My last post for awhile....

Well I am now ratless for the first time in about three years.

I had a friend who had two younger girl ratties of his own and he just loved Chile. So I decided to let Chile go live with them. She was not as much of a people rattie as my Ember and Poppy were and was so sad and lonely. She really needed some rattie friends. I felt like it was a good opportunity for me to take a break a little while and come to terms with the loss of Ember and Poppy. :( I guess it gets better over time...

Chile

Well now my Chile is alone. :( Not sure what I am going to do yet. She was younger than the other two and is almost 20 months old now. So I guess even though I think of her as the baby, she is getting up there too. I have been thinking I may try to find a neutered little boy for her. Not sure yet. Chile has always been a calm peaceful rat with the other rats, but she also has not met a new rat in probably a year and a half now... So what if she does not like a new friend?

Poppy 1/16/09 to 12/17/10

Poppy went to sleep and just never woke up. She was 23 months and 1 day old. As hard as loosing one of my babies is, Poppy's death was the most peaceful I have yet to experience, although very much unexpected. She was fine the night before, playing and eating. She did have the rather large mammary tumor that had returned after being removed once, but it really did not seem to bother her that much. Poppy loved life and was excited about everything she encountered. She loved everything and was an extremely busy little girl and always looked like she had an actual smile on her face. Rest peacefully my sweet girl, you will always be my baby.

Poppy

Poppy is still hanging in and doing ok. Her tumor has grown back completely and actually has two more tumors growing beside it now and they are getting bigger as well. :( Poor little girl, she has seemed a little depressed since we lost Ember and her tumor is making it harder for her to get around. I am still unsure what I am going to do. I worry about putting her through surgery again, but do not feel putting her to sleep is an option at this point either. She is almost 2 years old.

Ember 1/16/09 - 11/16/10

Ember was put to sleep on November 16th. She was 22 months old. I am very sad and wrote this for her.

I will always remember your gentle nature, how you instantly accepted and comforted all ratties, how much you loved baby rats (even though you never had your own), how you snuggled baby Chile when she first came to live with you and Poppy, how you let the other ratties take your treats away even though you were the biggest, how you preferred your hammock over your wheel, how much you loved your sister Poppy, how you were my sweet baby girl, my Emberbember always...

:( Ember

I think one of my girls, Ember (who is almost 22 months old) had a major stroke. :(

Last week she had some symptoms on her left side similar to what I have seen in people after a mild stroke, but was getting back limited use of her front paw. Well last night she must of had a major stoke bc today she cannot walk, seems disoriented and confused. She even feel off one of the shelves in the martin's cage when I found her.

:( My poor baby girl. I put her in one of my smaller, no level cages so she would be safer. But when I got home today she looks worse. She is just lying down and her legs seem useless out beside her, her eyes have porphyrin all over them and she does not want to eat or drink.

I do not know what is best for her, I realize she is dying and I am so sad for her. But I do not know if I should just keep her comfy and let her go on her own or do I take her to the vet to be put to sleep?

This is just awful and I am not sure I can handle it. I still have Chile (who so far is healthy) and Poppy (But Poppy has a large mammary tumor that is growing day by day) As much as I love my babies, I do not think I will be able to get anymore ratties any time soon.

A lifespan of two years is just too short and unfair.

Poppy's tumor is back.

Well it has been 6 months since her tumor was removed and I had not seen any signs of regrowth until last weekend. :( It is coming back in the exact same place and growing fast. It is already about the size of a small grape. Poor Poppy, she is acting fine and is her normal self. But if it is going to be like last time, it will not take long for it to consume her... :(

The girls

We are finally moved and settled in and the girls have adjusted fine. They are all doing well and as cute as always. Poppy has shown no signs of tumor regrowth and Ember and Chile are both big and healthy as always.

and then there were three...

We are moving soon and our new apartment is not only smaller but not so happy with the idea of pet rats.:( I have worked it out so I can keep one medium cage and all the same sex (if not altered) So I decided to keep the girls, since Poppy has some health concerns, adopting her out just did not seem right. Which left my two boys...placing the boys into a new home was a very hard decision, but I was fortunate in that I was actually able to take them back to the original breeder, Carolina Blue Rattery. He was hoping to work with the unidentified mink Toby carries, so it worked out good. I know Keith will take care of them and Toby will get to have some girlfriend's again and still has his buddy Felix with him. :)

Some updated pics of all my sweet babies.

Toby

Felix

Poppy


Ember

Chile

We are tumor free :)

I was finally able to take Poppy in on March 17th to have her tumor evaluated. It had started to grow more rapidly and had tripled in less than 2 weeks by that point and was as big as a baseball, which really looks even bigger on such a tiny little body. It had started to interfere with her everyday life, was too heavy for her to run in the wheel and she started wanting me to give her treats in the hammock, instead of running down with her sisters. I felt so bad for her and used all my reserve money to take her to the Dr. She had surgery to remove it, which actually went very well. But she then tore open her incision and I had to decide whether to get another surgery to fix it or just manage it. I was so worried about her and thought I had once again made the wrong decision by getting surgery. I decided to wait and see, since I was afraid she would just tear it open again and really did not have another $200 to take her back in. So I gave her antibiotics longer, kept her on fleece (no bedding of any kind) and away from her sisters. It healed with no problem and she was back to her crazy, little hyper self within about 10 days. Here is a picture of her about 5 days after the surgery.

Poppy has a tumor.

Well my babies are all around a year old now. So I fear this may be the start of age issues... But Poppy has a growth under one of her arms. I first noticed it around Christmas and it was about the size of a grape for a few weeks and then all of a sudden it is as big as a ping pong ball! It is very disturbing to me. She does not seem bothered by it at all, still runs in her wheel, eats and lets me touch it. I did some research and am pretty sure it is a mammary tumor (has all the classic symptoms) I want to take her to the vet, but with Blue's bill ending up being close to $450 and Christmas I am so broke right now. I hope it does not get any bigger for awhile and maybe I can take her in next month. I am also very worried about surgery of any kind on a rattie now, Blue was the first rat I took in for surgery and she ended up dying b/c of complications from the surgery. I still regret that choice and worry for Poppy.

Change of plans

I have decided to close the rattery. It has just been too hard with everything else going on in my life. I love my rats so much and would rather just focus on a few special babies at a time. I very much enjoyed having newborn babies around and watching them grow is amazing, but it really is such a huge responsibility and I felt like the work involved was really taking away from the actual enjoyment of being a rattie owner. Also loosing Little Blue really made me think about things more and realize I could not be there for each rattie if I had so many. So I placed all of my last litter into adoptive homes and will be adopting two of my "older" girls (Camille and Drew) to Keith at Carolina Blue Rattery. Camille came from him in the first place and has never been breed and Drew is so he can continue the mink line that I uncovered within his lines. :) It was a hard decision, one I thought about for a few weeks. But now I am glad, relieved and at peace with it. This leaves me 5 special rats to spoil. My two boys Toby and Felix: who are absolutely wonderful and so sweet to each other and my three girls: Poppy, Ember and Chile. Poppy and Ember are biological sisters and have always been inseparable, but they instantly welcomed Chile right into their hammock when she was just a tiny baby. They both mothered and cleaned her from day one. This is more like the way it should be for me and my 5 babies.