Lost one of our rats, devastated.

[HarryPottersMagicWand]

I can't believe how upset I am over it. I never thought I would be this bad. I had an appointment this morning and I only just held it together.

It doesn't help at all that it turns out she had been ill for a while and we didn't realise. I feel so so guilty. She was called Anna. She seemed a bit smaller but as her cagemate got bigger, we put it down to that, turns out it was both. Molly got bigger and Anna got smaller bit was still eating and drinking. Yesterday Anna was just lying on the bottom of her cage struggling to move and she felt cold. I picked her up and carried her around and her breathing was very laboured. We tried feeding her and giving her water but she wasn't interested. Phoned the emergency vet and took her in. He gave her oxygen and she just went. She hadn't even seemed ill the day before. The vet listened to her chest and said it was very rattley and thinks she had pneumonia. She had been ill for a while and we didn't even realise. If we did we could have taken her to the vets and got her treated before it got to this stage.

She had slowed down the last couple of weeks but as she was coming up for 2 we put it down to age. Her breathing seemed a little 'sucked in' looking back and she made the odd tiny squeak but again we didn't think anything of it. Molly is on her 4th respiratory infection and we can always tell as she makes a lot of noise when breathing, Anna didn't. I feel terrible that Anna was so ill and we ignored the signs and didn't take it seriously. The DCs are devastated. They want more rats after but I don't think I can go through this again, although I'll have to as we still have Molly.

HarryPotters I think I replied on your other thread on chat, but so sorry to hear about Anna

Don't feel guilty about what you might or might not have been able to do for her. Sometimes these little ones just plummet so quickly that there's nothing you could have done anyway.

Please don't feel bad, rats can go downhill so so quickly, and when they start getting old it can take the slightest respi infection to get pneumonia, which comes on surprisingly fast. So sorry for your loss

Really sorry about your rat and agree with the pp that you shouldn't feel bad. It looks like you're being too hard on yourself by saying you ignored the signs, you unlikely did that. My rat Whizbit had a large tumour and the vet said I should've taken her in sooner but I never saw it, as was said before they go down quickly

Thanks. It helps to know they go downhill quickly as she was fine (well what we thought was fine) the day before then suddenly the following day she couldn't walk and was gasping for breath. She died probably less than 10 minutes after arriving at the vets. I couldn't not take her even though it was apparent she wasn't going to last much longer as it was horrible seeing her struggle to breathe.

I don't know if Molly is missing her but we've been getting her out on the sofa with us of an evening and she's actually laid down, behind a cushion or behind my curled up legs the other evening. She's never ever done that before as she is sooo active. She's also been grooming my fingers a lot and trying to bite my nails. Last night she just laid on my chest for ages, she's never done that.

So sorry Hope you find a new companion for Molly once you have had chance to grieve. X