(no subject)
Dec. 5th, 2005 01:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thejunipertreeAnimal updates.
Nympho seems to be doing ok. He's home, with a partially shaved leg and instructions to lower his insulin to one unit twice a day (it used to be two units) and to carefully monitor his eating. He'll be going back to the vet's office on the 7th for a glucose curve, to see how well he's taking the change.
Aleister is still hanging in there, to my amazement. Today, I decided to give her a bath because she was getting soaked in her own urine, so I took her out of the little travel cage I put her in to keep her away from her sister, who was pulling all her hair out in a fantastic feat of over-grooming. She laid in my hand and didn't protest the water, but she did lick droplets of it off my fingers and bruxed at me as I dried her off. She eats the food I bring her and drinks from the bottle when it's close enough to her face (I try to keep it as close as possible and even hold the bottle for her when I think she's not strong enough to drink from it). If she doesn't go this week, I think I may drive her to the vet's to be put down, despite how it hurts me to think of it. She still doesn't seem to be in any pain, but this is just going on for too long.
I came downstairs today to feed all the animals and check on everyone (I'd been up in the Engineer's apartment). When I went to feed the boy rats, I noticed Major Tom lying in the bottom of the cage and breathing very shallowly. It didn't look as if much of the food I'd given him and Simon the night before had been touched, maybe a Simon-portion was gone. When I took Tom out of the cage to look him over, he'd quietly in my hands and didn't struggle to get to my shoulder, as he always did. He gasped for breath and just laid there. At first, I thought he may have been choking because he can be a glutton and shovels too much food into his mouth at too quick a rate. It's happened before. I took the appropriate measures for a choking rat, but nothing seemed to help. I held him for a while, scratching behind his ears and talking softly to him. Decided that I wanted to sit on the couch with him for a while, maybe see if he'd feel better in a little bit, so I put him back in the cage and went to get a towel to hold him in, for warmth. When I came back to the cage, Simon was dancing around him frantically and as I opened the cage to take Tom back out, he took his last breath.
I'm still kind of shock over the whole thing, I really wasn't expecting this. Last week, I'd brought home a new rat for the boy's cage because I knew that Major Tom was getting old and wasn't going to be around forever and Simon was going to need a new cagemate. I thought that now was as good of time as any to introduce a new boy, so I brought home a little hooded boy that was born in August. Named him Renfield and set him up in the little cage until he got big enough to swing with the fat rats. I knew Tom was probably not going to last too many months next year because some of his littermates had already died, his father died this year, and his mother was on her way out. I just didn't think that it would happen so soon.
I suspect that whatever killed him was the same thing that killed Senor Diablo. It came quick and painless, without this horrible wasting away like their mother, Aleister, is going through.
The Engineer and I took him (and Edgar, who still had not been buried) to my father's house today for burying. We stood outside the fence in the sun and the Engineer struggled to dig around several enormous roots deep in the ground. I kneeled down in the loose soil, took off my gloves and placed him gently in the ground with Edgar right after him.
It hurts, but I haven't quite reacted yet.
Renfield, the new rat, is a joy to behold. He's just a tiny little man right now, but has enormous feet and a personality that shines. He frog hops all over his cage and climbs the bars when he knows it's time to eat. Hopefully, he'll being Simon out of his sadness that Tom is gone. Currently, Simon is buried underneath the dishtowel I have tied to the upper level of the cage and refuses to come out. He sticks his nose out from under the edge of it and glares at me for a few moments, then retreats. My poor boy, he looks so sad.
Nympho seems to be doing ok. He's home, with a partially shaved leg and instructions to lower his insulin to one unit twice a day (it used to be two units) and to carefully monitor his eating. He'll be going back to the vet's office on the 7th for a glucose curve, to see how well he's taking the change.
Aleister is still hanging in there, to my amazement. Today, I decided to give her a bath because she was getting soaked in her own urine, so I took her out of the little travel cage I put her in to keep her away from her sister, who was pulling all her hair out in a fantastic feat of over-grooming. She laid in my hand and didn't protest the water, but she did lick droplets of it off my fingers and bruxed at me as I dried her off. She eats the food I bring her and drinks from the bottle when it's close enough to her face (I try to keep it as close as possible and even hold the bottle for her when I think she's not strong enough to drink from it). If she doesn't go this week, I think I may drive her to the vet's to be put down, despite how it hurts me to think of it. She still doesn't seem to be in any pain, but this is just going on for too long.
I came downstairs today to feed all the animals and check on everyone (I'd been up in the Engineer's apartment). When I went to feed the boy rats, I noticed Major Tom lying in the bottom of the cage and breathing very shallowly. It didn't look as if much of the food I'd given him and Simon the night before had been touched, maybe a Simon-portion was gone. When I took Tom out of the cage to look him over, he'd quietly in my hands and didn't struggle to get to my shoulder, as he always did. He gasped for breath and just laid there. At first, I thought he may have been choking because he can be a glutton and shovels too much food into his mouth at too quick a rate. It's happened before. I took the appropriate measures for a choking rat, but nothing seemed to help. I held him for a while, scratching behind his ears and talking softly to him. Decided that I wanted to sit on the couch with him for a while, maybe see if he'd feel better in a little bit, so I put him back in the cage and went to get a towel to hold him in, for warmth. When I came back to the cage, Simon was dancing around him frantically and as I opened the cage to take Tom back out, he took his last breath.
I'm still kind of shock over the whole thing, I really wasn't expecting this. Last week, I'd brought home a new rat for the boy's cage because I knew that Major Tom was getting old and wasn't going to be around forever and Simon was going to need a new cagemate. I thought that now was as good of time as any to introduce a new boy, so I brought home a little hooded boy that was born in August. Named him Renfield and set him up in the little cage until he got big enough to swing with the fat rats. I knew Tom was probably not going to last too many months next year because some of his littermates had already died, his father died this year, and his mother was on her way out. I just didn't think that it would happen so soon.
I suspect that whatever killed him was the same thing that killed Senor Diablo. It came quick and painless, without this horrible wasting away like their mother, Aleister, is going through.
The Engineer and I took him (and Edgar, who still had not been buried) to my father's house today for burying. We stood outside the fence in the sun and the Engineer struggled to dig around several enormous roots deep in the ground. I kneeled down in the loose soil, took off my gloves and placed him gently in the ground with Edgar right after him.
It hurts, but I haven't quite reacted yet.
Renfield, the new rat, is a joy to behold. He's just a tiny little man right now, but has enormous feet and a personality that shines. He frog hops all over his cage and climbs the bars when he knows it's time to eat. Hopefully, he'll being Simon out of his sadness that Tom is gone. Currently, Simon is buried underneath the dishtowel I have tied to the upper level of the cage and refuses to come out. He sticks his nose out from under the edge of it and glares at me for a few moments, then retreats. My poor boy, he looks so sad.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-05 06:52 am (UTC)i would like some good luck to head your way asap.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-05 12:33 pm (UTC)Sounds like it could be pneumonia -- it very often comes out of nowhere like that. I lost 2 that way.
I'm so, so sorry. *hugs*
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-05 06:58 pm (UTC)But I'm glad you have another little guy for them.