Mama rats update

HUGE kudos to wren13, who took a call from me this morning as she was about to go into surgery, and helped me figure out what to do about poor Eva, the bleeding mama rat. Basic answer: keep her warm, give her an antibiotic (which thanks to wren13 I have on hand), keep her hydrated and eating as much as possible. She has no milk, so her babies are staying with Jasmine. She may need to be spayed, but she's lost way too much blood to go through surgery right now.

( more info and photos back here )

Eva update

She's still very weak, but hanging in there. About every 90 minutes, I'm getting as much juice into her as I possibly can. She's decided that pomegranate juice is definitely more tasty than orange juice. If I rest my finger under her chin, she swallows it easily. She ate one tiny piece of hot dog and had a couple of tastes of oatmeal. A good sign is that she cleans her little face when she's done getting juice.

(no subject)

This is not being a good evening at all.

Eva is dying, unless there's some miracle. I can't get her to drink anymore so I've given her sub-Q fluids. But I think she's just lost too much blood.

OTOH as far as I can tell, Jasmine thinks the thing to do is stay in her nest and nurse babies, which is just fine.

I got very little work done today and want to try to get a little more. Work will get its own post.

I skipped tai chi to get some essentials from the drug store and grocery store, including some high protein Ensure for Jasmine. She doesn't even have to leave her nest to drink it!

And mostly I am just tired and want to curl up somewhere and escape, either by napping or reading.

dead

Eva died about half an hour ago. Her babies are fine AFAIK (Jasmine won't let me see them.)