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Originally Posted by ilduclo
Awesome post! I'm glad you're taking good care of your rat buddy. Ms Ild has a great fondness for rats & we went to a rat show once. There were tons of rat appreciators there & pet love is great! I've also attended ferret, cat, chicken & rabbit shows, and it's just a real treat to see people who love their damned pets. My two kitties are doing well, little plump fluffy calico & lean and elegant tuxedo.
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My girlfriend got a rat once without asking me. Freaked me out and pissed me off at first, but she was pretty sweet. Problem was she was bred a certain way (albino, large) and therefore, like most overbred animals, had some congenital issues.
This is a really sad thing...
I had one cat at the time and it wasn’t really safe to leave the poor rat in the house when I was at work and the girlfriend was at school all day, even with the cage. So after a few close calls, we decided to relocate the rat downstairs to the basement of the duplex we were renting.
She was my girlfriend’s pet, and she always had such sad eyes, and always had this sad tremor that just killed me, so she took care of it. She was busy though, and she missed that over time, a lump started to grow on the poor thing’s neck. So did I... I missed it too, until it was quite big. No idea what happened. The poor thing was plagued by mites while in the house and spiders while in the basement. Part of me wondered if something had laid eggs in her neck (I know, gross and improbable, but not unheard of).
I flipped out when I did notice it, but my girlfriend is a bit avoidant and can go into denial when something upsets her, so it wasn’t addressed. Until it became the size of a ping-pong ball and was affecting the way the poor thing moved. It made me sob and cry and neither of us knew what to do. It was VERY clearly too late to help the dear thing.
A family friend came over and helped with... laying her to rest. I couldn’t watch, neither could my girlfriend. We made a pact after that — no more caged animals or exotic animals EVER. I felt so bad because I had hated the thing at first, and I was part of the reason for it moving into the basement (my cat).
Please please please DO take your rat to the vet if you have one. It’s GREAT that you are monitoring its health. We fucked up. Don’t be like us. The poor thing still makes me sob when I think about her.
But, Dom, if she has like 5 tumors, I think you have your answer. I know our rat, with just the one, was sick as fuck even though she still perked up when taken out of her cage. Five tumors is too many tumors my friend. That’s my take anyway. She’s probably suffering in ways you can’t really see. Imagine that much mass on your body, even if non-malignant, and the kind of pain and discomfort it would cause.
Seems that tumors are common for the little beasts. Jesus, that’s so fucking sad. I’m so sorry.