R.I.P to our Boosh Rats
Hello again,
First and foremost, we would like to apologize for such a long post, and for not posting in a while. We thought it would be interesting to write about losing our big group of boys in one huge go. As each and every one of our boys had their own individual story and ending, this post will be divided into seven chronological sections - one for each rat.
Also, feel free to pick and choose which sections you would prefer to read, we have clearly highlighted each section to make it easier for you all to navigate.
Bolo:
Bolo was the first of our male rats to pass away. Bolo was a very demanding, yet equally rewarding rat. When he first arrived here with us, he was extremely aggressive and unpredictable. Within a day or so of Bolo being in our care, we figured out his aggression was due to him being totally blind. His aggression stemmed from a fear of the unknown, it was like anxiety. We did successfully tame Bolo in the end with a technique commonly known as the "clicking method". It's as simple as it sounds - you click before approaching. After a few weeks of being bitten on a daily basis, Bolo did eventually begin associate us with the clicking sound. Although Bolo couldn't see us, he could hear us. So, when he heard the clicking, it reassured him who was approaching, and he no longer felt the need to be aggressive. The anxiety went away, and Bolo became one of the most loving and affectionate rats we've ever had.
Bolo suffered with a lot of respiratory infections throughout his life. In fact, almost every time the seasons changed he would've caught a respiratory infection of some sort. Due to Bolo suffering with so many respiratory infections, he also required a number of different antibiotics (normally Baytril of Sulfatrim) depending on the severity of the infection, and if it were upper or lower.
One day Bolo became very ill with what we had believed to be another respiratory infection at the time, but his raspy breathing never cleared, even with his stronger antibiotics and Metacam (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory). We decided it would've been best to take Bolo back to the vets. After the vet had listened to his chest with a stethoscope, he suggested we that should take some X-Ray images of Bolo, to get a clearer picture of what was going on. The X-Ray imaging then revealed that Bolo's lungs had filled with fluid, almost entirely. He had also started with the beginning of organ failure. We had the option to drain the fluid in his lungs, but they definitely would've filled back up again, which would've required regular invasive surgery. Or alternatively, we could let Bolo go. Due to Bolo being such a difficult and unique case, suffering with severe anxiety (especially when away from his friends), particularly despising the vets, and having not been in the best of health anyway, we decided it was best to have Bolo put to sleep before he started to suffer even more than he already was. We knew it was with his best intentions at heart, but it never makes the decision any easier.
Bolo crossed the rainbow bridge on 27th February 2017.
Tony had a fall within the cage one afternoon, it was a pretty bad fall at that, but thankfully he was ok. We initially thought Tony could've possibly lost his footing - accidents happen. The same day, he had yet another fall in near enough the exact same place, he didn't fall as far this time though, and again, he was ok. We made adjustments to the cage so it was a lot easier to climb, and we had hoped that would've solved the problem.
The next day, Tony fell again and landed into a hammock. Alarm bells started to ring. We gave Tony a thorough health check, and we found nothing of major concern, only a little weight loss, which didn't really explain why Tony seemed to keep falling within the cage. Still, we introduced Tony to an additional soft food weight maintenance diet to help him maintain, or even gain back some of the weight he had lost. We also continued to monitor him closely as well.
Unfortunately Tony deteriorated a lot within the next couple of days, and he ended up having to go to the vets - we had done all we could've for him back at home. Tony had developed a concerning new symptom, his back legs had become slightly weaker, meaning Tony had started to have some difficulty getting around the cage, even with the adjustments we had added. The vet saw the problem almost straight away after she watched Tony walk on the counter. She said Tony's symptoms were most likely to have been because of a brain tumour (possibly involving the pituitary gland), which was causing some neurological problems. Tony was only going to continue to get worse too - potentially he would've even become paralyzed. We were offered the chance to give Tony an MRI scan, however the vet mentioned there would've been very little they could've done, even with the MRI (in her opinion, medication wouldn't have done much to reduce Tony's symptoms).
At this point, Tony was already deteriorating rapidly. We decided it wouldn't have been fair to have continued to let Tony get any worse, as it wouldn't have been long before the tumour began to severely impact on Tony's quality of life. We were all in agreement that it was better to put Tony to sleep a day too early, than a day too late. We cried and said our goodbye's, but we knew it was the right thing for him. The remaining rats were devastated by the loss of their best friend. We were all grieving for a very long time.
Tony crossed the rainbow bridge on 22nd May 2017.
