Death of my babe

Question

My Sleeping Child   Hey Sandra,
My Scat died just 2 days ago....she was a 2.5 year old, white albino rat,...much loved, and my 1st ever pet...i have no idea how she died when just a day prior to her death she was just fine...climbing all over me, snatching food from my hand, hopping about the place :) her usual adorable self....on the 20th when i got home in the afternoon i checked her cage, which i normally used to fill up with newspaper as i read on google it was safe for rats as well as cozy when it gets too cold (no danger of respiratory disease), to see if there was enough food, there was...pieces of plantain that id left in the morning, i didn't take her out as i saw she was snoozing in her corner and i dint wanna wake her up...only in the night at about 11 did i think to check again as she dint seen to be peeping out of the cage as she normally does..when i finally pulled her out,i almost died of a heart attack...she had this read substance that had come out of her eyes and nose,i started panicking as was late at night and no docs available, just wet a piece of cotton and dabbed at her eyes , wiped out the residue..dunno if it was blood or porphyrin, though i fancy it looked darker than porphyrin...she was breathing deeply, and my aunt told me to rub sum Vicks onto her chest and wrapped her in a white cloth...i did that as i dint really know what else to do...and i wanted to be doing something...she just lay limp in my arms..i had a night shift and had to leave for work at 1:30am so i just patted her softly on the head and told her I'd be back soon...took a half day at work and when i got home i found out she dint need a vet anymore...she was dead..mu mum told me that she noticed that Scat was dead at 4:30am when she had got up to go to the loo...thats all i know, please help me understand what went wrong...how this happened so suddenly......i really need to know
Avril

Answer
I am really so sorry for your loss.  Your little rat lived a nice life, 2.5 years old is a long life for rats, since they live anywhere from 2 to 3 normally.  As for her death, its really hard to say for sure without a necropsy but an educated guess would tell me that she either had a serious case of pneumonia that was caused by a fast acting bacteria that can cause death in 12 to 24 hours or it could have been congestive heart failure....I can keep guessing and that really would not be fair or I can keep guessing over and over again.  Just know that you gave her a happy life and all the love and care you could give should be peace of mind for you.