Tuesday, February 05, 2008

farewell to two little friends...

So in the past week we've said goodbye to two of our rats, Quito & Loki. Quito, our youngest at about 21 months -- which is still fairly old for a rat -- died rather suddenly last week. He was fine, then one day he seemed a bit sluggish but no other symptoms, and then he passed the next day. The picture is of him as a young rat. He was kind of a runt, which made him Noodle's favorite.



Loki, one of our old boys (28 months) has been losing weight for a while and then about 9 days ago got some sort of infection. We debated whether to give him a course of antibiotics, but it generally kills their appetites, and since he is so old we didn't think it would be the best choice. He was still eating (quite enthusiastically), so we just let him stay with the other two rats and gave him lots of yummy food. Today when we came home from errands, he had passed away.



So now we're down to two rats. We have Tully & Finny left. Finny is Loki's brother, so he's the same age, but he is in better shape for now. Tully is Quito's slightly older brother (by 3-4 weeks). We haven't had so few since we started keeping rats five years ago.

Farewell little guys. See you on the other side.

2 comments:

Debra said...

Oh my gosh! Not two more! That makes me sad. Well, seeing that they lived with you I know they at least had a good life. Who else would know that antibiotics may suppress a rat's appetite? Your knowledge astounds me.

mindy said...

Yeah, it has been a sad time with the ratboys lately. It was kind of to be expected, as they are all getting up their in age. We're planning on not getting any new ones until our other two old boys pass on. They are doing well for now and don't need any new stressors in their lives. They are perfectly happy to lounge about in their hammock most of the day.