Sid Vicious, Edie, and Eileen's Full Write-Up

Sid Vicious arrived as a very 'aggressive' lone male rat who desperately required companionship. His owner was unable to handle him and knew he required someone with more expertise regarding rats and their behaviour. We agreed to work with Sid.

A few weeks later, we took on Sid's previous owner's two remaining rats - Edie and Eileen. They have incredibly different life-stories.
The rats arrived due to unforeseeable circumstances with their previous owner, meaning they could no longer look after their beloved rats.

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Edie:

Edie has been a Bacchus Resident for several months. She's an incredibly shy doe who can nip but rarely breaks the skin. 

Edie thrives in the company of other rats and would happily live within a large mischief. She is available for adoption with Petunia - they must stay as a bonded pair. They will require a special home with a confident handler given their personalities.

To learn more about Edie and Petunia, click here to be redirected to our website.

Sid Vicious: 

Sid is a young and small buck. He presented with numerous behavioural issues when he arrived - the main being 'aggression'. 

There is no one-quick-fix for resolving aggression. Firstly, you have to get to the root cause of unwanted behaviour. 

Why was Sid overly aggressive? 

Sid was aggressive due to low confidence, fear, and feeling vulnerable. All of which were heightened due to living alone. 

Rats are social prey animals, living alone would make Sid susceptible to being preyed on. He didn't understand that the big-hand trying to grab him actually wanted to help him, therefore meaning he would lash out.

It can be both an advantage as well as a disadvantage that rats are highly intelligent when training/taming. On the one hand, Sid picked up fairly quickly that we weren't going to eat him, but, he was able to outsmart us on occasion and bite. After about 10 bites and what felt like hours of screaming, we managed to have cuddles with Sid.

The next step was to bond him to our mischief of bucks. We ideally needed to be able to pick Sid up in case we had to get him out of a tricky situation, this is why we got him comfortable around humans first.

Sid now lives happily within our mischief of bucks and is one of our star-rats to handle!

Eileen:

Eileen was an absolutely stunning and well-tempered young doe rat. 

Eileen and Edie were quarantined. Once we knew they were healthy, we bonded them to our mischief of does and neutered bucks. Both girls were welcomed with opened arms.

The Onset of CHF and Cardiomyopathy:

Sadly, Eileen soon became unwell. She'd developed audible respiration and her respiratory effort was slightly more increased than normal. We suspected she had a respiratory infection. Eileen was introduced to a course of nebulized Baytril/Enrofloxacin (fluoroquinolone antimicrobial agent) and Ronaxan/Doxycycline (tetracycline antimicrobial agent). The vet also prescribed nebulized bronchial mucolytics BID and oral NSAIDs QD.

Despite fairly aggressive medicinal therapy, Eileen continued to worsen over the next few days. She'd become increasingly tired, her weight was declining, she had little to no appetite, and her lungs had a fluidy/moist sound when auscultated and respiration was strenuous, she'd also developed anxious behaviour. 

We booked Eileen in for admission to the veterinary practise.

The vets decided to take some radiographs, Eileen's symptoms didn't entirely colorate with a respiratory infection.

The X-Rays (particularly the lateral views) highlighted that Eileen had congestive heart failure as well as potentially inflamed pulmonary tissue, mass, or abscess present. There may have been a cardiomyopathy (dilated?) present too. 

Due to Eileen's young age, it's likely a genetic predisposition that caused her cardiac issues. 

It's important to note that the early onset of CHF and cardiomyopathies generally reflect no change to the cardiac silhouette on radiographs, even still, changes to the heart a difficult to see regardless.

Cardiomyopathy: 

Cardiomyopathy describes a disease of the heart that restricts its ability to work effectively, or causes enlargement. This is usually due to a structural or functional abnormality. Cardiomyopathy comes in various forms, but in rats, the most common forms are hypertrophic and dilated. Clinical signs and causes vary for each disease.

Congestive Heart Failure:

CHF describes the heart's inability to work as effectively. Causes of CHF can include trauma, infections, age, other diseases, and genetic predisposition. Unfortunately, there is no cure for CHF, but it can usually be managed with lifestyle and medicinal therapy until symptoms become severe enough that euthanasia is required. 

The syndrome can affect the right, left, or both of the heart's ventricles.

The vet wanted to make a few small changes at a time so we could easily detect which drugs were effective, and which weren't. Eileen was weaned from NSAIDs to subcutaneous corticosteroids injections. Corticosteroids can provide benefit and help resolve any irritated lung tissue. 

It was prudent to introduce her to oral Frusol/Furosemide BID - a loop diuretic - to help reduce pulmonary congestion caused by CHF and cardiomyopathy. The vet initially introduced Eileen to a higher dose to clear the backlog of fluid. Once the diuretic was able to control her symptoms, the dose was slightly reduced.

As Eileen was reluctant to eat, she was also syringe fed Emeraid IC Omnivore.

Eileen was readmitted to the vets a few weeks after to review her progress.

Dexadreson/Dexamethasone Bisodium Phosphate (corticosteroids) had significantly improved inflamed pulmonary tissue.

As Eileen still demonstrated many signs of heart malfunction, she was introduced to Fortekor/Benazepril Hydrochloride (ACE Inhibitor).

Immunocompromisation and Passing:

Eileen's passing happened extremely quickly. She had a check-up on the 11/09/19 which consisted of everyone agreeing how well Eileen seemed. She later needed to be humanely euthanasia on the 12/09/19 - it was shockingly fast.

Eileen suddenly became anorexic, demonstrated severe anxious and avoidant behaviour (Eileen actually refused to move - she was frozen to the spot), she was showing signs of intractable pain and had a severe oral infection.

Despite the heightened risk given her compromised respiratory and cardiac function, the vet needed to anaesthetise Eileen to perform a thorough oral examination. 

During the exam, the vet noted that Eileen's gums had come away, she had a large abscess (possibly an abscessed tumour, but it was difficult to tell) under her tongue, several ulcers on the tissue behind the lower incisors and on the tissue at the roof of the mouth, there was excessive bleeding and her mouth was very inflamed.

The infection itself wasn't the most concerning thing. How quickly the infection was able to develop was suggestive of a larger issue that caused Eileen to become immunocompromised.

Immunocompromised:

A patient will generally become immunocompromised secondary to a genetic disorder or diseases such as cancer. Immunocompromisation results in a weakened immune system leaving you unable to fight certain diseases and infections as effectively.

To fight the infection, Eileen would've needed the help of antibiotics. Honestly, no one believed Eileen was going to recover from the infection given her already fragile state. It was far kinder to have her humanely euthanised than to put her through undue suffering - it's quality of life over quantity. 

Eileen passed away on the 12th of September 2019.