Rat sudden death

Question
Hi Sandra,
  My girlfriend and I have just started raising some rat of our own. We had 4, 2 from Petco then 2 more dumbos from a breeder a couple months afterwards. I love them all so much. The rat in question was one of the new dumbos, she was only about 3 months, with no health issues whatso ever. We were giving them all baths which they have gotten accostomed to, and she was trying to jump out as normal. One time my girlfriend said she was leaning over and kind of lethargic. She picked her up and she seemed to be trying to gasp for air. I grabbed her and tried rubbing her and getting her to breath then she went limp and died in my hands. I walked around with her in my hads for a while and dried her off. I was kind of a wreck. I set her down and finished cleaning the rest of the rats and thier cage as if allwas normal. I lost it when I was washing thier hammock and my gf had to hold me up. I figured she had a heart attack or stroke. I'm just trying to find some answers.

Its rough, but I really love these little guys. Thanks in advance for you help.

Answer
She had a heart attack. I am so sorry for your loss :(


I have, sadly, seen this happen with clinic rats but with one of my favorite rats several years back. He was out for playtime, totally normal etc... I put him back in the cage and turned my back. I heard this odd noise coming from his cage, so I turned around and there he was, gasping and he just fell over, dead. Talk about freaking out? I carried him around for an hour in disbelief. I did not cry at that point, I was just numb. It wasnt until my husband finally insisted on taking him away and putting him in a box with his blanket and getting him to cool air (fridge) so I could take him for a necropsy in the morning (Animal autopsy)  Turns out he had a heart attack. All along he had a pretty nasty looking heart, prolapsed valves, enlarged a bit, etc..etc ... I am just glad he died fast though instead of having some disease that would cause him to be sick for months, losing weight, being lethargic etc...because Peanut was too full of life to be sickly.

Again, I am so sorry for your loss. I hope your heart heals fast.
I am also sorry for the delay in writing. I have been in the hospital with pneumonia and have just now started to feel better. I tried to keep up on here, answering emergency questions first, but when you can hardly keep your head up, its kinda hard.  
I feel better though, at least better enough to be here helping other rat owners best I can.