Our sweet little Petal not wanting to share her milk
Last Thursday our sweet little Petal passed away. We had noticed a drop in her energy levels over the previous few days, she didn’t seem so keen to come out and play, but she was eating and drinking so we didn’t think too much of it. We didn’t know how old Petal was, but we had always assumed she wasn’t a young rat. Still we had hoped that we’d be able to share a little more time with her. Although we hadn’t originally planned to adopt Petal, it is now hard to imagine not having had her in our lives.
While it is always hard for us to say goodbye to any of our rats, we can take comfort in the fact that Petal didn’t suffer she really did just slip away peacefully. We were very lucky to have known such a special little rat as Petal and to have given her her own little rattie family, who she adored.
Pickle out exploring
Unfortunately our sad news does not end there, we also lost our bouncy guy Pickle on Saturday. Just like Petal he had started to slow down a few days before. Saturday morning we couldn’t even tempt him with baby food, which he had enjoyed the night before. Our Pickle was a very bouncy guy despite his age. He loved nothing more than coming out of an evening and bouncing round our home. He was a very happy rat who loved life and we couldn’t help but smile whenever he was out.
Even though it has been a tough few days for us, with everything that has been going on, we are still comited to our little rat family and I’ll write more soon about how the rest of our guys are going.
Our new arrival Twix
We hadn’t been thinking about adding anymore rats to our family, even our search to find Pickle a friend had been put on hold with the little ones being so poorly. That was until the RSPCA called us just over a week ago about a “problem rat” they had who needed an experienced owner - we had to go and meet him.
Twix had been found abandoned, back in August, in a small hamster cage that hadn’t been cleaned out for a long time. By the time the RSPCA called us Twix was looking a lot cleaner and happier, but he had bitten a few times. Rats are not aggressive animals, but biting is one way they have of communicating, particularly if they are afraid. This is what has happened with Twix. He had obviously not been well looked after in his previous home and was scared and stressed as to what was happening to him. As rats have large powerful jaws and very sharp teeth they can do a lot of damage if they bite, so a lot of care has to be taken when handling Twix.
With having three sick little rats in the house we felt we needed more time to decide if we could commit to Twix. We did discuss fostering him, but in the end I knew I couldn’t foster any animal. Not because I don’t want to, but I know I would only get attached to any rat I cared for and not want to give them up. It took us a week to decide we had room in our home and heart for Twix. It is very important when adopting a rat like Twix that you are prepared to do everything you can to help him settle down and become confident around humans, but also that you are willing to accept him, and care for him, if he never changes.
Twix is a large agouti hooded male rat and he is absolutely gorgeous. At the time we weren’t sure what to do. Taking on any rat is a big responsibility, especially one with a history like Twix. Once we had made up our minds we called the RSPCA to explain to them about the health concerns with our other rats. This was important to us, because although we knew we could offer Twix the experienced rattie home he needs, there is a risk to his health from the virus that is affecting our little ones. I’m please to say their were no objections to Twix joining our family and he has now got a quiet corner in our guest room while he settles in.
Twix is a very stressed and frightened rat and we are going to take things slowly with him. While he doesn’t like being handled, and he gets a bit tense if you try and touch him too much, he doesn’t mind being wrapped in a hand towel and picked up. This is very handy for getting him back in his cage. Hopefully given time and patience he will settle down and we’ll get to see Twix’s real personality.
Date joined family: 11th September 2008
RSPCA name: Reg
Family name: Twix
Sex: Male
Age: Unkown
Colour: Agouti hooded
Health: A bit stressed, but overall in good health
Petal, Peach and Apricot
We have had the final verdict from our vet about the poorly rats and its not good news I’m afraid. To start off with Bramble has also developed crackly breathing, so we were already quite upset about things before we even saw our vet. So that now now means that Bramble, Lime and Apricot are affected. Unfortunately the diagnosis is pasteurella. This is a condition that cannot be cured. All we can do is manage our rats symptoms and keep them as happy and well looked after as we can.
Our vet did talk to us about quarantining the poorly rats. Bramble and Lime live with Apple who is not showing any symptoms and Apricot lives with Petal, Daisy and Peach who are also fine. We talked about this alot and have decided to keep the rats together, for now. We know that may put the other guys at risk, but we feel that they have already been exposed for a few weeks and like all bonded rats they will find it very distressing to be separated. This could even have a worse effect on their health than staying together.
