Ortiz Aug. 1st/06 to Sept. 13/07 :(
Ortiz was one of my Wildlings, born of Rennie and most likely Hobo. Conceived in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in a back yard garden. He was part of a family of 10 identical agouti babies born soon after mom was captured by the backyard’s owner.
Three of the boys are living with mamarat, and the other 7 sibling now 6 are here with me, and Hobo resides with Vanessa.
These guys are ½ wild rats.
These rats are really different than our domestics, very instinctual behaviours and fears they cannot conquer. Overall they are not particularly handleable and really hate scary HANDS. Arlene told me that its not me they are scared of just my hands. So we worked on a method of jumping into a bag when I was taking them out of their cage, etc. They learned soo quickly, and seemed so relieved not to be grasped.
Ortiz in the last while developed a rocking breathing but there was no porphyrin, no puffed fur, no lung noises (rat phone was managed), etc . His appetite was good, but he wasn’t quite as active. Some of you might know that my wonderful rat vet had sold her clinic and was going to be unavailable until Octoberish when her new clinic would be ready. She would be the only one I could/would trust to be able to examine and treat my Wildlings, so basically we were on our own. I tried a course of baytril with no result. Then it was baytril/doxy, still not any improvement. His breathing got worse but still no other symptoms. Then I tried dexamethasone to see if I could help any inflammation in his lungs. Nada. Lasix was next as a diagnostic for an underlying heart condition, not a single change, and after his 2nd dose he started to gasp… :( So yesterday I went and picked up my last prescription of zithromax and was going to try zithro/doxy to see if that might help. After taking just the doxy he started to gasp again. This time I noticed he was cyanotic (not enough oxygen in the blood makes their extremities look blue). Today I took him to a different vet and had him put to sleep. He was going to suffocate sooner than later and I wanted to not let him suffer any longer. BUT Ortiz in typical Wildling fashion made a final Wildling reaction to the situation. I told the vet I had to hold him, as no one else ever had. Well he freaked out and crunched through my finger. He must’ve hit an artery because there was blood everywhere. I didn’t care but kept holding him into the gas mask while the vet freaked out…LOLOL. I was stroking his hind leg with a finger and telling him to let go. Poor Ortiz had very little lung capacity left so it took over 5 minutes for him to anesthetized. My vet told me I had to go to a doctor since I could easily have been given leptospirosis from Ortiz..haha.
So Ortiz is suffering no more, my finger aches, but has a compression bandage on it, and I will remember my little Wildman for a long long time to come when my finger hurts. The other Wildlings must be very proud at his last gesture. LOL
Fare well my beautiful Wildboy Ortiz, say Hi to Pippens for me :heart:
Ortiz was a much stockier boy than most of them
Run free like you always wanted to my little man!
Ortiz was one of my Wildlings, born of Rennie and most likely Hobo. Conceived in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in a back yard garden. He was part of a family of 10 identical agouti babies born soon after mom was captured by the backyard’s owner.
Three of the boys are living with mamarat, and the other 7 sibling now 6 are here with me, and Hobo resides with Vanessa.
These guys are ½ wild rats.
These rats are really different than our domestics, very instinctual behaviours and fears they cannot conquer. Overall they are not particularly handleable and really hate scary HANDS. Arlene told me that its not me they are scared of just my hands. So we worked on a method of jumping into a bag when I was taking them out of their cage, etc. They learned soo quickly, and seemed so relieved not to be grasped.
Ortiz in the last while developed a rocking breathing but there was no porphyrin, no puffed fur, no lung noises (rat phone was managed), etc . His appetite was good, but he wasn’t quite as active. Some of you might know that my wonderful rat vet had sold her clinic and was going to be unavailable until Octoberish when her new clinic would be ready. She would be the only one I could/would trust to be able to examine and treat my Wildlings, so basically we were on our own. I tried a course of baytril with no result. Then it was baytril/doxy, still not any improvement. His breathing got worse but still no other symptoms. Then I tried dexamethasone to see if I could help any inflammation in his lungs. Nada. Lasix was next as a diagnostic for an underlying heart condition, not a single change, and after his 2nd dose he started to gasp… :( So yesterday I went and picked up my last prescription of zithromax and was going to try zithro/doxy to see if that might help. After taking just the doxy he started to gasp again. This time I noticed he was cyanotic (not enough oxygen in the blood makes their extremities look blue). Today I took him to a different vet and had him put to sleep. He was going to suffocate sooner than later and I wanted to not let him suffer any longer. BUT Ortiz in typical Wildling fashion made a final Wildling reaction to the situation. I told the vet I had to hold him, as no one else ever had. Well he freaked out and crunched through my finger. He must’ve hit an artery because there was blood everywhere. I didn’t care but kept holding him into the gas mask while the vet freaked out…LOLOL. I was stroking his hind leg with a finger and telling him to let go. Poor Ortiz had very little lung capacity left so it took over 5 minutes for him to anesthetized. My vet told me I had to go to a doctor since I could easily have been given leptospirosis from Ortiz..haha.
So Ortiz is suffering no more, my finger aches, but has a compression bandage on it, and I will remember my little Wildman for a long long time to come when my finger hurts. The other Wildlings must be very proud at his last gesture. LOL
Fare well my beautiful Wildboy Ortiz, say Hi to Pippens for me :heart:
Ortiz was a much stockier boy than most of them
Run free like you always wanted to my little man!
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