Billy: Full Write-Up

Billy was one of them animals who was incredibly needy in all aspects of his life. He was medically needy, behaviorally needy - he was very demanding.

Billy arrived in our care with 3 other rats; Louie, Pickle, and Winnifred on the 11th of October 2018. 

Louie and Billy were cohabitating. Unfortunately for Billy, Louie was severely hormonally aggressive towards him.

Louie was booked in for castration. The surgery itself went well, but, tragically, Louie passed away during the recovery period as his blood didn't clot leading to catastrophic blood loss. We've written a blog post about Billy, Louie, Pickle and Winnifred.

Billy also had to be castrated as he was unable to bond to entire males. Fortunately, he found companionship with does and neutered males. 

Facial Abscesses:

Billy was no stranger to a facial abscess.

Despite how absolutely horrendous they appeared aesthetically, they usually responded to warm compressions and a couple of days of Metacam. Billy was not a true hairless rat (so he still had some hair) but there have been numerous accounts of hairless/double rex rats being prone to skin issues - particularly hairless.

Billy Being His Awkward Self - Swollen Left Eye Still Present

Billy had several of these abscesses throughout his life that would appear in random areas somewhere on his face. They never severely impacted him (although the necrosis made him smell a lot worse).

Dental Disease:

Rather spontaneously Billy developed incisor overgrowth which was likely secondary to trauma - though what that trauma was, we do not know. Billy required his incisors burned up to every 3 weeks. Given his old age and other health issues going on at the same time, we were against extraction.

When We Noticed His Incisors Had Overgrown.

Possible Kidney Disease: Chronic Progressive Nephropathy and Spondylosis:

Billy developed ageing symptoms, lethargy, hind-leg degeneration, and weight loss. We couldn't find anything overly obvious externally, so we decided to run urinalysis.

Urinalysis showed proteinuria, but specific gravity was just about in normal ranges. Apparently, in some cases of kidney degeneration in rats, specific gravity numbers lower nearer to end-stage kidney degeneration.

Fortunately, our rats were already fed on a kidney-friendly diet. We did introduce Billy to a supplement to promote normal renal function. 

The renal issues weren't the most pressing issue. Ourselves and the vet suspected Billy also had a degenerative osteoarthritis affecting his vertebrae called Spondylosis. He was displaying symptoms such as pain and mobility issues. Despite possible renal issues, Billy was introduced to a fairly low dose of Metacam SID. The vet was reluctant to anesthetise Billy for radiographs as the treatment wouldn't have changed even with a confirmed diagnosis.

Many weeks passed before we could no longer manage Billy's pain levels and mobility issues. 

He passed away on the 15th of February 2020.