Busy Wednesday

Business has been slow...sporadic and slow. :(

Then yesterday...BAM!

Orders have been coming in so fast it's making my head spin.

But it means money, which is always a good thing. :)

And now...A new pic from the archives.




Cleo cuddling with dad and none too happy that I'm bothering her by taking a picture.

Cleo's Last Night

Here's the piccies I found of the last night we had Cleo. They're super cute, though, and I just had to share them.

Unexpected

Cleo

June 2004- September 13, 2005

Sleep well Cleo

'Till we meet again

Cleo's New Vet

Well, after some serious calling around today, we've found an interim vet for Cleo to go to.

He's at the same hospital where our vet used to relief practice, so he's supposed to be really good.

Her eye seems to be healing up, but her poor little face is all swollen and distorted on the right side. She looks like Elvis. Seriously. I think she needs all the pus drained, or a more effective method of treating the infection. I'm not sure what they'll recommend, but hopefully it'll work.

The antibiotics she's on right now are really good- our other rats healed quickly when they were on them, but since she spits it out, she's not getting the full benefit. :(

Too bad you can't reason with a rat. "It's good for you, it'll make you feel better. Take it!" *sigh* I'll let you know how the visit goes.

Our appointment is tomorrow at 2:20 pm.

Cleo Eye Pics

Here's how Cleo's eye looked about 5 days ago.

Reunited And It Feels So Good

I just put Cleo back with Coda. She made a beeline for the hammock; something she's missed since we quarantined her.

Coda immediately started cleaning her. You could just see her saying "You are sooo dirty. You smell like humans. And you're not very clean. Leave it to me. Don't squeak, it's not that bad."

Now Cleo's in the hammock and Coda is on the landing above her cleaning every strange smell off her. And she's interested in Cleo's eye socket, so I'm keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn't scratch or tear it. It's almost completely healed, but Coda's a persistant little cuss.

I'll put up piccies soon.

Good Stuff

Well, Cleo's eye is looking better. It's stopped pussing and scabbing. You can see right into the eye socket but it looks like it's healing nicely. She's still on antibiotics and still fights me every step of the way. :)

And I've put up some piccies for everybody to enjoy.















Cute Rat sleeping. She's a total lard-bucket!















Rat Rat getting in on the action















Cleo and mom hanging out

That's all folks!

More Fun With Cleo

We've had Cleo quarantined since about a week ago because of her eye. The doc recommended we keep it that way until after the weekend.

Yesterday evening I was excited because she hadn't messed with her stitches or anything, and seemed to be healing. Of course, she's absolutely stubborn about taking her antibiotics. It's an oral suspension and our other girls take it with no problem as long as it's mixed in baby food, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc.

Cleo will not touch it though. If she even suspects it's in her food she'll avoid it. I've been giving it to her by hand, but the little brat will let it slowly dribble out her mouth instead of swallowing it. To say the least it's harrowing both for her and me. She's supposed to be on antibiotics because there was pus in her eye when it was operated on, and the doc wanted to prevent it getting any worse.

Tonight, however, it got worse. Not only had my girl ripped her stitches out, but a fair amount of pus is continually oozing out of her eye. To top all this off, our vet left on Fri to start his own practice. I don't know if it's up and running yet, as I have to call our usual office and see if someone can see her or if I need to take her elsewhere.

So, right now I'm still forcing as much antibiotics down her as I can and also giving her antibiotic eye drops. *sigh* The fun never ends.

I will post pictures if you'd like to see them. It's pretty nasty looking, though.

More Pics Of Cleo's Eye

I promised pics of my baby's eye- here they are. Be forwarned, they are kinda icky.



Her eye when we got home 2 days ago.



Her eye today



Another view

Back To The Vet

But not what you think. They charged me for antibiotics yesterday and forgot to give them to me, so I've got to go pick them up. :)

And I need to clarify- Our rats aren't going on a high-protein diet. They have always had a minimal amount of protein- around 15% because Rat Rat can get itchy if it goes very high. They are now on an increased protein diet- putting them at about 21% protein. Not high enough to bother Rat Rat, but to give them a little edge if their muscles decide to degenerate.

Thanks to everyone fo their comments lately. We certainly appreciate all the kindness out there. xxx

And please think of Ratty tonight- She's lost her beloved Louie very quickly and of course, very painfully. Send her peace and comfort while she deals with this.

Home

First, I have to say I'm glad I made Cleo's pic my user id. She's beautiful. :)

We're home from the vet and she is sans her nasty, nasty eye. Yesterday she had a huge scab, about 1/2" deep on her eye. I'm so glad we got her taken care of.

She's not at all comfortable without the eye. She keeps trying to see me out of it and gets confused, so she checks with her other eye and she can see me, but I disappear when she turns her head. She checks all the way from top to bottom. It's heartwrenching to watch her adjust. She sticks her head and cheeks into the food and gets it all over herself because she can't gauge just where it is yet. She gets frustrated and probably a little scared.