Naboo's weight and activity levels began to slowly decline over time, however we assumed that it was age related, especially as the boys were all getting older by this point. The next thing we'd noticed, one evening when the boys were out for their free roam time, Naboo had only finished half of his treat, this was very unusual, but at the time we just assumed he was full - hindsight is a magical thing. The following day when we went to get the boys out again, Naboo was very dehydrated (despite drinking normally), and really lethargic (a common symptom of dehydration). We immediately syringe fed him some fluids, prepared him some soft food, boiled him an egg (his favourite food), and tried to keep him warm. Despite all of that, Naboo had continued to get worse by the hour. We knew this was something very serious. We contacted the vets, and got him an appointment the same night.
The vets suggested we could've trialed Naboo on some antibiotics to rule out any infections, however, the odds really weren't in his favour. It was likely Naboo appeared to be battling an adrenal related illness, so it was highly unlikely the antibiotics would've done much - if anything. There was nothing the vets could do. Due to the speed in which Naboo had deteriorated, and with a highly unlikely recovery due to near no treatment, we decided to have him put to sleep. And just like that, he was gone.
We couldn't wrap our heads around it for a while, we really weren't prepared to lose Naboo so suddenly.
Naboo crossed over the rainbow bridge on 11th August 2017.
Saboo:
Saboo was one of the hardest deaths we've ever had to deal with throughout the entire time we've been looking after small animals. Saboo was known by everyone who knew us, mainly because he was such an enormous rat. Saboo struggled with obesity throughout his life, and it took us months to find the best diet for him. The thing with swapping diets, to do it safely, you can't do it quickly, especially when there was 3-6 other rats eating the food at any given time as well. We would have to spend weeks weaning them all onto a diet, a couple of weeks to see if it was the right diet for Saboo, and then weeks weaning them all onto something else. Eventually however, we did find the best diet for Saboo, and he slimmed down to about 650g - 660g, which is still huge, but nothing close to what he was.
The diet that we found suited all our rats best is from Rat Rations, and it is the diet we still use to this day. We alternate weekly between No 11A with egg biscuit, and No 11B with egg biscuit both with supplemented DailyRat3 - Mineral Vitamin supplement once a week (We spray the dry food with some water so the supplement sticks to the food).
Everyone loved Saboo, he was such a goofy and silly rat. He was really laid back around the other rats, he didn't care if they groomed him, snuggled with him, or played with him. With that being said, if they tried to steal his food, then all hell would've broke loose. After a few days of Saboo living with the rats, they learned that Saboo does not share food!
One afternoon Saboo had a fall within the cage, his balance wasn't very good. The first thing that sprung to our minds was Tony. Saboo and Tony were brothers, so we thought they could've been predisposed to brain tumours. We immediately took Saboo to the vets. The vet soon discovered that Saboo also had a slight head tilt and glaucoma, all caused by a stroke. It was also very possible he could have another - though it wasn't clear what type of stroke Saboo had suffered. We were warned some of the damage done may have been irreversible. He was sent home with some Metacam, and we were told to monitor him very closely from now on.
When we got home, we decided it was time to downsize the boys cage. At this point there was only 3 rats living in an enormous cage, and as the boys were getting old, and Saboo being prone to falling, it seemed like the perfect time. We had made sure their new cage was 100% fall proof, with lots of additional support for Saboo. They all seemed to appreciate it.
Sadly, Saboo had another stroke not long after moving into the new cage. This stroke made his head tilt a lot more prominent, and he also needed a bit of help with his eating. So, we decided it would've been sensible to introduce Saboo to some softer, easier to eat foods too (baby food, mashed banana etc). Although at this point Saboo was clearly disabled, he was still able to be his normal, bubbly self. He was happy.
Unfortunately, Saboo had yet another stroke not long after his second stroke. This particular stroke was the worst one he ever had. Saboo was left with severe neurological problems, and was incredibly disorientated. Our hearts shattered, and I burst into tears just seeing him so poorly.
We took Saboo back to the vets, and our vet confirmed the strokes were definitely being caused by a brain tumour, and they would've been a recurring thing. We were given the option to trial him on some steroids to possibly reduce the inflammation around the brain tumour, but in the vets opinion, they most likely wouldn't have done much at that stage. Saboo had already become very disabled, and it seemed cruel to carry on any further knowing he would've continued to deteriorate. With there being very little we could've done, we decided the most humane thing for Saboo, was for him to be put to sleep.
Seeing any animal you loved and cared for in such a way isn't easy, we were all deeply saddened by the loss of Saboo.
Saboo crossed the rainbow bridge on 24th August 2017.
In his old age, Eric became partially blind in one eye due to a cataract. He also suffered with semi-frequent respiratory infections, but normally they responded to a general course of oral antibiotics. One day, Eric came down with another suspected respiratory infection, only this time he also sneezed blood. This was a new symptom for Eric, but sneezing blood can still be a symptom of a respiratory infection. So, we put Eric back on a course of antibiotics, and hoped it would've cleared.
