Sudden death in healthy rat

Question
I just read your response about sudden death in pet rats.  About an hour ago
my  12 year old daughter went to get her 17 month old sister rats out of their
cage to play before bedtime and our sweet Silver was lying inert on the cage
floor, clearly dead.  She has been fine; we played with her last night and
earlier today she was fine.  This is completely unexpected.  The only things of
note that seemed odd was about a week ago she did a series of these really
big yawning type movements with her mouth, but then seemed fine.  Then
last night, after playtime when we feed them, we always hand feed a couple
of their "niblets" (what we call the various items in their mix that we feed with
high quality lab blocks).  While her sister Cream Cheese was as eager as ever,
Silver didn't run to the side of the cage where we feed her, but did take it
from me when I brought it over to where she was sitting in the cage.

She had no discharges, lumps, wheezing or any other symptoms.  My
daughter and I are both devastated--I knew that they can have short lives,
but she was only a year old in December.  Her coat was glossy, eyes clear,
etc.

My daughter's biggest concern is that Cream Cheese will be bereft without
companionship, and we will call the breeder tomorrow to get her
recommendations about whether or not bringing a new rat (or rats) in for
company is a good idea.

Anyway, if you have any thoughts, I'd appreciate it.  We will probably not be
doing any kind of exam of Silver but will bury her in our garden tomorrow,
but I'd like to give my daughter some idea of what might have happened.
Thanks,
Bebe

Answer
Hi

I am so sorry for your loss. Its never easy but it seems that the ones we dont expect are even worse.  It is really impossible to say for sure what caused her death suddenly but usually in these situations of sudden death it is usually from something congenital that she was harboring for a while.  Usually it is cardiovascular in nature but sometimes the rat can throw a blood clot and have a brain aneurysm which would erase the congential defect theory. To make you feel better though, there is nothing that could have been done to see this coming and nothing to prevent this in most cases. It just is something unfortunate that happens to pet and sometimes to humans,too.
As for a cagemate for Cream Cheese, it really is a good idea to bring a new rat in soon and this is why: Cream cheese will start to mourn the loss of Silver and this causes stress. Stress in turn compromises the immune system and with the rats super fast metabolic rate, chances of Cream Cheese becoming sick are high.   The biggest mistake made is why people have a pair of rats and one dies. They fear right off the second rat will get sick even though they are not sure what was wrong.  When the rat does end up sick and may even pass away a few weeks later, the owner is convinced the second rat caught what the first rat had, but in reality, the rat died from a broken heart. The stress and mourning weakened the immune system as I stated earlier and this caused the rat to fall ill.   I have seen it more times than I can count.

Either way, I am again really sorry for your loss.

Sandra