her little four-fingered paw. After the compress, her cheek would be wet and she’d want to clean it, but that kind of irritated the area and opened the doctor’s incision up more. It was a long two weeks, but I stuck with the daily compresses and meds and eventually the area healed, but developed a hard, round, pebble size lump. The vet said that was where the abscess had walled itself off and the only way to treat that was surgically. This was not an option for Carolina because she was just too old. She was still eating and alert, but she was losing control of her back legs and wasn’t able to climb up or down very well.

We kept her separated from the other two and gave her as much attention as possible. Sometimes, we would put her in the little dog house and let her sit with us while we watched TV. I don’t normally allow the rats to hang out upstairs with us because they just want to explore, but Carrie just stayed in her little house. She tried her best to groom herself, but she would lose balance and have a hard time. She had also lost a lot of hair at this point and just looked kind of raggedy. As she slept in her cage, we could hear squeaky breathing noises. We finally took her in for euthanasia in early June. She was just short of three years which is the length of a rat’s lifespan. She was a good and gentle rat. As with all of our pets, we took her home and buried her in the yard.

Here's Carrie in her little Coconut house. Coconut is a little white dog that goes with the American Girl Dolls. One of our previous old rats liked to sit in this house when my daughter would take the rats into her bedroom. Carrie did the very same thing and it became her little refuge where she could be out of her cage, but still feel secure.

Another Veterinary Visit

I noticed our rat, Sugar, acting off one day. She was still interested in us and coming out, but she would sit in a hunched fashion and kept pawing at her mouth. It really looked like she was just grooming around her mouth, but this was more than usual and I wondered if she had something stuck in her teeth or what.  Of course, it was a Saturday night and no veterinarians would be available to call until Monday. I wasn’t even sure there was anything wrong since she was so active and eating.

Well, that’s not true. It worried me that she was grinding her teeth. Birds grind their beaks to soothe themselves, often right before they go to sleep. Rabbits, guinea pigs and rodents grind when they’re in pain. I decided to give her a tiny dose of Metacam that I had leftover from another pet. This pain medication seemed to help as she slept soundly that Sunday and came out to visit when we approached later. I only gave the one dose and Monday morning she was still acting off, but I had to go to work. 

I started thinking about what the problem could be. Just two days before I had witnessed her falling off the table on which our rat complex is arranged. She has escaped from the table before so this certainly wasn’t her first time dropping three feet, but since Carolina’s aged and been sick, Sugar has been doing more eating. Maybe since she gained a little weight, the fall was more traumatic or maybe she just hit her head or mouth just right. When she was still a little hunched and grinding the next morning, I made a vet appointment since it was my day off.

While Sugar was investigating the counter top in the exam room, with all its glass jars and the can of Cheez Whiz (probably for ferrets), I stressed to the technician, who always comes in to get the lowdown before the doctor enters, that they might think I'm crazy because this rat certainly didn’t look sick at first glance. I think it took Dr. Katie less than a minute to look in Sugar’s mouth and determine she’d broken her two top incisors. “Oh no,” I said, because I know rat incisors grow continuously and grind each other down. Without the top to grind the bottom, what would happen?

Dr. Katie said I could give her more Metacam as needed and to just watch to see if those lower teeth become overgrown. If the top teeth don’t grow in fast enough, she may have to come back for a tooth trim which must be done under sedation. All I heard was $$$$. While I didn’t like the news, it felt good to know that I wasn’t crazy and there really was something amiss as suspected. It kind of reassured me, as a pet owner, that I still have a clue as to what I’m doing. I didn’t take any meds home and only had to pay the exam fee so it wasn’t too bad. I noticed two little nubs of Sugar’s top incisors coming in within a week so there would be no need for a tooth trim. It later occurred to me how she might have broken her teeth if it wasn’t from falling off the table.

Every morning, I give the two rats a snack as soon as I go to the basement and turn on the low lights. They come out and take their portion and run to wherever. With Carrie slowing down and not feeling well at this time (see previous post), Sugar quickly grabbed two portions. I saw this and said, “No way, you’re not getting both,” and quickly grabbed her up and tugged at the food in her mouth. She’s a gentle rat so I wasn’t worried about getting bit, but I was quite surprised at the strength she had to hang on. Once I retrieved the extra piece, she ran off and ate the one she had. I can’t remember if she squeaked when I grabbed that food or not, but I’m pretty sure that was the moment she broke her teeth because that particular food object was something hard, like a nut or nugget.