Sadly, Eric continued to get worse, so we took him back to the vets. By now, Eric had also become very lethargic, and had also started to lose some weight too. The vet decided to trial Eric with a considerable dose of some steroids, as his rattly breathing was worsening very rapidly. We had hoped that the steroids could've worked, especially with them being so successful on Greg.
The following morning however, Eric had become even worse. We waited until the afternoon to give the steroids a chance to kick in, but they never did. Eric went back to the vets the same evening. He had become incredibly weak and scruffy looking, and he had lost 20g over night - a shocking amount of weight loss within 24 hours. The vets said there was very little else to try, especially given Eric's condition at the time. Eric was approximately 2 and a half years old, and it was likely that his symptoms were related to cancer. The vet could see Eric had deteriorated an awful lot in a short space of time, and said the kindest thing to do would've been to put Eric to sleep, and we agreed.
Eric left a huge hole in our hearts. He was a lovable weirdo, and a big part of our lives.
Eric crossed the rainbow bridge on 1st December 2017.
Vince:
Vince was an angel. He was nurturing, kind, forgiving, and just a really gentle soul - he didn't have a bad bone in his body. Vince's illness was short, and very similar to his brothers illness - Naboo. We'd been feeding Greg a soft food weight maintenance diet alongside his normal diet at the time, and Vince always used to have some too. However, despite also eating an additional meal, Vince had lost an awful lot of weight in a very short space of time. Vince was naturally a very petite rat anyway, and he really couldn't have afforded to lose a lot of weight.
When we took Vince to the vets, they suggested trialing him on a course of antibiotics and some Metacam, in case he had been harboring some kind of infection. Vince also needed to be syringe fed fluids, as he had become dehydrated. We also added some 'Dr S polyaid solution' to the fluids, to try and give Vince a fighting chance (he wasn't really eating by the time we got home). At the time, we did have our doubts if Vince would've responded to the medication, especially as Naboo had exactly the same symptoms before his death.
Vince was brilliant at taking his medication and fluids, but despite everything, he became weaker and weaker by the hour. Vince's weight dropped to an astonishing 377g (almost 100g below what he should've been). The approach we had taken clearly wasn't working, and we booked Vince back in at the vets the very same day. As the medication we had been using for Vince didn't work, there was no other options left. We could've had some blood tests, but even with the test results they wouldn't have been able to do anything else - it would've just confirmed what we already knew. The vet was confident that Vince had some kind of adrenal illness, she had lost one of her rats in the same way too. I began to cry as I knew exactly what was coming, it was Vince's time. Even when you know it's the right thing to do, it's still the toughest decision to make, you almost feel as though you've failed. With that being said, Vince was dangerously underweight, and very frail. He had become almost lifeless - he wasn't the same Vince that we all knew and loved. We agreed it was time to call it a day.
As I said, Vince was an angel. It was time for him to gain his wings.
Vince crossed he rainbow bridge on 9th December 2017.
Greg:
Greg's death hit me like a tonne of bricks. We'd all been fighting tirelessly to keep Greg healthy for a long time. So, when it was time to say goodbye, we felt as if it were the end of an era - Greg was the last of our beloved Boosh rats. Greg came to us along with Bolo, as a very shy and nervous rat, but throughout the years we had him, Greg's personality grew stronger and he ended up becoming the top male within the mischiefs hierarchy after Tony's passing. Greg was a bold, and powerful character, his personality dominated the room. It was impossible to not fall completely in love with him. We became the best of friends as time went on. I personally felt that because Greg had been by my side throughout all of the heartbreak, all of the deaths, and a number of personal events, it was as if we had a true connection. We were each others rock, and truthfully, I needed him as much, if not more, than he needed me - not to sound cliché.
Greg had a number of health issues throughout his life. The first of which we noticed upon Greg's arrival, a cataract on one of his eyes. The cataract only slightly impacted Greg's vision, and thankfully it never did get any worse whilst he was with us. When Greg was younger he also suffered with the occasional upper respiratory infection, but they always cleared with a course of antibiotics (normally Baytril, occasionally Sulfatrim). We weren't overly surprised when Greg started to have these infections, especially with him being Bolo's brother.
Eventually in his old age, Greg developed a chronic respiratory illness caused by inflammation. Greg then had to have intermittent Dexafort (dexamethasone) corticosteroid injections to help manage his condition, which we have previously spoken about a few times on our blog before. Greg seemed to have been doing well on steroids, until one week when he was weighed at the vets and we noticed his weight had dropped a considerable amount (about 15g within 7 days). When we got home that evening from the vet appointment, we introduced Greg to a soft food weight maintenance diet from 'The Rat Warehouse', which did successfully slow down his weight loss - it's one of my personal favourite products. Eventually, we did also end up introducing a calorie dense soft food (another one of my favourite products from 'The Rat Warehouse') to help stabilise his weight as well. Greg particularly enjoyed the strawberry and banana flavour.