The news also means we have to be careful about adding any new residents to Rattie Rescue, at least until the threat of spreading the infection has passed. Any rat who has been exposed to pasteurella, even if they aren’t showing any symptoms of illness may still carry the virus. Any new rats will have to be kept separate from our current rats. At the moment we are thinking it will be best to wait until our current rat population has all passed away - hopefully along time from now- then we can be sure that there is no chance of the virus spreading.
Bramble, Lime and Apple
So, for now we are taking it a day at a time with our poorly guys. Apricot and Lime are both happy and bouncy for now, which is good. Unfortunately Bramble has been hit quite hard, but we are feeding him up on baby food and keeping him warm.
Sick rats are always going to be upsetting, but I’m finding it especially difficult to have three poorly at the same time. And they are so tiny, not just in age, but none of them are very big rats. At about five months old the boys are about the same size as their mum, and she’s not that big.
We love our rats very much and are committed to doing everything we can for them. We really do hope they can beat this illness, but whatever happens we are going to enjoy every minute that we have with them all.
First off I’m pleased to say there has been some slight improvement in Apricot’s condition. She is still wheezy, but it has been more off than on today. Yesterday we noticed her sister, Peach, sounded a bit rough, but that seems to have stopped. Fingers crossed it will stay that way.
Apple and Lime - though we're not always sure which one is which!
On the down side one of Apricot’s brothers, Lime, has started wheezing. This has really confused us, because they don’t even live in the same room. We had to take one of our family rats, Pepper, to the vet yesterday to have some stitches removed and we asked about the breathing problems. The vet said it was unlikely we could have transferred anything between the two rats, especially as they live in separate rooms, which is what we thought. We collected extra Baytril for Lime - just in case - and we are keeping a close eye on the rest of the guys.
Our vet did mention asthma. I admit that I’ve never heard of rats having asthma before. If we see no imporvement in either Apricot or Lime, we’ll be heading back to the vets to find out about asthma in rats and how to treat it.
Just over a week ago Apricot’s breathing started making a really nasty clicky sound. At the time the girls had a plastic igloo and Apricot was spending a lot of time in it. They also kept making the igloo smell really bad by peeing on the shredded paper in it. We took the igloo off them and replaced it with another fabric bed I made, that would give them better ventilation. I was concerned that Apricot had inflamed her airways by sleeping in the soggy bedding. To be on the safe side we also took her to the vet to get her some medicine.
Worryingly she hasn’t really improved. Being still quite small and easy to keep hold of I have been able to give her the Baytril straight into her mouth. I follow this with a yogurt drop to make sure it all goes down, so I know she’s getting her medicine. She is bright and bubbly, but there are times when you can see her breathing is getting her down and it scares me.
I know it’s one of the downsides of keeping rats that there is very little you can do for them when it comes to health issues. With her age - she is quite young to be getting respiratory infections - the fact she is otherwise healthy and active and that she’s not responding to the Baytril, we are concerned that there may be something else wrong with her. Our vet did talk to us about x-rays to see if there may be a tumour, but this wouldn’t really do us any good as they wouldn’t be able to treat it and it would only distress Apricot.
It’s hard knowing that all we can do is give Apricot her medicine, love her and hope she can beat whatever is making her poorly. She is our girl and we love her very much so we’re going to keep trying.
Having a rattie family of your own
We had four months with Petal as a lone rat, and throughout that time we spent as much time with her as we could. She was very sweet and cuddly with us, but there was always something missing - that twinkle in her eye that I’ve seen in all my other rats. Petal often came across as cranky and set in her ways, she certainly liked to boss me around. Having no idea how old Petal is, or if she’d always been on her own worried me, because I didn’t want to force a companion on her and cause her any stress or upset.
Still I followed my instincts and kept on looking for a suitable companion. Then I found Daisy and her daughters. Being so young the three of them weren’t quite what I had planned for, but I went with it. Derek and I were prepared to look after the girls separately if things didn’t work out, but luckily they did.
It has only been a few weeks since Petal moved in with Daisy, Peach and Apricot, but the change in Petal has been extraordinary. At first it was hard, I found myself worrying about Petal and if the young ones were driving her crazy or stressing her. Every squeak or bump and I’d check on them. And occasionally Petal has put one of the girls in their place, especially the two young ones. But yesterday Peach, one of the babies, had Petal rolled on to her back and was half grooming her half fighting and Petal was happily going along with it.
There have been many occasions where I’ve caught all four of them piled up in a hammock together or just sitting together, but yesterday I realised that not only did Petal look happier and healthier than I’d ever known her, but she looked younger.
