Newbies

Well I ended up taking in 30 rats yesterday. Phew! I hadn't intended it to be that many but there were 5 apparently nursing does and litters and I wanted to keep them together so they could share the feeding and to avoid separating out the wrong doe.

Amongst them was a litter of 13 teeny little pinkies with no obvious Mum. I put them in a cage with some two week olds and three of the Mums but several hours later no-one had shown any interest. So I have had to separate one of the does out into a very very small cage so that she really has no choice but to feed the babies. I feel a bit mean but so far it seems to be working and she is feeding them. Sadly one of the babies has passed away and I'm concerned that we might lose a few more yet but we'll obviously do everything we can for them.

There are some seriously delicious babies amongst the older ones though - watch out for piccies soon!

Breaking News!

Apparently someone does actually read this blog! I have been told off for lack of updates, lol!

Ok so brief round up. Pokemon had some blood results back and her white blood cells were normal. So it looks as though there is some minor liver issue going on - probably benign tumours - but nothing scary like leukaemia. We have to give her some liver supporting supplements and take her back for another test soon. Hopefully that will show some improvement in her liver enzymes in which case we can just monitor and support her liver function. If not we'll have to do more tests.

In the meantime she appears to be missing all the attention and has now pulled one of her claws. So is back on the antibiotics and has a bucket on her head again *rolls eyes*.

I've finally admitted defeat and Kitkat and Shadow bunnies are now official permanent residents. They were so unlikely to find a home and so settled here so it made sense really.

I'm a bit worried about one of the degus, Erika. She has lost weight although she is still her usual norty self. Which makes me worry that she might have dental problems. So she'll be off to the vet this week.

I also have an outbreak of mites amongst the rats which is affecting Sue, Widdle and Poop as well as one of the foster girls, Louise. The usual treatment has failed to have much impact so at the moment they are being treated with a homoepathic remedy I have had success with before in treating parasitic skin conditions. Hopefully that will sort it but otherwise that will be another vet trip!!

I managed to make an enormous muck up with my latest batch of foster rats and mis sex one of the babies! I know, ridiculous!! It means she was in with her brothers at an age where she may possibly have been able to get pregnant. So she would have to stay here until we were sure she wasn't pregnant. But there is also a question mark over whether she might be a hairless rat which can have health issues so I have decided it is best all round if she stays as a permanent resident too. She's utterly delish - very norty and cheeky, just my kinda girl.

As I type I am waiting on the arrival of a load more rats from a big rescue in Portsmouth. I'm not sure exactly what will arrive yet but sounds like lots of pregnant and nursing Mum's and their babies. Pics to follow soon of course :)

Phew, well I think that's everything for now!!

Times is tough

Usual apologies for the delay in updating....

Things are a bit tough here at the moment. Long story short Loki is still having tests and at the moment one of the possible outcomes is Leukaemia. You can imagine how worried we are :(

We've had quite a lot of new arrivals in the form of some particularly delicious dumbo rats and their babies. You can see the super cute pictures on the foster rats page. We also have a single chinchilla boy called Hans who I was quite worried about for a while as he was very thin and not eating much. He is doing great now though - all he needs now is a nice new home with a girlfriend.

The good news is little single mouse boy and single grumpy hamster girl are now cohabiting. It's early days but so far so good.

Anyway, please keep everything crossed for Loki. She is having an ultrasound and more bloods taken tomorrow so we should know a bit more then and hopefully know exactly where we stand by the end of the week.

Pfffffffffffffffff

Dear me, look how long it has been without an update!

Well, Begley's cough seems better although not entirely gone. We'll have to take him back for a checkup.

At the moment we are more concerned about Loki. When we took her to the vet about her chewed leg, she had diarrhoea everywhere. Consequently she had a course of antibiotics.

Then we found a lump by one of her nipples. So, on Friday, she had this and two skin tags removed. Her pre op bloods showed that her liver enzymes were raised so she needs a further course of antibiotics and retesting in two weeks.

Friday night her op site started bleeding so we had to take her back. Saturday morning we found two more lumps - one on her foot and one on her chest. So, once she has recovered and her liver is sorted, she needs to have another operation :(

In happier news, loads of the degus have gone off to their new homes today which is really great. There should be lots of new arrivals on Monday to take their place.

Mr B update

Well, Begley went to the vets again on Monday and Sandra thinks it's more likely a simple respiratory infection or some lungworm. So he has some wormer and antibiotics and we'll see how he goes. He has been a bit better but he does still have a little cough when he gets excited.

Loki has been chewing on her leg. We've been doing some work on the house this week so the dogs have been upstairs while we've been working downstairs. This is not acceptable to a Pokemon who does not like to be left out of anything. So she has shown her displeasure (and attempted to get attention) by chewing her leg and making it sore. So at the moment she has to have a bandage on it to stop her getting to it. She likes having a bandage cos she gets lots of attention and sympathy!! She's such a tart!

The little mouse mentioned a couple of posts down arrived this evening. Once he has settled in we'll try intros with the grumpy ham! Fingers crossed they hit it off.

Poorly Beeble

My poor baby man Begley is ill :(

It started yesterday morning when he began coughing. He has always tended to cough when on the lead or excited or when one of the other dogs lays on him but this went on all day.

I took a video to show the vet



So we took him there this morning. She thinks he has a collapsed trachea which apparently is a genetic condition. This is why he coughs when pressure is put on his throat, when he exerts himself or gets too excited. We're hoping to see Sandra in the next couple of days to try and find out more about how serious this is. I'm reading conflicting info on the internet and it seems we need it properly assessed to see what grade of collapse it is. He may need medication, he made need surgery, or we may just need to keep him cool, calm and not too podgy. It's very worrying anyway - he is my very special boy and I love him so very much. He has been milking it for all it's worth today - as if he wasn't enough of a spoilt brat already!

Incoming...

Today is not a happy day for me :( It's a year today since Fraggle came to live with us so today we should be celebrating her first gotcha day. But she is no longer here :( And it's Father's Day which is a sad day when your Dad isn't with you either.

So it's nice to have a cute piccie of a future new arrival to cheer me up. This is the little mousey man who is coming to stay next weekend and hopefully be the grumpy russian hamsters new friend. Isn't he scrummy?