Whatever happened, all’s well that ends well. It was another hard lesson learned on my part. I think I mentioned early on in this blog that mistakes have been made. This time it only cost me $45 and some guilt.

Here's our girl having some popcorn. What a face. Sugar is a Dumbo rat so her ears lie sideways rather than pointing up. She's about a year and four months old here, not quite halfway through her life.

The Midwest Bird Expo in Kane County

My daughter and I attended the Midwest Bird Expo at the Kane County Fairgrounds this past Saturday. My main goal in going was to find some cockatiel seed without sunflower seeds in it and I thought I could get some other bird supplies for cheaper than the pet store. One item I found that I wasn't looking for is a metal cage clip for fastening big leaves of lettuce or millet spray or other foods to the side of the cage. These were only 75 cents each. I also picked up cuttle bones for only 50 cents each. They're at least $1.99 in the pet store. We took a few pictures of some of the animals on display such as one very large chameleon. I learned of a bird I had never heard of before called a lineolated parakeet. I thought they were Pacific parrotlets at first. I also thought I knew my bird species pretty well.


We spent several hours there and left with three bags of supplies and one very young and very cute new pet rat. I will post some photos very soon.

Here is the lineolated parakeet (Bolborhynchus lineola). The ones we saw were this color or kind of an subtle olive green. You can see how they resemble a parrotlet of similar coloring.

Carolina Rat Is Still With Us

It was just two weeks ago that I took our pet rat, Carrie, in to the vet to be euthanized. I didn’t feel completely confident with the idea because she wasn’t doing as poorly as other pets I’ve euthanized. She was lethargic, not very responsive and frail looking, but she was still eating and drinking though we had to place food in front of her to get her interested.

While we were in the exam room and waiting for the doctor, I noticed that the lump on the side of Carrie’s face had gone down. I had thought this lump was a tumor, but tumors generally don’t decrease on their own right? Once Doctor Katie started her exam, I soon realized there was a chance I would have to run the errands I had planned with a live rat in the van rather than the dead one that wouldn’t have caused any problems.

Carrie was diagnosed with a pretty bad ear infection and a slight respiratory irritation. The doctor set us up with some oral Baytril and some Baytril drops for the affected ear.  I knew this would likely only give Carrie a few more months, but I was thankful for the chance to make things right by improving how she felt. I also felt more at ease knowing I couldn’t possibly put her down for an ear infection.

That day was the day before my son’s birthday, so I had a lot of running around to do. Since we live in a small town and the vet is in a big, busy town, I still intended to do my shopping. I made Carrie a little tent within her pet carrier and she was just fine to stay in the van on that cool spring day. My kids had been reminded to say goodbye one last time to her that morning so they were happily surprised to see her twittering around in the carrier when I arrived home. They’ll have to say goodbye again some other day.

Carolina is feeling much better now. She’s walking around and investigating things like a good rat. She can’t climb or jump much anymore, but she sure hasn’t given up on life. She’s eating heartily all on her own and still can’t resist anything with peanut butter. To be sure, I’ve never met a rat that could.

This is Carrie. We sometimes call her Blackie though she's more of a dark brown. She'll be three years old in July of 2012.

Crested Gecko Minus One Tail

Back in September of 2011, I wrote about how our gecko lost its tail. I finally added a photo to that post of what she looks like without one. I thought I'd add a couple here as well.

She's nearly two years old here and about five inches long. She's resting on a pot holder. This gecko has great color which is one of the reason's I chose her. We use the plastic container to feed her crickets. I used to put them in her vivarium, but would later find a dead cricket here and another there so I started removing her to this container where we could watch her eat. I think she had a hard time chasing them in the vivarium. She never learned these things from her own mama so I had to make it easier for her. Plus, this way we know how much she's eating and that she's getting her calcium from the dusted crickets. Also, it's kind of fun to watch. 





Little Joe Photo

One of the staff at Moorpark's Teaching Zoo took this recent photo of Little Joe so here's the real thing.

Little Joe Still Lives

As to my previous post about tortoises, I’ve recently learned that Little Joe is alive and well at 25 years-old. He’s full grown at about 14 inches long and weighs over ten pounds. He’s still used in educational presentations at America’s Teaching Zoo and is scheduled to appear in this year’s Spring Spectacular. He’s also available for adoption through the Zoo. Just visit this link:

http://www.moorparkcollege.edu/current_students/teaching_zoo/adopt.shtml

Above is a likeness of what Little Joe looked like when I first saw him in 1987. The next picture is close to what he looks like now.