rufus-swollen

Question
QUESTION: hi again Sandra.
Yet again Rufus has something ELSE wrong with him. My poor little man is falling apart :(
now, not only is he on Enalapril, which i am not giving him anymore cause it doesn't seem to be doing anything other then making him overly stressed, but now he has a swollen face. Under his right eye, its really soft, puffy and he has porphyrin stainig. i don't think anythings going to work at this point.
im losing hope! hes a twig, hes so skinny, you can feel his hips and spine perfectly. i dont like the looks of it!
he hasn't eaten anything in the past 2 days but he has been drinking a little bit. i try hand feeding him but he wont take anything. and hes so listless he doesnt even want to move when i bring him out for some exercise. the poor little boy.
i dont exactly know what i was going to as you, i guess just,  is there any hope? or is it pretty much the end? :(
please tell me hes not suffering!! =[

ANSWER: Teagan


IT can take up to a week for it to work (The enalapril) how long has he been on it?

Is this the end?  Its not for me to say but it doesnt sound good. The swollen face probably means an abscess in his mouth or cheek. ::sighs::

He is an old man,isnt he?  I am losing my boy, SMudge too. Every night I say "this is it, tomorrow I am taking him to have him put down" and next thing I know, there he is, grooming his legs and washing his head etc...and he had gotten up to eat a big heaping pile of baby food. I cant do it when he is doing this stuff....  I wish I could ask someone what they think.....so....what do YOU think?  I dont know either. I think I am running out of answers for both of us concerning Rufus and my boy too   :(   Is he suffering?  I dont know. Is he gasping and having a hell of a time breathing and does he panic about it? If yes, I would say that would be scary and yes, he would be suffering at this point.

Is there any hope?
I think that at his age, your lucky to have had him this long.

I always try to squeeze the last bit of time out of my rats that I can and sit back after a bit and say damn...is that fair of me to do to them?  

SO I ask myself a few questions such as this:

Are they happy?
WHat type of quality is there to their life?
Do they care about anything anymore, such as treats, your presence, grooming etc...?

My Smudge will take treats and eat and still uses his litter box but thats it. He spends his time in his ball, hanging out by the heat lamp bulb he is attracted to not for the heat source but the light source. He is blind in both eyes but we think he can pick up on the red in the bulb. He freaks if I turn on the regular overhead light. He doesnt want me to hold him at all.  He was never really a cuddly boy anyhow but now that he cant see (since January) he doesnt like removed from his cage.  He breaths fast and heavy and labored and deep. We dont know whats wrong. I cant get him to the vets or he will probably stroke out in the car.  I dont think its heart or lungs but rather his brain.  He has this odd type of palsy and moves like he has cerebral palsy since Jan again, after the meningitis.  I dont know.....
SO with Rufus, ask yourself what does he NOT do anymore.....and take a good deep look into his eyes.  If you see a glimmer of life, that spark that our rats have in their eyes, I would say he is still with you...but if you dont, you know your losing him and he is not happy, and its time for him to earn his rattie wings.  After living this long, he has earned golden wings thats for sure.  Dont deny him of that if its time because its hard to do it...thats how I am and I regret it every time. I promised no more playing "God" and trying to save them just so they even have a heartbeat because its hard to let them go..its not fair of me and its selfish and I am going to do right by my rats from now on.  I hope.

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

QUESTION: He has been on the Enalapril for a week now, and no change in anything.

I know exacly how you feel, i do the exact same thing, every ht to night i go in and say good night to Ruffie, and i always ass on, Rufus just go, its whats best for all of us, you'll be healthy again and you'll be reunited with all your old buds.although he never does listen to me, stubborn old rat! :P so of course i go on saying if you dont go ill have to bring you to the vet and give you help. and still [i dont think he believes me!!] he doesnt help himself.

I wish i could ask Rufus how he feels, and if its even his time yet. If only we could teach them english, but then i guess the twinkles in there eyes would be pointles, and there just so perfect. [i think thats how they communicate with us, everytime i talk to my girls their eyes twinkle and they chirp and its just so, healthy, compared to Ruffie.]

