Sudden rat death??

Question
QUESTION: Hi, I had a rat who was 2 years and 3 months old. She had gotten some big soft tumors on her side, that I was going to have removed but the vet noticed her spleen was enlarged so we did some bloodwork and her lymphocytes (I think, does that sound right?) were 7 times higher than normal so I was just keeping her on antibiotics to keep away secondary infections. Last night I treated her and the other girls in my cage with revolution since they all had lice. I have them in the biggest size Martin's cage which is over 5 ft tall. I treated each of the girls with a drop of revolution and kept them out for 5-10 minutes each so it would dry and they wouldn't groom it off. Though this one rat had large tumors, it didn't slow her down at all...she was running up and down the ramps with all the other girls, excitedly eating her treats, bouncing around my bed exploring...she seemed great, if not better than usual! I came in this morning and she was dead on the floor of the cage. I was shocked because I just had been with her a few hours earlier and she was perfect!
So...
Can revolution affect a rat if they have an enlarged spleen or out of whack blood levels?
Or
Do you think maybe she fell from a high shelf and because of her large tumors, wasn't able to turn herself and fell and landed in a way that she broke her neck or something?
All the other girls are perfectly fine so it's not that there was something wrong with the revolution. I used a small drop for each rat. The antibiotics I'm giving her I'm also giving some other rats, and none of them are sick, so it's not that. Can revolution, when applied topically and correctly, kill a rat, if they have some other health issue? She certainly didn't seem sick at all!

ANSWER: I am very sorry for your loss.  Its so hard to know exactly what went on when you find your rat dead, esp if you dont have anything to go on.  In this case, however, you do have several things to go on that may give you some closure, but keep in mind this is an educated guess and the only true way to know what the real cause of death was is to have a necropsy performed which should be done within 24 hrs of death as long as the animals remains were fresh (kept cold in order to prevent decomposure) Its all sad stuff and unfortunately I have seen it with my own rats as well as rats owned by other people.  Sometimes its cardiac related or it could be from a brain aneurysm...almost the same thing with humans, when a seemingly healthy person is found dead. The investigation begins with samples of the remains and after a short time, the reason for death is uncovered, almost the same with animals.  
With your girl, she had the tumors for starters. Had she lost weight at all? Was she eating more than normal? I need to know this in order to determine if the tumors had become vascular. Sometimes the larger they get, the more vascular they become. This is when the rat starts to lose weight despite how much she eats because the tumor itself is robbing the body of nutrients needed to sustain healthy organ function.  As far as the tumors being cancerous and possibly spreading to other organs, this is not really common among rats, esp when dealing with mammary tumors. Mammary tumors are usually fueled be excessive hormone activity seen in rats that are close to or past the cessation of their menses (which is every 4 to 5 days!!  I would be happy to see that end if I were a female rat, too!! LOL!!) These tumors are usually made up of tissue that is benign, and in many cases, if it were cancerous, the chances that the tumor is encapsulated and cannot spread is also high.  On the other hand though, without samples tested, its just an educated guess going on statistics on mammary tumors found in rats.  

The fact that her lymphocytes were elevated can mean many things, and to be honest, this is pretty important to know since I am trying to help fit the pieces of the puzzle together the best I can, just for closure for you so you have an idea of what "might" have happened.

Anyhow, elevated lymphocytes can indicate everything from the flu to the chickenpox. Worse case scenerio could be from liver problems and even leukemia. With the spleen enlarged, this tell me that it could have been liver related, which is not uncommon in rats, esp elderly rats.

Falling, it could have been a broken neck from a fall, but its not really likely. Was she in a RUDD cage?

What has her diet been most of her life and what bedding has she been using most of her life?