Sooner or later, Greg started to only eat the softer foods that we offered to him - this is when Greg's health really started to take a turn for the worse. Due to Greg only eating soft food, he wasn't grinding down his teeth as much, leading to them becoming over-grown. When Greg was back at the vets having his weekly steroid injection, the vet was able to trim his teeth to a suitable length, but one of Greg's teeth had become slightly loose, and did bleed a noticeable amount after being trimmed, the vet made sure to mention this in Greg's medical notes. Unfortunately, Greg's tooth then fractured, and the tooth then became very painful as some of the root had become exposed. We were then advised to syringe feed Greg whilst his tooth was painful.
It wasn't long before Greg then began to stop eating entirely. The syringe feeding stopped working due to him becoming increasingly stressed. We thought this was due to the amount pain he was in. So, Greg had to go back to the vets once again.
We were then in an incredibly difficult position, as we were unable to give Greg Metacam (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory which can also act as a form of pain relief) alongside his steroid injection, as the two would've worked against each other.
After a lot of toing and froing, the vet came to the conclusion that it was in fact necessary to miss Greg's steroid injection for that week in order for Greg to have some pain relief - it was all about prioitising which health issue was more urgent at this point. We also decided it was appropriate to give Greg a whiff of gas and burr down any sharp edges on his fractured tooth, hopefully making him a lot more comfortable. Whilst Greg was under the influence of gas, the vet also gave him a Metacam injection so the pain relief got into his system a bit quicker. There was also a brief discussion about using an opioid based pain killer should the Metacam have proven to be unsuccessful, but we were to cross that bridge if and when the time came.
We had hoped Greg would've shown some improvement after having some pain relief, but he still refused to eat. We decided to give Greg the night to recover from both the gas and his vet visit before we started to properly panic.
In the morning Greg was orally given some Metacam, and we prayed he would've started to eat. We offered him every food we had in the house that was suitable for rats, but he still refused everything, even after the pain relief had kicked in. Obviously, by now, Greg was deteriorating and losing weight by the day. He had probiotics in his water, polyaid with everything we offered him, painkillers, dentals, injections, amendments to his cage - anything he needed, you name it, he had it. Yet despite all that, Greg was getting worse every single day. I was losing my best friend.
We took Greg back to the vets once again, by now his vet visits had become a daily thing. We were exhausted, and so was Greg. The vet examined his teeth, and all the inflammation surrounding his gums had gone, so they likely weren't causing him much pain, if any. That should've been good news, but it meant Greg simply didn't have an appetite, meaning he likely to have been dealing with something a lot more sinister on top of all his other existing health conditions.
Our vet was out of ideas, the opioids we'd discussed the day before were no longer necessary, and as I already stated, everything else he needed, he already had.
We were then given the option of a referral to a bio-exotic specialist, but with very little chance of any recovery or improvement (our vet regularly converses with them for advice anyway). Or, the advised option of euthanasia.
I held Greg in my arms and looked into his eyes, and I knew it was his time. Greg wasn't his normal self, he had urine in his fur, we could feel his spine, and his general quality of life wasn't great. We decided it was no longer in Greg's best interest to carry on with any further treatment. I had to let go. The vet reassured us we had all made the right decision, but it doesn't help with the pain.
Greg was a true warrior throughout everything life threw at him, and we couldn't be more proud of him for how well he persevered.
Greg crossed the rainbow bridge on 3rd January 2018.
First and foremost, we would like to apologize for such a long post, and for not posting in a while. We thought it would be interesting to write about losing our big group of boys in one huge go. As each and every one of our boys had their own individual story and ending, this post will be divided into seven chronological sections - one for each rat.
Also, feel free to pick and choose which sections you would prefer to read, we have clearly highlighted each section to make it easier for you all to navigate.
Bolo:
Bolo was the first of our male rats to pass away. Bolo was a very demanding, yet equally rewarding rat. When he first arrived here with us, he was extremely aggressive and unpredictable. Within a day or so of Bolo being in our care, we figured out his aggression was due to him being totally blind. His aggression stemmed from a fear of the unknown, it was like anxiety. We did successfully tame Bolo in the end with a technique commonly known as the "clicking method". It's as simple as it sounds - you click before approaching. After a few weeks of being bitten on a daily basis, Bolo did eventually begin associate us with the clicking sound. Although Bolo couldn't see us, he could hear us. So, when he heard the clicking, it reassured him who was approaching, and he no longer felt the need to be aggressive. The anxiety went away, and Bolo became one of the most loving and affectionate rats we've ever had.
