Shade

Shade - July 2010 to August 17, 2012

I knew this day was coming, and I thought I was more prepared, but I guess my head was but not my heart. I feel like I have a huge brick on my chest and I am having trouble keeping the tears from spilling.
Miss Shade was let go this morning, after she went “bad” last night. I am not sure if her inner ear infection recurred, or her pituitary tumour was growing, but she was unable to walk properly last night, and with the tumour on her chest she was having too much trouble balancing. I held her on my chest most of last night, and said goodbye in the vet clinic lobby. Twenty minutes of stroking and talking to her, ignoring the looks from the dog owners dropping off their little dogs for procedures. She was content and bruxxing while lying on her side in my lap. I handed her off to my favourite Vet Assistant and then kissed her goodbye

Shade and Syra were from another kijiji ad where the owners were going to let these girls go out in the back woods if no one took them. They didn’t want them anymore. A wonderful women named Jennifer Kelley who lived near the area arranged to pick them up and bring them to me. Its always a bit nervewracking taking in new rescues as you have absolutely no clue what you will be getting. There is usually no mention of lice/mites , tumours, URI’s etc...but even Shade shocked me when I saw her. She was supposed to be about 15 months old and was sooo tiny and skinny and unhealthy looking. She was dehydrated, starving, her coat was brown, rusty and thinning and she had an untreated inner ear infection which left her with a pretty severe head tilt. Her initial weight was 176 grams whereas her sister was about 290 grams.



I heard from the owners that they were angry at little Shade (my name for her) because she was sickly. They loved her healthy sister apparently but were still planning at tossing them outside in a day or 2 of the ad...what the hell is wrong with people?! They even had the nerve to ask to come visit "their girls" once Shade was healthy!

I was sure I would lose Shade, she was just so unwell but this brave little thing decided to surprise me again...in a good way. :D

She gained 26 grams in her first day and I figured out a very important thing about Shade. Her healthy sister would cuddle near her when Shade wasn’t well, but when she was starting to feel better would start shoving her around like a normal sibling LOL



She was curious, cried when picked up but wasn’t scared of me. Shade also then discovered Puffs...she quickly became an addict *giggle*

A video of her below

http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/Syra%20and%20Shade%20-%20Pickering%20Oct%202%2011/?action=view¤t=oct5ShadeSyraJennyandthePuff.mp4

Booty comparison with Shade and her sister Syra




Comfy



Someone is feeling a lot better and bugging her sister



In 18 days Shade gained 100 grams, her coat became soft and she actually became a black rat!



Almost as big as her sister now :D


Of course my now chubby Shade developed an inoperable mass that literally spread over her chest wall and up her shoulder a little. My vet agreed it really wasn’t something we could remove.



Then the next big blow...Shade developed PT. :( I gave her a shot of dexamethasone and started her on the new human grade drug called bromocriptine to see if we could “treat” the pituitary tumour rather than just shrink it enough to remove most of the symptoms like with steroid therapy. We had done a study before with my lovely Issa and had some great results. When a rat does respond well, they keep up their body weight and condition, symptoms are gone, and they live a normal life for a lot longer than anything before. My vet and I wanted to use the bromocriptine to see if we could find a less expensive alternative to extending our rats lives with this fatal condition. Shade became Study Rat #2.




The next day she was already doing so much better, able to move around with her head and tail up.



From there she got so good she was climbing the cage bars, running, climbing and back to being chubby. She started bromocriptine on April 29th so I got 110 days of seriously good quality time with her. I was sure the tumour would take her before the PT ever would LOL

She was content cuddling with her sister



And with me...