sad news

My rat Berkeley died tonight. He's been sickly for the past few months, and after the medication didn't seem to make any improvement, I discontinued it, and kept his energy up by feeding him baby formula mixed in with yogurt/cottage cheese. Last night when I was cleaning out the "hospital cage" I keep him in at times (so he had a chance to eat leisurely, he really wanted to get out and run around a bit. He climbed up the cage (haltingly so, but with determination) and ran around a little bit, and it seemed to wear him out. Today it was obvious he had taken a turn for the worse, and when I just checked on him, he had passed away. I am relieved, though, that the end came so quickly for him. Up until yesterday he was still eating and doing as well as he had been.