Bolo suffered with a lot of respiratory infections throughout his life. In fact, almost every time the seasons changed he would've caught a respiratory infection of some sort. Due to Bolo suffering with so many respiratory infections, he also required a number of different antibiotics (normally Baytril of Sulfatrim) depending on the severity of the infection, and if it were upper or lower.
One day Bolo became very ill with what we had believed to be another respiratory infection at the time, but his raspy breathing never cleared, even with his stronger antibiotics and Metacam (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory). We decided it would've been best to take Bolo back to the vets. After the vet had listened to his chest with a stethoscope, he suggested we that should take some X-Ray images of Bolo, to get a clearer picture of what was going on. The X-Ray imaging then revealed that Bolo's lungs had filled with fluid, almost entirely. He had also started with the beginning of organ failure. We had the option to drain the fluid in his lungs, but they definitely would've filled back up again, which would've required regular invasive surgery. Or alternatively, we could let Bolo go. Due to Bolo being such a difficult and unique case, suffering with severe anxiety (especially when away from his friends), particularly despising the vets, and having not been in the best of health anyway, we decided it was best to have Bolo put to sleep before he started to suffer even more than he already was. We knew it was with his best intentions at heart, but it never makes the decision any easier.
Bolo crossed the rainbow bridge on 27th February 2017.
Tony:
Tony's death came as a shock to us all, his illness came out of nowhere. Tony was the king rat, he was without a doubt the one in charge. He ate first, he made the rules, and nobody challenged him. However, why would they? He was the most loving, and empathetic rat. He really looked after his cage mates, and was every rat's best friend. To get a sense of Tony's character; whenever Bolo's illnesses flared up, Tony was always the first one there to comfort him, he gave Bolo reassurance whenever he needed it most. He would also spend hours and hours each day grooming all 6 of his friends, it was lovely to see.Tony had a fall within the cage one afternoon, it was a pretty bad fall at that, but thankfully he was ok. We initially thought Tony could've possibly lost his footing - accidents happen. The same day, he had yet another fall in near enough the exact same place, he didn't fall as far this time though, and again, he was ok. We made adjustments to the cage so it was a lot easier to climb, and we had hoped that would've solved the problem.
The next day, Tony fell again and landed into a hammock. Alarm bells started to ring. We gave Tony a thorough health check, and we found nothing of major concern, only a little weight loss, which didn't really explain why Tony seemed to keep falling within the cage. Still, we introduced Tony to an additional soft food weight maintenance diet to help him maintain, or even gain back some of the weight he had lost. We also continued to monitor him closely as well.
Unfortunately Tony deteriorated a lot within the next couple of days, and he ended up having to go to the vets - we had done all we could've for him back at home. Tony had developed a concerning new symptom, his back legs had become slightly weaker, meaning Tony had started to have some difficulty getting around the cage, even with the adjustments we had added. The vet saw the problem almost straight away after she watched Tony walk on the counter. She said Tony's symptoms were most likely to have been because of a brain tumour (possibly involving the pituitary gland), which was causing some neurological problems. Tony was only going to continue to get worse too - potentially he would've even become paralyzed. We were offered the chance to give Tony an MRI scan, however the vet mentioned there would've been very little they could've done, even with the MRI (in her opinion, medication wouldn't have done much to reduce Tony's symptoms).
At this point, Tony was already deteriorating rapidly. We decided it wouldn't have been fair to have continued to let Tony get any worse, as it wouldn't have been long before the tumour began to severely impact on Tony's quality of life. We were all in agreement that it was better to put Tony to sleep a day too early, than a day too late. We cried and said our goodbye's, but we knew it was the right thing for him. The remaining rats were devastated by the loss of their best friend. We were all grieving for a very long time.
Tony crossed the rainbow bridge on 22nd May 2017.
Naboo:
Naboo's illness also came as a shock to us all. It felt as though we had Naboo one day, and the next he was gone. Naboo was the kind of rat who was always 'conveniently' there whenever there was any drama within the group. He was never the perpetrator, but he was always in the background - he was incredibly cheeky. Naboo was one of the happiest rats you'd have ever known. He would've always been chattering and boggling over something or nothing. He really knew how to pull on everyone's heart strings, he was the naughty kid who you couldn't help but completely adore. Plus, he really was super cute!
