Ashi the rat is really ill :(

[RattieOfCatan]

DH thinks he's on his way out, I hope not! He's my very special loner boy who can't be with other rats, has epilepsy and fatigue problems. He kept getting bumblefoot (from inactivity and sleeping on the plastic bottom of the cage/peeing where he slept) and it went beyond handleable so we took him to the vet in mid-April, got antibiotics for a month and went on our way.

Then just over a week ago he started breathing noisily, obviously he's already on ABs so I took him back hoping for something stronger, got the not-so-great vet who just gave me metacam to go with the baytril to help reduce inflammation. DH took him again yesterday as he's just constantly breathing noisily and the same vet agreed to prescribe something stronger. But he's just really rough, he's out most of the day with one of us having cuddles but I think he really is on his way out :( He's only a year and a half so he has far surpassed the few weeks that we thought he would survive but even so.

I was expecting to go down a cage soon, especially as our 2y4m boy has a tumour on his bollocks now just after we found a friend for him but I wasn't expecting it to be Ashi :(

Oh very , your little Heart Rat has been through the mill hasn't he?

Will he be able to cope with stronger antibiotics (and potential side effects) if he's already weak?

Is Ashi looking at the end of his particular road to The Bridge?
I know that rats are vunerable to respiratory infections, sounds like it's taking it's toll on the little boy.

Hand/Paw holding, the next few hours will lead you one way or t'other.

Aww... really hope he picks up again... they go downhill so quickly when they go! We have 2 boys... Ludo & Bertie, 5 months old and so different in personality. Bertie is as bright as a button but poor little Ludo has already had respiratory issues and prescribed antibiotics... we thought the worst for a while, but he pulled through.

Have you tried a drop of warm milk with honey in it? Ludo loved that when poorly.

Really hope your boy rallies round!

He has been through it all really, his seizures have started up more regularly again recently and his eyes are constantly dry and occasionally get bashed during his seizures so he's been to the vet a few times recently. I didn't think about whether stronger ABs would make it harder for him, I just want to knock it out of his system of possible!

He sounds just like a pigeon at the moment, it's awful, I've had one of mine reach this stage before but within 24hrs of ABs she was fine. I'm well used to respi issues thanks to my two boys who had/have them since we got them but Ashi hasn't really had them :(

I think that he is looking towards the bridge sadly.

pebble they really do. We got two brothers as our first two rats and they had respi issues from day one. Our old boy Howl was one of the original two and he's still got respi problems, his brother died in November but we were in the vets every other month with them just getting a dose to bring it back down to manageable conditions! I'm amazed that Howl is still with us tbh.

Ashi is a special one, he only eats certain things unfortunately! But he's being bribed with yoggies so he's relatively happy. Just very noisy and sleepy, though the latter is normal for him. I have to work tomorrow and then all day and evening Saturday, I'm so worried that he'll go whilst I'm out, DH is working tomorrow too, I hate leaving him all day anyway but when he's not well it's horrible.

Oh, poor you. I have been in that position, having to leave an ill little rat because I had to go to work. I put everything within reach of his bed and had to kiss him goodbye in the morning. I really feel for you . They are very special little beings.

Sorry to hear you've had the same :( Haku died during an op and I was rushing out of the door that morning, despite his respi issues I honestly hadn't even imagined that he wouldn't make it, the vet called whilst I was at work and my boss sent me home to say goodbye.

I thought that I should come back and say that we had to have Ashi PTS on Tuesday. He was really suffering, refusing to eat non-solid food because he realised that we had been medicating everything (not that he was eating much anyway, even turned down yoggies) and he was getting really stressed about us syringing him.

So we made the decision to have him PTS :( But we got to have most of the day on Tuesday with him before taking him and had lots of quality time, cuddles (and some bribery) before taking him to the vet.

so sorry to hear this

Very Rattie but from what you've posted it seems like it was the only option for your little boy.
The last day with him must've been hard though, knowing you wanted to spend those hours with him, but knowing it was a short few hours.

Ultimately, the decision to let him go to The Bridge is a difficult one but in some ways it;s the only one that makes sense.

He's had a much better, richer life with you than a lot of other Rattie types, he was lucky to land on his little paws with a family who understands rats and their quirky ways. And were prepared to get him the treatment when he needed it, but also brave enough to say "That's it now Ashi, that''s your time".

He was a little character on Super Furry Animals and I'm sure he's helped inspire a lot of other Rat People .

I'm so sorry Rattie I loved hearing your stories about Ashi and it was so wonderful to find someone else on here who loves the furry little things too. I lost my heart rat to a respiratory infection earlier this year and she died in my arms. I'm still not sure if it was me or 13y DD who has taken it hardest.

RIP Ashi at least with you Rattie he got a lot more than he would have done elsewhere and well done for letting him go when he needed to. Tears are being shed here for him too

Thank you :)

It really was the only option we had left. By Sunday night he was spitting all of his meds out again so we were going through all of the stress of trying to syringe him 2 lots of meds morning and evening only for it not to get in. After he did it again Monday morning we had pretty much made our minds up when he just started panicking as soon as we tried to touch him that evening.

It took my two hours to get him to let me hold him on Tuesday morning and even then it was only because he was tired. So whilst it was horrible to make the decision, it really was the right thing. His quality of life had disappeared over night and he was struggling to breathe come Monday evening too.

Tuesday was hard but I feel so much better that we got to have that time with him knowing what was going to happen later on. With the other three it was a shock and if we have the option in future I'd rather do it the way we did with Ashi. We'll likely be facing it again soon as Howl has a tumour which we are not getting removed due to his age and constant respi issues and we thought we'd have had to make that decision by now but he's still fine. It is spreading but not as fast as we thought it would.

Sorry to hear that you've had to go through the same recently Lady We lost our old lady to a respi infection earlier in the year too but given that she was at least 3yo and had only managed one or two illnesses in all of her time with us before then, she made a really good run of it!

So sorry to hear of Ashi passing He lived longer for being loved by you Rattie.
RIP little heart rat

Thank you fortified