Hes not gasping for air, his breathing doesnt seem to be bothering him, today, somedays its really bad but others hes fine. hes so confusing!!

I know what you mean by squeezing the last bit of life out of them cause with my last rattie, Kodi i kept telling myself, its the end, i have to bring him in and i never did. i regreted it SO badly when he did die, he ended up gasping for air for an hour before he went in my arms, i felt horrible like i had pushed him to far and he really had no desire to live and just coldnt do it himself, but i was just to selfish and didnt want to take his life away from him, even though he deserved it more then dieing in pain. but whats done is done and i guess ill have to get used to what is 'in pain' and whats not and when they are in pain, its time to let them go and not try to get around it somehow.

Smudge seems to be in better shape then ruffie boy, rufus wont eat anything, he always been cuddly and absolutely loves being huddled in anything that smells like me. so i ususally pull one of my hoodies out of my closet, roll it up in a ball and he cuddles right into it and it keeps him happy.
Smudge had meningitis? how did he get that? i never heard of that in a rat before!! :s
And as for the glimmer of life, i cant see anything, cuase his eyes are always closed and only open just a slit.  so i guess its his time, i really wish i cold just talk to him, see how he really feels and see wha he thinks. but since that doesnt seem to be happening i guess im outta luck! =[
but i think i should do the right thing from now on too. hopefully.


ANSWER: Smudge and his brother, Sebastian became ill in Jan 08.  First, it was Sebastian. He is the rat with the black blaze and he is a dumbo, neutered.  Out of the blue, my normally hyper and high strung Sebastian became listless, almost unresponsive.  He would just lay there doing nothing.  I took him right in to my vet and brought Smudge so he could keep "Bash" company.  We didnt know what the deal was but his lungs and heart were good so we knew it had to be viral or some type of....what....DUH...something was wrong but what, that was a mystery. So he was sedated and blood work was drawn.  He started to respond to steroids and antibiotics and we thought he was going to pull through from whatever it was he had.  So as Bash improved, I get a call that SMudge was doing down hill. I was like WHaaaa??  He was FINE! He was much worse than Bash!  He was walking in circles, spinning around and around, tipping over.....he acted like he had an inner ear infection but  worse!  He wasnt eating at first but once we had meds in him  he started to eat. He propped himself against the wall and ate. He acted like he had cerebral palsy, but at least he was improving some.  I got the call the next day that when the vet came in , he found Bash dead and SMudge was guarding him. It was sad I was told,to see them together, and of course I was a mess.......  but I had to focus on Smudge. Anyhow, turns out Smudge had meningitis too that left him blind and with some damage that he has movements like he has cerebral palsy. He has been doing really good though, despite everything. I have lost several rats to that and also to brain aneurysms, heart attacks, strokes, you name it, we have had it here over the years.

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

QUESTION: awe, that would be so hard to go through. ive lost quite a few to and with almost all of mine they died in my arms, it made it so difficult!!
I've never heard of a rat getting meningitis, hmm :s
when Rufus gets really bad, which is usually around bed time he spazes out. hes so fidgety, and when he is having a hard time breathing, he like seizes or something, im not completely sure what it is but he tries to breath and it makes his eyes close and he jumps and shivers. he doesnt do it ever night though.
How old is Smudge? and did Bash have meningitis too?

Answer
Rufus is having panic attacks. Smudge does this if I disturb him. Does Rufus try to get out of the cage during this time too? Usually they shake at the cage door or bite it. Its heart breaking. Check His toes and genital area and even his muzzle....see if they are blue during this time.  If they are this means that he really is deprived of oxygen badly and he freaks out, panics....

Smudge is only 2, and yes, Sebastian had meningitis too. He also had a lesion on his brain that looked like a gun shot wound...it was very strange looking.   I have all older rats now, from my one eyed boys, Santana, and his former roomie, Smudge, who are both  2, and the other pair of boys that dont live with Santana and they are 3.5 years old.