Naboo's weight and activity levels began to slowly decline over time, however we assumed that it was age related, especially as the boys were all getting older by this point. The next thing we'd noticed, one evening when the boys were out for their free roam time, Naboo had only finished half of his treat, this was very unusual, but at the time we just assumed he was full - hindsight is a magical thing. The following day when we went to get the boys out again, Naboo was very dehydrated (despite drinking normally), and really lethargic (a common symptom of dehydration). We immediately syringe fed him some fluids, prepared him some soft food, boiled him an egg (his favourite food), and tried to keep him warm. Despite all of that, Naboo had continued to get worse by the hour. We knew this was something very serious. We contacted the vets, and got him an appointment the same night.
The vets suggested we could've trialed Naboo on some antibiotics to rule out any infections, however, the odds really weren't in his favour. It was likely Naboo appeared to be battling an adrenal related illness, so it was highly unlikely the antibiotics would've done much - if anything. There was nothing the vets could do. Due to the speed in which Naboo had deteriorated, and with a highly unlikely recovery due to near no treatment, we decided to have him put to sleep. And just like that, he was gone.
We couldn't wrap our heads around it for a while, we really weren't prepared to lose Naboo so suddenly.
Naboo crossed over the rainbow bridge on 11th August 2017.
Saboo was one of the hardest deaths we've ever had to deal with throughout the entire time we've been looking after small animals. Saboo was known by everyone who knew us, mainly because he was such an enormous rat. Saboo struggled with obesity throughout his life, and it took us months to find the best diet for him. The thing with swapping diets, to do it safely, you can't do it quickly, especially when there was 3-6 other rats eating the food at any given time as well. We would have to spend weeks weaning them all onto a diet, a couple of weeks to see if it was the right diet for Saboo, and then weeks weaning them all onto something else. Eventually however, we did find the best diet for Saboo, and he slimmed down to about 650g - 660g, which is still huge, but nothing close to what he was.
The diet that we found suited all our rats best is from Rat Rations, and it is the diet we still use to this day. We alternate weekly between No 11A with egg biscuit, and No 11B with egg biscuit both with supplemented DailyRat3 - Mineral Vitamin supplement once a week (We spray the dry food with some water so the supplement sticks to the food).
Everyone loved Saboo, he was such a goofy and silly rat. He was really laid back around the other rats, he didn't care if they groomed him, snuggled with him, or played with him. With that being said, if they tried to steal his food, then all hell would've broke loose. After a few days of Saboo living with the rats, they learned that Saboo does not share food!
One afternoon Saboo had a fall within the cage, his balance wasn't very good. The first thing that sprung to our minds was Tony. Saboo and Tony were brothers, so we thought they could've been predisposed to brain tumours. We immediately took Saboo to the vets. The vet soon discovered that Saboo also had a slight head tilt and glaucoma, all caused by a stroke. It was also very possible he could have another - though it wasn't clear what type of stroke Saboo had suffered. We were warned some of the damage done may have been irreversible. He was sent home with some Metacam, and we were told to monitor him very closely from now on.
When we got home, we decided it was time to downsize the boys cage. At this point there was only 3 rats living in an enormous cage, and as the boys were getting old, and Saboo being prone to falling, it seemed like the perfect time. We had made sure their new cage was 100% fall proof, with lots of additional support for Saboo. They all seemed to appreciate it.
Sadly, Saboo had another stroke not long after moving into the new cage. This stroke made his head tilt a lot more prominent, and he also needed a bit of help with his eating. So, we decided it would've been sensible to introduce Saboo to some softer, easier to eat foods too (baby food, mashed banana etc). Although at this point Saboo was clearly disabled, he was still able to be his normal, bubbly self. He was happy.
Unfortunately, Saboo had yet another stroke not long after his second stroke. This particular stroke was the worst one he ever had. Saboo was left with severe neurological problems, and was incredibly disorientated. Our hearts shattered, and I burst into tears just seeing him so poorly.
We took Saboo back to the vets, and our vet confirmed the strokes were definitely being caused by a brain tumour, and they would've been a recurring thing. We were given the option to trial him on some steroids to possibly reduce the inflammation around the brain tumour, but in the vets opinion, they most likely wouldn't have done much at that stage. Saboo had already become very disabled, and it seemed cruel to carry on any further knowing he would've continued to deteriorate. With there being very little we could've done, we decided the most humane thing for Saboo, was for him to be put to sleep.
Seeing any animal you loved and cared for in such a way isn't easy, we were all deeply saddened by the loss of Saboo.
Saboo crossed the rainbow bridge on 24th August 2017.
