Bacchus Residents

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 hai...

Arrival and Initial Treatments: Rhino and Rylan were 2 elderly 2-year-old bucks surrendered to us on the 8th of December 2019.  Upon arrival, it was clear Rhino had an irritated respiratory system. He was displaying audible respiratory noise (even without auscultation) and piloerection. Rylan also had hyperplastic dermatitis which was likely the result of a parasitic infection. Rhino and Rylan were both treated with topical Ivermectin and introduced to prophylactics recommended when dealing with respiratory disease - it's something we do for all rats, regardless if they're presenting with signs of disease. Rylan responded brilliantly to treatment and all symptoms subsided. On the other hand, although Rhino improved with good husbandry, he still had symptoms that suggested he had an upper-respiratory infection. He was introduced to nebulized F10 and oral Baytril and Metacam for 30-days. Despite Rhino's excellent response to the medication, 42hrs after discontinuing antibioti...

Chucky came to us as a bossy elderly male rat suffering from an irritated respiratory system. His companion, Zero, was also showing signs of chronic respiratory disease. Given that the bucks were at least 2-year-old geriatric rats, we decided to grant them sanctuary-status. We introduced Chucky to nebulised 0.9% saline and prophylactics. Fortunately, after a few weeks, his breathing significantly improved and we were able to stop nebulising sessions. Orchiectomy: Chucky was clearly suffering from severe hormonal aggression which was impacting the other rat's wellbeing. Although people report less of a behavioural improvement when castrating older bucks, we still wanted to go ahead with the procedure. Chucky handled the procedure really well. He was the first rat we've ever had try and damage a castration surgical site, so he wore a buster collar for the first 48hrs when unattended. We also introduced prophylactic oral antibiotics as well as post-op pain relief. Later down the l...

Gizmo was one heck of a fighter! He suffered from chronic respiratory disease; one of the most common diseases amongst mice and rats.  Arrival: Gizmo arrived cohabiting with 3 other entire male rats, Trev, Crumbs, and Norman. Unfortunately, due to severe neurological illness, Crumbs had to be euthanised within 24hrs of arriving. Gizmo and Trev suffered from CRD - Trev being the most severe. The poor boys went through so many lifestyle changes when they arrived, but handled everything in their stride. Within a few days, it became clear that Gizmo was the top-rat. He was incredibly territorial at times, but Norman and Trev mostly knew how to stay out of his way. Unfortunately, Trev became extremely unwell as his disease worsened. There became a day when we had to make the decision to have him humanely euthanised - leaving Gizmo and Norman together. Throughout his time here, Gizmo was no picture of health himself. As we've mentioned, Gizmo faced numerou...