more rat update
Mar. 1st, 2006 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quietannNo more sick rats, though there seem to be a few more sneezes this morning... which might be dust from using the bottom of the bag of white carefresh when cage changing last night... That stuff is DUSTY!
I heard from the vet who did the necropsy; Keturah had a respiratory infection with badly compromised lungs. But this is in a rat who was extremely healthy up until the day before she died... how could this happen so quickly? I am waiting to hear back from him to talk about cultures/pathology samples etc.
The strangest thing that has happened so far is a change in social dynamics with the remaining rats in the cage. These are Livana, Livana's 4 1/2 month old daughters P'nina and Pazia, and LuLu, a small 4 month old who was Keturah's foster sister. P'nina has always been a bit odd; she scent-marks a *lot* for a female, and doesn't like to be handled. As of last night, she's gone mad; she was attacking my foot when I was changing cages, and she bit me this morning, hard enough to draw blood. I suspect that Keturah was a calming influence on her, perhaps a "benevolent dictator." (Groups of rats who have a benevolent dictator tend to be the most socially stable, because there is one rat who can control all the others with just the right body language, and doesn't tolerate fighting amongst the rest of them.)
I heard from the vet who did the necropsy; Keturah had a respiratory infection with badly compromised lungs. But this is in a rat who was extremely healthy up until the day before she died... how could this happen so quickly? I am waiting to hear back from him to talk about cultures/pathology samples etc.
The strangest thing that has happened so far is a change in social dynamics with the remaining rats in the cage. These are Livana, Livana's 4 1/2 month old daughters P'nina and Pazia, and LuLu, a small 4 month old who was Keturah's foster sister. P'nina has always been a bit odd; she scent-marks a *lot* for a female, and doesn't like to be handled. As of last night, she's gone mad; she was attacking my foot when I was changing cages, and she bit me this morning, hard enough to draw blood. I suspect that Keturah was a calming influence on her, perhaps a "benevolent dictator." (Groups of rats who have a benevolent dictator tend to be the most socially stable, because there is one rat who can control all the others with just the right body language, and doesn't tolerate fighting amongst the rest of them.)
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Date: 2006-03-01 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-01 06:54 pm (UTC)