Eric:
Although Eric technically didn't live with the Boosh rats in the end, we still considered him to be part of the group. Eric was not an easy rat to live with, we think the previous abuse and neglect had played a part in his behaviour towards other rats. Eric did like to stir the pot, to put it politely. He had a habit of not knowing when to stop, and he never really learned the other rats boundaries. His unique (and sometimes strange) personality made it increasingly difficult to find a friend for Eric after his fight with Greg. Us on the other hand, we all loved Eric for being a nuisance, he made us laugh. He was a quirky character, and we really adored that about him, even if he was a bit odd at times. In his old age, Eric became partially blind in one eye due to a cataract. He also suffered with semi-frequent respiratory infections, but normally they responded to a general course of oral antibiotics. One day, Eric came down with another suspected respiratory infection, only this time he also sneezed blood. This was a new symptom for Eric, but sneezing blood can still be a symptom of a respiratory infection. So, we put Eric back on a course of antibiotics, and hoped it would've cleared.
Sadly, Eric continued to get worse, so we took him back to the vets. By now, Eric had also become very lethargic, and had also started to lose some weight too. The vet decided to trial Eric with a considerable dose of some steroids, as his rattly breathing was worsening very rapidly. We had hoped that the steroids could've worked, especially with them being so successful on Greg.
The following morning however, Eric had become even worse. We waited until the afternoon to give the steroids a chance to kick in, but they never did. Eric went back to the vets the same evening. He had become incredibly weak and scruffy looking, and he had lost 20g over night - a shocking amount of weight loss within 24 hours. The vets said there was very little else to try, especially given Eric's condition at the time. Eric was approximately 2 and a half years old, and it was likely that his symptoms were related to cancer. The vet could see Eric had deteriorated an awful lot in a short space of time, and said the kindest thing to do would've been to put Eric to sleep, and we agreed.
Eric left a huge hole in our hearts. He was a lovable weirdo, and a big part of our lives.
Eric crossed the rainbow bridge on 1st December 2017.
Vince was an angel. He was nurturing, kind, forgiving, and just a really gentle soul - he didn't have a bad bone in his body. Vince's illness was short, and very similar to his brothers illness - Naboo. We'd been feeding Greg a soft food weight maintenance diet alongside his normal diet at the time, and Vince always used to have some too. However, despite also eating an additional meal, Vince had lost an awful lot of weight in a very short space of time. Vince was naturally a very petite rat anyway, and he really couldn't have afforded to lose a lot of weight.
When we took Vince to the vets, they suggested trialing him on a course of antibiotics and some Metacam, in case he had been harboring some kind of infection. Vince also needed to be syringe fed fluids, as he had become dehydrated. We also added some 'Dr S polyaid solution' to the fluids, to try and give Vince a fighting chance (he wasn't really eating by the time we got home). At the time, we did have our doubts if Vince would've responded to the medication, especially as Naboo had exactly the same symptoms before his death.
Vince was brilliant at taking his medication and fluids, but despite everything, he became weaker and weaker by the hour. Vince's weight dropped to an astonishing 377g (almost 100g below what he should've been). The approach we had taken clearly wasn't working, and we booked Vince back in at the vets the very same day. As the medication we had been using for Vince didn't work, there was no other options left. We could've had some blood tests, but even with the test results they wouldn't have been able to do anything else - it would've just confirmed what we already knew. The vet was confident that Vince had some kind of adrenal illness, she had lost one of her rats in the same way too. I began to cry as I knew exactly what was coming, it was Vince's time. Even when you know it's the right thing to do, it's still the toughest decision to make, you almost feel as though you've failed. With that being said, Vince was dangerously underweight, and very frail. He had become almost lifeless - he wasn't the same Vince that we all knew and loved. We agreed it was time to call it a day.
As I said, Vince was an angel. It was time for him to gain his wings.
Vince crossed he rainbow bridge on 9th December 2017.
Greg's death hit me like a tonne of bricks. We'd all been fighting tirelessly to keep Greg healthy for a long time. So, when it was time to say goodbye, we felt as if it were the end of an era - Greg was the last of our beloved Boosh rats. Greg came to us along with Bolo, as a very shy and nervous rat, but throughout the years we had him, Greg's personality grew stronger and he ended up becoming the top male within the mischiefs hierarchy after Tony's passing. Greg was a bold, and powerful character, his personality dominated the room. It was impossible to not fall completely in love with him. We became the best of friends as time went on. I personally felt that because Greg had been by my side throughout all of the heartbreak, all of the deaths, and a number of personal events, it was as if we had a true connection. We were each others rock, and truthfully, I needed him as much, if not more, than he needed me - not to sound cliché.
Greg had a number of health issues throughout his life. The first of which we noticed upon Greg's arrival, a cataract on one of his eyes. The cataract only slightly impacted Greg's vision, and thankfully it never did get any worse whilst he was with us. When Greg was younger he also suffered with the occasional upper respiratory infection, but they always cleared with a course of antibiotics (normally Baytril, occasionally Sulfatrim). We weren't overly surprised when Greg started to have these infections, especially with him being Bolo's brother.
