(no subject)
Apr. 6th, 2003 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thejunipertreeAardie has some sort of lump in his neck area. Like a cyst or a tumour or some such. This is a bit distressing. I know rats are susceptible to them and that it's very common, but goddamnit! He's just a wee baby. And my poor departed Nicodemus lived five years, bump free.
I found a vet, nearby, who deals with rats. So, she's going to get a phone call from me tomorrow. I get paid at the end of the week, so I'll be able to write them a post dated check.
Wemble's bridal shower was this weekend and it was fabulous, if I say so myself. heh. I had so many worries that it was all going to fall to shit, but it went well. Even despite the fact that we were locked out when I first arrived due to the rental manager thinking I had the hall scheduled for Sunday and despite one of the bridesmaids getting into a car accident about 100 yards away from the hall.
A few of us, at the end of the night, decided to go on an adventure after dinner and seeing 'Chicago'. One of our party wanted ice cream, but none of us wanted to go to yet another diner that we've been to. So, I set off on a main road with the decision that we'll stop at the first diner none of us have ever been to.
Needless to say, we wound up in Hammonton. Which is quite far from my apartment. It's close to the ocean, even. I enjoyed the drive, despite my polite non smoking in the car due to someone's allergy to smoke. The night air, the thrumming engine, the giggling and conversation. It was...good.
Although now I am still completely exhausted from all of the weekend's events. I slept a large portion of today and vegetated the rest of the day.
Oh, I also am now the proud owner of the "House of 1000 Corpses" soundtrack.
BOO-YAH!
I found a vet, nearby, who deals with rats. So, she's going to get a phone call from me tomorrow. I get paid at the end of the week, so I'll be able to write them a post dated check.
Wemble's bridal shower was this weekend and it was fabulous, if I say so myself. heh. I had so many worries that it was all going to fall to shit, but it went well. Even despite the fact that we were locked out when I first arrived due to the rental manager thinking I had the hall scheduled for Sunday and despite one of the bridesmaids getting into a car accident about 100 yards away from the hall.
A few of us, at the end of the night, decided to go on an adventure after dinner and seeing 'Chicago'. One of our party wanted ice cream, but none of us wanted to go to yet another diner that we've been to. So, I set off on a main road with the decision that we'll stop at the first diner none of us have ever been to.
Needless to say, we wound up in Hammonton. Which is quite far from my apartment. It's close to the ocean, even. I enjoyed the drive, despite my polite non smoking in the car due to someone's allergy to smoke. The night air, the thrumming engine, the giggling and conversation. It was...good.
Although now I am still completely exhausted from all of the weekend's events. I slept a large portion of today and vegetated the rest of the day.
Oh, I also am now the proud owner of the "House of 1000 Corpses" soundtrack.
BOO-YAH!
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-07 04:52 pm (UTC)It's in the center of his throat area, but just below it. So, almost on his chest. He's not with any other rats currently, but he was with a group of them when I got him. One of which was one of his littermates.
So! You just got him relatively recently, so I'm thinking SDA, since most pet store rats carry it. Has he been in contact with any other rats since the pet store? He could definitely be carrying SDA, or could have gotten it from other rats. One of the main symptons is a swelling of the salivary glands which shows up looking like a big bump in the middle of the neck.
Oh, he wasn't a pet store rat. He came from a breeder, sorry for any unclearness. However, I have handled pet store rats since I've gotten him.
Has he been sneezing? Do his eyes look okay? Another symptom is eye troubles -- porphyrin, ulcers, swollen eyeballs...
No sneezing at all and his eyes look okay. Last week, maybe a week and a half ago he seemed to have a tiny amount of reddish bits around his eyes. Which some website I checked said was normal? That went away, however. Very shortly after I noticed it, too.
Also! I don't know which vet you're taking him to, but I've been to a whole ton of vets in the PA/NJ area, and the best one for rats that I know is Dr. Janice Goode at Marlton Animal Hospital. If the guy you're seeing ends up sucking, she's a fantastic vet who knows a whole lot about rats.
Yeah, Dr. Janice is exactly who I was thinking of. :)
She's not very far away from me, which helps immensely. I found a recommendation for her on a webpage, maybe Rodent Fancy? No wait, it was RMCA. I think.
I checked on him again last night, after writing that post. And it seems like the lump has gotten smaller. And now, I've gone to that link you posted and read up on SDA.
So, this just kind of runs its course and there's no treatment for it? With this development, I probably won't get the new baby Dumbo for a little while longer. In case he has it or Aardie is still carrying it.
Thanks for your help!
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-07 05:08 pm (UTC)Anything like this? (I stole the pic from the ratlist medical pictures file, must give credit where credit is due.)
http://www.muridae.org/rats/SDAPepsi2.JPG
Oh, he wasn't a pet store rat. He came from a breeder, sorry for any unclearness. However, I have handled pet store rats since I've gotten him.
Whoops, my mistake. I'm sure you mentioned it somewhere, and I just forgot.
It's possible that the breeder could have had SDA in their rattery as well, though. The virus is only active for about a week in each infected rat, BUT if a breeder breeds a litter without quarantining after an infection, the ratlets can be reinfected and the whole thing can start over again. So it can be a problem in ratteries if they're not following very strict quarantine/breeding procedures.
It seems like you've had him long enough that he shouldn't be showing any symptoms now, but sometimes it takes a while for the symptoms to present themselves. Oh, yeah, also! If it is SDA, the only problem you're likely to run into is with other viruses or infections hitting the rat a lot harder because of the suppressed immune system. Otherwise he should be better in about a week, yup.
If it is SDA, you should probably not get the dumbo for about two months, because the virus can still be spread for about that long. Or I guess you could also get the dumbo anyway and keep the both of them in different apartments for a few months. =) You can carry the virus in your nasal passages for a few hours though, so you've got to be careful.
If you go to see Dr Goode, tell her I said hi! She's great -- really knowledgeable and incredibly kind to boot. She used to keep pet rats herself.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-08 05:32 am (UTC)Hmmm. It's hard to tell, because that rat has fur and mine doesn't. Even at its biggest, the lump wasn't quite /that/ big though.
I've been staying away from him for the past two days since I'm sick and I don't want to transfer anything to him, but when I checked last it seemed to have been going down.
Btw, and off topic, did you get Celeste in the mail?