As for using revolution in a sick rat, its not really bad to do, but if the liver is not working right, it would have a harder time filtering and possibly the revoltuion becomes more toxic. Again, guessing, nothing concrete at all.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hey thanks for getting back to me. Though her tumors were very large, she hadn't lost any weight. Her body felt like a nice normal rat body. She got around great too. She always ate a lot (like all my ratties do!) but I didn't notice her eating any more than usual. The tumors felt very encapsulated and squishy....not like the hard, misshapen purple cancerous tumors I've seen. I assumed they were benign mammory tumors based on appearance and how they felt. She was in a RUUD cage but I was looking at it and there's no way she could have fallen from a top shelf to the bottom. Do the rats move a dead rat onto the floor? Someone told me that once. It's jsut hard to imagine how she would have ended up on the floor of a RUUD cage when their bed is on the top shelf! Her diet is the SueBees diet along with Harlan teklad blocks, fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain breads, yogurts, etc. The bedding is carefresh. LOL I don't think that helps at all to figure it out but that should answer your questions. It was such a shock, I can't even tell you...the night before I thought "wow I can't believe how great she's doing" and I came in in the morning and she was on the floor and I was thinking that silly little girl got all the way down there? And I was going to pick her up and put her back up in bed with everyone else and I noticed she wasn't breathing. I couldn't even believe what I was seeing you know? Because just a few hours earlier she was great! But, can the revolution be absorbed into the bloodstream? I'd used it on her before without a problem but if her spleen was enlarged and lymphocytes elevated I know she wasn't the healthiest girl, even if she acted perfectly fine!

Answer
Actually knowing her diet and if she was exposed to phenol oils helps me alot. Had her diet been high protein and she was kept on pine, I would know more how her kidneys were and liver were, since high protein is very taxing on the kidneys and causes kidney disease and of course phenol oils not only contribute to respiratory illness but also can cause liver problems as well.

Rats dont always drag the rat down to the bottom of the cage, but they have been known to bury them in litter/bedding or under paper towels etc....as a way to show respect. Hiding the body is a natural instinct and in the wild, rats do this to hide the body from predators and also so predators do not locate the nest. Sometimes they even consume their dead for this reason. Yeah, gross, I know, but it is still their way to show respect for their deceased cage mates.

I am leaning more toward your girl having liver disease but I do not think it had anything to do with the revolution.  Yes, it does absorb into the blood stream. That is what it is supposed to do in order to kill the parasites.  When the ectoparasites bite, they die from ingesting the blood from the rat that has been given revolution so it is made to be absorbed into the animals blood stream but it is non toxic to the animal unless it is given in large doses.  To be honest, if you just used a drop of it, chances are the rat was not even given enough to really do the job.  A 1lb rat can take 10ccs of revolution safely in order for it to be effective.  When dosing animals that are unwell, caution should be used. This also includes weak or underweight animals.  It can be used safely in rats over 3 weeks old so it cant be super toxic. Remember, rats have a fast metabolic rate, so it takes alot to overdose them.  Once, I was told to give a rat 7mgs of valium to help her ease into a drug induced coma until the vet got there to put her down.  She was very ill, very thin and very weak. She went right to sleep after eating a bit of ice cream laced with liquid valium. I held her close for an hour and thought for sure she was in a very deep sleep and when I passed her to my daughter to hold while I took a bathroom break, her eyes opened right up and she lifted her head looking for me.  I ended up holding this little girl all night long while she slept off and on and the vet almost couldnt believe it when I showed up at his door step (woke him up actually when i called him at 6am to meet me at the clinic to put her down)  he couldnt believe how she fought it. Truth is, it was not even a lethal dose for rats because their metabolic rate is so high it simply burns off the excess. This also is reason for their short life span and reason why their illnesses are so accelerated  like they are.  Having a fast metabolic rate in a small animal is not a plus like it is when your human and can eat everything you want without worrying about gaining weight.

Anyhow, I do believe your rat died from organ failure related to probable liver dysfunction. She probably had a bum liver, possibly just from having the tumors, benign or not, they do take their toll on the rats organs and although they were not purple and nasty looking, this doesnt always indicate they were not vascular.  Usually a tumor the size of a grape is vascular or at least starting to be and by the time they are the size of say, a small egg, you can bet they are tied into the rats blood supply. Even maintaining body mass doesnt mean they are not vascular, but just means they are not causing her to be malnourished like you see in many rats with multiple tumors.

To be honest, its easier to lose the rat suddenly than watch them fall ill and suffer for weeks on end, pumping with medications, watching them go from being energetic rats to slow, sluggish and miserable little critters, confused as to why they feel the way they do. I would rather lose my rats suddenly, esp in their sleep..... same goes for people. My Grandmother is 94 and I am hoping when her time comes, she just keeps sleeping rather than gets sick with cancers or other diseases that will only cause her agony.