Eventually in his old age, Greg developed a chronic respiratory illness caused by inflammation. Greg then had to have intermittent Dexafort (dexamethasone) corticosteroid injections to help manage his condition, which we have previously spoken about a few times on our blog before. Greg seemed to have been doing well on steroids, until one week when he was weighed at the vets and we noticed his weight had dropped a considerable amount (about 15g within 7 days). When we got home that evening from the vet appointment, we introduced Greg to a soft food weight maintenance diet from 'The Rat Warehouse', which did successfully slow down his weight loss - it's one of my personal favourite products. Eventually, we did also end up introducing a calorie dense soft food (another one of my favourite products from 'The Rat Warehouse') to help stabilise his weight as well. Greg particularly enjoyed the strawberry and banana flavour.
Sooner or later, Greg started to only eat the softer foods that we offered to him - this is when Greg's health really started to take a turn for the worse. Due to Greg only eating soft food, he wasn't grinding down his teeth as much, leading to them becoming over-grown. When Greg was back at the vets having his weekly steroid injection, the vet was able to trim his teeth to a suitable length, but one of Greg's teeth had become slightly loose, and did bleed a noticeable amount after being trimmed, the vet made sure to mention this in Greg's medical notes. Unfortunately, Greg's tooth then fractured, and the tooth then became very painful as some of the root had become exposed. We were then advised to syringe feed Greg whilst his tooth was painful.
It wasn't long before Greg then began to stop eating entirely. The syringe feeding stopped working due to him becoming increasingly stressed. We thought this was due to the amount pain he was in. So, Greg had to go back to the vets once again.
We were then in an incredibly difficult position, as we were unable to give Greg Metacam (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory which can also act as a form of pain relief) alongside his steroid injection, as the two would've worked against each other.
After a lot of toing and froing, the vet came to the conclusion that it was in fact necessary to miss Greg's steroid injection for that week in order for Greg to have some pain relief - it was all about prioitising which health issue was more urgent at this point. We also decided it was appropriate to give Greg a whiff of gas and burr down any sharp edges on his fractured tooth, hopefully making him a lot more comfortable. Whilst Greg was under the influence of gas, the vet also gave him a Metacam injection so the pain relief got into his system a bit quicker. There was also a brief discussion about using an opioid based pain killer should the Metacam have proven to be unsuccessful, but we were to cross that bridge if and when the time came.
We had hoped Greg would've shown some improvement after having some pain relief, but he still refused to eat. We decided to give Greg the night to recover from both the gas and his vet visit before we started to properly panic.
In the morning Greg was orally given some Metacam, and we prayed he would've started to eat. We offered him every food we had in the house that was suitable for rats, but he still refused everything, even after the pain relief had kicked in. Obviously, by now, Greg was deteriorating and losing weight by the day. He had probiotics in his water, polyaid with everything we offered him, painkillers, dentals, injections, amendments to his cage - anything he needed, you name it, he had it. Yet despite all that, Greg was getting worse every single day. I was losing my best friend.
We took Greg back to the vets once again, by now his vet visits had become a daily thing. We were exhausted, and so was Greg. The vet examined his teeth, and all the inflammation surrounding his gums had gone, so they likely weren't causing him much pain, if any. That should've been good news, but it meant Greg simply didn't have an appetite, meaning he likely to have been dealing with something a lot more sinister on top of all his other existing health conditions.
Our vet was out of ideas, the opioids we'd discussed the day before were no longer necessary, and as I already stated, everything else he needed, he already had.
We were then given the option of a referral to a bio-exotic specialist, but with very little chance of any recovery or improvement (our vet regularly converses with them for advice anyway). Or, the advised option of euthanasia.
I held Greg in my arms and looked into his eyes, and I knew it was his time. Greg wasn't his normal self, he had urine in his fur, we could feel his spine, and his general quality of life wasn't great. We decided it was no longer in Greg's best interest to carry on with any further treatment. I had to let go. The vet reassured us we had all made the right decision, but it doesn't help with the pain.
Greg was a true warrior throughout everything life threw at him, and we couldn't be more proud of him for how well he persevered.
Greg crossed the rainbow bridge on 3rd January 2018.
Thank you for reading this blog post, it has taken months to write this particular post, along with a lot of heartache and tears. I personally tried to incorporate as much information and raw emotion as possible about each of our boys, and their stories. I truly hope you appreciate everything, and enjoyed reading our post.
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P.s well done for making it to the end!
P.s well done for making it to the end!
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