Post by quakerfriend on Jun 19, 2015 15:14:08 GMT -5
Or... yes you can spend $1,000 on a free rat.
This happened a while back but I thought someone might be able to learn from this, or I don't know. Get a picture of all that can possibly go wrong with a rat.
For those of you that don't know, I have a snake. My snake decided one day that he was never going to touch a frozen mouse again, so I started breeding rats to feed him since the babies are smaller and safer for him to eat. I happen to like rats, so it was pretty difficult... anyway.
The pet store near me that I volunteered at was closing, so I asked to take one of their female breeders. This was the biggest, squishiest, most adorable rat ever. She was huge for a female (about 3x the sixe of one of my girls, and would be considered large even if she were a male). She hadn't had babies in a while, which I thought might be because she was in with an older male, so they gave her to me for free. I took her home and put her in with my big boy. They got along well, but no babies.
A couple weeks later I found out why. She had lost some weight, since I feed a much better diet than the all seeds the pet store does, and I could now see she had a mammary tumor. Alright, these aren't cancerous most of the time, so I waited until I had enough money for surgery and took her in to the vet. He checked her out, agreed she needed surgery and we set it all up. After her surgery, she came home all stitched up and having lost quite a bit of weight from the tumor. We were given some anti-inflammatories.
All was going well until she began to chew her stitches out at 10 at night. The vet isn't open so we call the emergency center. It's $80 for just an exam but at this point we really had no choice so here we go. They say they have to put her under and stitch her up again. Well, alright...we decide to pick her up in the morning. At around 12 the next day we get a call that she chewed her stitches out again. This time they glued her together with some special stuff.
We take her home again, with some more meds, and she recovers from her second anesthesia. So we think until we notice a little lump forming around the area. Back to the vet, but fortunately it's just some little space draining out instead of a regrowth.
It eventually drained and finally she was all better...until she gets a growth on her face, right between her ear and eye. Back to the vet again. At this point all the technicians know her. It's drained out and we are given more meds...but they don't seem to do anything. Either that or the fact that she keeps scratching the scab off and getting it infected. About two weeks into this she passed away.
So.. between $40 for the first exam,
$80 for the emergency visit and
$30 for the shift change fee
two $365 surgeries,
another $40 exam
$65 for her second growth drained...
It's pretty darn close to $1,000.
I'd like to note that this wasn't the fault of any of the vets. They all did all that they could and then some to help her. It's just unfortunate that all the different problems and treatments became too much for her. In this situation, all of that effort still wasn't able to save her. However, I'm not trying to say that vets are useless, or that they can't do their job. There have been many successful mammary tumors removed, and happy rats and happy rat parents. If you ever have something like this happen, your best bet is a vet. But maybe think it over beforehand...all these treatments and drugs and vet trips can save a life...but make sure that it's a quality life. Don't subject your pet to too much, too often to keep her alive when it could be painful.
This happened a while back but I thought someone might be able to learn from this, or I don't know. Get a picture of all that can possibly go wrong with a rat.
For those of you that don't know, I have a snake. My snake decided one day that he was never going to touch a frozen mouse again, so I started breeding rats to feed him since the babies are smaller and safer for him to eat. I happen to like rats, so it was pretty difficult... anyway.
The pet store near me that I volunteered at was closing, so I asked to take one of their female breeders. This was the biggest, squishiest, most adorable rat ever. She was huge for a female (about 3x the sixe of one of my girls, and would be considered large even if she were a male). She hadn't had babies in a while, which I thought might be because she was in with an older male, so they gave her to me for free. I took her home and put her in with my big boy. They got along well, but no babies.
A couple weeks later I found out why. She had lost some weight, since I feed a much better diet than the all seeds the pet store does, and I could now see she had a mammary tumor. Alright, these aren't cancerous most of the time, so I waited until I had enough money for surgery and took her in to the vet. He checked her out, agreed she needed surgery and we set it all up. After her surgery, she came home all stitched up and having lost quite a bit of weight from the tumor. We were given some anti-inflammatories.
All was going well until she began to chew her stitches out at 10 at night. The vet isn't open so we call the emergency center. It's $80 for just an exam but at this point we really had no choice so here we go. They say they have to put her under and stitch her up again. Well, alright...we decide to pick her up in the morning. At around 12 the next day we get a call that she chewed her stitches out again. This time they glued her together with some special stuff.
We take her home again, with some more meds, and she recovers from her second anesthesia. So we think until we notice a little lump forming around the area. Back to the vet, but fortunately it's just some little space draining out instead of a regrowth.
It eventually drained and finally she was all better...until she gets a growth on her face, right between her ear and eye. Back to the vet again. At this point all the technicians know her. It's drained out and we are given more meds...but they don't seem to do anything. Either that or the fact that she keeps scratching the scab off and getting it infected. About two weeks into this she passed away.
So.. between $40 for the first exam,
$80 for the emergency visit and
$30 for the shift change fee
two $365 surgeries,
another $40 exam
$65 for her second growth drained...
It's pretty darn close to $1,000.
I'd like to note that this wasn't the fault of any of the vets. They all did all that they could and then some to help her. It's just unfortunate that all the different problems and treatments became too much for her. In this situation, all of that effort still wasn't able to save her. However, I'm not trying to say that vets are useless, or that they can't do their job. There have been many successful mammary tumors removed, and happy rats and happy rat parents. If you ever have something like this happen, your best bet is a vet. But maybe think it over beforehand...all these treatments and drugs and vet trips can save a life...but make sure that it's a quality life. Don't subject your pet to too much, too often to keep her alive when it could be painful.
