Minor Problems

I havent been playing a lot over the last few days because of various reasons. ;; The main reason being that we have a pet rat that is very ill and we have been looking after her for a few days now.

We have about 13 rats and had 2 hamsters until a couple of weeks ago when the 2 boy hamsters ended up not being both male and one gave birth to a litter of 6. ;; Nice. ;; Anyway in the past we have taken in rats that have been mis-treated or have not had a good life. ;; We give them homes and give them what they want nd in general are happy. ;; The problem with rats is that they are prone to getting ill very quickly and if not treated properly can go downhill very fast and die. ;; Also they have problems with tumours coming on really fast. ;; As we love these things so much we do everything we can for them rather than have them put to sleep but if their quality of life isnt that good then we have to accept the worse. ;; This does not affect me as much as my wife who is pregnant and gets upset very quickly (or more than she usually does).

We found one of our rats within a few days to have grown a lump around her belly on the left hand side. ;; This was on Saturday and found that she wasnt feeding or drinking properly and had lost weight too. ;; Although the lump is there we dont think this is the real cause of the problems and think she has had a stroke or something too. ;; Strokes are dealable with some rats and a course of antibiotics puts them right. ;; Unfortunately we had a bank holiday weekend so couldnt get her to the vets until Tuesday as they were closed. ;; The vet agrees that it is something in her head and was close to suggesting putting her to sleep but she had fought so hard and is still mobile that we gave her a chance to get better. ;; This has meant constant feeding of water and food to try and get her stronger for an op.

This is her healthy:-

This is her now:-

It is vet time tomorrow again and the decision will be made then whether it is a good thing or not to continue treatment.