Petal went through so much having two tumours removed within the first week of joining our family, and we were so proud of her for making such a brilliant and quick recovery. Seeing Petal now, with her new rattie family, it’s hard to believe that all that heartache and worry was only four short months ago.
Bramble is a little bit smaller than his brothers. It isn’t anything we need to worry about, he’s perfectly healthy and full of bounce, but I have noticed that he is a bit shy and tends to get left out come play time.
Apple and Lime - who are pretty much identical in size and colour - are much more confident. When we open the cage door they will come pouring out to play or be handled and Bramble tends to hang back and then go to bed rather than shove his brothers out the way and get noticed. When out of the cage his brothers very easily take all of our attention. So we have been making an extra effort to encourage him. Its nothing special, we’re just picking him up, giving him cuddle and putting him back in his cage. And when he’s out and about we make sure we take the time to play with him. He’s already much braver for it and he hangs around the door for longer giving us chance to get to him. When he’s out on the floor he doesn’t disappear under the furniture straight away either - and if he does curiosity soon gets him out again.
The Rattie Rescue boys seem to have taken over our dinning room! The girls are in the living room and my two family boys are upstairs in the office stopping us getting any work done ;-). We now have two rat homes in the dinning room and our crazy gerbil, Berry, is in there too. Its not a huge room, but somehow we’ve fitted them in amongst the furniture.
Some really good news is that Pickle is happy to run around on the floor while Apple, Bramble and Lime are out. The young ones do tend to climb over Pickle as though he’s a giant toy, sometimes peeing on him in the process, but he doesn’t seem to care. If anything Pickle seems much more content when he gets put away. And last night he climbed up on Derek to be put away, and then curled up in bed quite happily. Sometimes he can get a bit agitated when its time to go in. Not because he wants to stay out, but I think he’s lonely. So maybe having a bit of social contact with other rats did him some good.
It is a shame he can’t live with the new arrivals, but they are far too energetic for him. If he managed to fall in that cage on his own, who knows what would happen with those three guys pinging around! The brothers are full of trouble at the moment. It doesn’t take much to get them tussling with each other and they clamber around the bars, of their cage, like their monkeys.
We’ll keep an eye out for any older guys looking for a home, but until then hopefully seeing the young ones at playtime will keep Pickle happy.
Apple, Bramble and Lime
Well, I did say that if no one had taken Daisy’s three sons after two weeks we’d have them. I know it hasn’t been exactly two weeks, but what’s a couple of days when it comes to rats.
I was amazed how much they’d grown since we last saw them, they must be as big as Daisy now. When we first saw them they were only a bit bigger than their sisters. Here’s hoping they grow into huge big cuddly boys :-).
We were told that the boys were a bit skitty and had been given extra handling. All I can say is it must have worked, because they’ve been extremely affectionate with us and have got no problems being handled. In fact we were trying to leave them alone to settle in they just wanted to play. So, Derek stuck his hand in and was ambushed by three friendly boys who all wanted to tussle with him. Even though they were really excited they had no objections to being picked up. They were so excited their first night we let them out to explore our dinning room. I think we managed to wear them out a bit.
As they are Peach and Apricot’s brothers, we decided to go with more fruit names for them :-). So Taupe, Beige and Thorn are now Apple, Bramble and Lime.
The RSPCA very cleverly shaved bits of the rats so they could tell them apart. So, while we know Bramble is slightly darker than his brothers we can’t tell Apple or Lime apart, without their shaved patches. I’m hoping that their personalities will be more apparent before their bald bits grow back or we’ll have no clue which ones which.
I know Derek was a little unsure about more rats, but those guys have done a brilliant job of winning him over.
Date joined family 31st July, 2008
RSPCA name: Beige
Family name: Apple
Sex: Male
Age: 3 months
Colour: Champagne
Health: Excellent
RSPCA name: Thorn
Family name: Bramble
Sex: Male
Age: 3 months
Colour: Red eyed, Fawn
Health: Excellent
RSPCA name: Taupe
Family name: Lime
Sex: Male
Age: 3 months
Colour: Champagne
Health: Excellent
We decided to get the bunny cage for Pickle. His welfare is more important to us than anything and I’d be heart broken if he had another fall and really hurt himself. The last fall I was so scared he’d broken his leg, it was such a relief when he started using it again. Hopefully now he’ll be safe now.
He doesn’t seem particularly fussed about the change. He checked all his beds were there, that his food and water were in the right place, rearranged his bedding a bit before going to bed for the afternoon. And he must have slept well because we had to wake him up at teatime for his bit of bread.
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