The thing is, I know she couldn't see out of her scabby eye, but I think because it felt "normal" and open that she adjusted fine. Now it's tight and the eyelids are pulled together and I think that's what's tipping her off that something's different.

We're giving her lots of cuddles and treats and helping her to use her nose and ears to find us.

We're also starting the big girls on a higher protein diet. I don't want their muscle to waste away too much, so they're getting Ensure now. After their 2nd birthday muscle degeneration is super common, and I just don't want them to "fade" away. They haven't shown any signs yet, but I'm being proactive.

And that's about it for tonight.

Ratty- our prayers and thoughts are with you and Lou. We know you'll do what is best, not what is easy, and *that* is what makes you a good rat-mom. xxxxx

Bad News

for Cleo. I took her to the vet today because of this:















And this:
















She was getting better and looking great. Then, this morning, I saw this mess. The vet gave us a couple more options, but we opted for surgery. She's having her eye removed on Thurs.

Of course, we'll love her just the same and we hope you do too. Don't be too weirded out by it, ok? I'll get her a little rat eye-patch. Or as my vet said, "Get her a seeing-eye rat." haha

Now the poor little thing is quarantined by herself since we noticed that Coda is making the problem worse. The vet said something scratched it again and caused a rupture. We now suspect it's Coda. Cleo is relatively unaware of her eye. It doesn't close at all and she doesn't bother it much. Just when she cleans, and I think that's just habitual/accidental.

Anyway, that's all the excitement over here. And Rat Rat's lumps haven't done much so maybe the Luprin (?) is working. Rat's lump hasn't grown significantly, but I'm keeping an eye on it anyway. And that's about it.

The Eye Of Doom

I promised pics of Cleo's ugly eye, so here they are. She doesn't seem to be getting any worse. She is closing the eye more, which makes me very happy. The very outer part of her eye is back to it's normal ruby color, but where the damage is still looks terrible. I'm going to call the vet and just keep him updated on her progress.

And now...The Pics!

Cleo's Normal Pretty Eye

Cleo's Eye Of Doom- See how it almost looks like any empty eye socket? That's the hole!

The Diagnosis

Well, we're back from the vet. The rundown is as follows:

Cleo- Her eye definitely has a hole in it. Whether it's from her scratching it or something else, we don't know. There is a "scab", but we aren't sure if it's a scab or the eye innards squeezing out. She's on eyedrops (antibiotic) 3 times a day. If she gets worse she'll have to have it removed. It may have already ruptured (eye innards squeezing out) or it may be close to rupturing. Not sure, so am on watch for anything different. It's pretty likely she has no sight in it anymore. No real loss- she didn't have much sight to begin with.

So, yes. This turned out to be very bad. Poor little girl. She takes her eyedrops really well, no squirming or anything. She doesn't mess with it and doesn't seem bothered by it, so hopefully it'll heal and she'll get to keep her eye. We'll know by the end of the week if it has to come out or not.

Rat Rat- Her lump may well be a mammary tumor. We're going to watch it for a couple weeks and see what happens.

And that's that. For $66 I got them both seen and some eyedrops. That's a good day for us.

Goin To The Vet

We have a 1:20 appt. I'll report back when we get home.

It's Bad

Cleo's eye is absolutely horrible. It's getting worse and worse. It used to just be cloudy. Now it's turning milky and there is a huge ulcer in the middle! She doesn't close it when I clean it anymore. I'm trying to weasel her into the vet today. It's awful just to look at.

She's not messing with it. She's got a normal appetite. It probably bothers me more than it does her. ick

Wish us luck
(and Rat Rat too, for her double lumps)

sheesh- when it rains it pours.

Manic Monday

whoa-oh-ohh

Just kidding. I won't sing here.

Man, today's been busy. I had to mail out a bunch of orders, so that kept me occupied. I didn't sleep well last night either, so I took a nap. *yawn*

The rats are being totally cute as ever. Little Cleo's eye hasn't changed, so I'm going to assume it's been there for awhile. A lot of her pictures have her with it partially closed, so I guess I just am not such an attentive mom. :(

I've gotta clean their cages tonight. In addition to everything else I have to do. *sigh* I'm pooped. And it isn't even dinner time.

I'm going to make something new for dinner, so I'd better get going.

And the big purchase of the weekend is...

A toaster! On sale for $8. Go us.

Cleo's Eye

I just noticed tonight that Cleo keeps her right eye partially closed. Upon closer inspection I found it is cloudy and not clear and bright. I don't know how long it's been like this.

I cleaned it, and she blinks and everything, but it's still cloudy. The vet is to call on Tues about the second lump we found on Rat Rat, so I'll ask him them if it's something of concern. Like I said, she may have had it since we got her and I just didn't notice. Who knows?

Rats...

Coda and Cleo Being Cute

Coda and Cleo Being Cute
Originally uploaded by Rattie Corner.

Sleepy Cleo

Sleepy Cleo
Originally uploaded by Rattie Corner.

Snoozin' where noone can see...