Yara

Yara - September 2011 to August 15, 2013

Yara and her 3 male nakie siblings were taken in from a Breeder/Rescuer who seemed to want to have a split persona. I figured out they were the same person but they wanted to play the game and I wanted those poor rats out of there! I was told they were an "oops" litter, but of course discovered they were a purposely bred litter. The breeder didn't "do vet" (I had rescues off the rescuer many times now as she didn't either or always had an excuse that this particular rat wasn't able to go, etc). She was offering them up as free online, saying they were blind from birth. Three boys. I emailed the ad about them weeks later asking if they had found a home...I was trying hard to ignore the ad, but I kept having dreams of these poor rats with unknown eye issues, debris in their eyes, etc. I didn't hear back from a week (I am sure the girl was trying to figure out the 2nd persona so I wouldn't know it was her). Of course the rescuer emailed me to TELL me about these rats, asking if I could help out. (I hadn't heard from her in a yea). Then it was a 3 way email convo...sooo funny, Rescuer would email, then Breeder...and they had the same wording, mannerisms and knew the same things instantly LOL

Turned out to be 3 boys and 2 girls...she convinced me to take on a girl with a head tilt. She was going to keep the nakie girl as a breeder even with her eye issues but I talked her out of it.

We then worked out a convoluted transport where the Rescuer "picked up" from the Breeder and met with my friend who brought them to me.

This is when Yara arrived (I named her Yara which was arabic for "little butterfly" as she was tiny and flitted about all the time)






All their eyes were a mess! I got them booked into my vet and poor Yara had stinking old carefresh removed from her eyes, her eyes flushed while under anesthetic and she was booked for an ovariectomy for the next week (also the day we would remove one of her brothers' eyes). The eye was ulcerated but still intact...we were sent home with oral antibiotics, metacam, drops and ointment. She lived up to her name and was a wriggly screamy little thing to treat LOL

She was also thrilled to have all the crud removed



She gained a friend in Sage who hated most rats but took little Yara under her considerable wing LOL



After only a few days



and another 5 days



Feeling sooo much better 





Unfortunately this was just the beginning of the Battle of the Eyes...all the nakies had issues, and developed pustules around their eye lids that didn't respond to the many courses of antibiotics we put them on...so I learned to just ignore them. The eyes still needed flushing daily for the most part, and I had to change their cages to broadcloth hammocks (lovingly donated and created through the efforts of the RatStash and Cozy Corner), vetbed in thee base and/or YN. I still had to take the Niagara Nakies to the vet to have debris removed, those were Eye Days LOL
Then their weak immune systems kicked in and they all developed persistent URI's that I could control but never cure. Then SDA hit the colony...and it devastated them. I got them through it but it damaged them so badly that they would keep regressing over and over, until finally I had them put to sleep or they passed in my arms on a weekend. Melvin and Yara weren't quite as bad as their brothers but still not great. I have been maintaining them for months now, eagle eye for any regressions on their part, ready to do battle again...but sadly Yara developed different symptoms than I expected.

This past weekend, I noticed that Yara was eating and doing a funny little head lift like I have seen PT rats do...but I was also watching her grasp her lab block firmly in her paws...huh? I pulled her out and saw that both her poor eyes had porphyrin streaming out of them, actually drying in the folds of her muzzle...





I cleaned her up, and was able to notice a bump on the left side of her muzzle...she would rub over it and it was obviously bothering her. I watch her over the weekend and the bump seemed to be growing...and my worry was a nasal tumour.



My sweet girl 


She went to the vets yesterday and my fears were confirmed...it was a huge nasal cavity tumour and it might have grown so large that it was pressing on her brain causing those little neuro symptoms I was seeing...she was let go. My poor Niagara Nakies had some of the worst genetics that I have seen since the RTR's...only Melvin left of the 4 and in rough shape with his toasted lungs, but we'll keep up the good fight...as long as he's happy and not in pain. 

Fly high little Butterfly.