Mama rats update
May. 2nd, 2007 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quietannHUGE kudos to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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.
Here's Eva looking sad. Note how pale her ears and nose are -- this is a rat whose blood volume is way down. She's drinking orange juice from a syringe and nibbling at oatmeal, but mostly just sleeping. She's bleeding much less but still has spells. She's living on diapers so I can get a rough idea of how much she's bleeding. I have no idea if she'll be OK, but rats are amazingly self-healing animals.
And... make that 17 babies for Jasmine, not 16! I missed one of Jasmine's when I was counting last night. She's *very* protective of the babies, so until last night, I hadn't touched them since the day they were born. Some of Eva's smaller ones may not make it, but Jasmine is a great mama so anything is possible. Now of course I was a very bad rat breeder in the middle of the night, and didn't mark Eva's babies so I could tell them from Jasmine's before I put them all together. But I should be able to tell them apart once their fur starts to come in, because Jasmine's will get fur first. I also know that all but one of the red eyed ones are Eva's, and any rexes (curly coated) have to be Jasmine's.
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.Here's Eva looking sad. Note how pale her ears and nose are -- this is a rat whose blood volume is way down. She's drinking orange juice from a syringe and nibbling at oatmeal, but mostly just sleeping. She's bleeding much less but still has spells. She's living on diapers so I can get a rough idea of how much she's bleeding. I have no idea if she'll be OK, but rats are amazingly self-healing animals.
And... make that 17 babies for Jasmine, not 16! I missed one of Jasmine's when I was counting last night. She's *very* protective of the babies, so until last night, I hadn't touched them since the day they were born. Some of Eva's smaller ones may not make it, but Jasmine is a great mama so anything is possible. Now of course I was a very bad rat breeder in the middle of the night, and didn't mark Eva's babies so I could tell them from Jasmine's before I put them all together. But I should be able to tell them apart once their fur starts to come in, because Jasmine's will get fur first. I also know that all but one of the red eyed ones are Eva's, and any rexes (curly coated) have to be Jasmine's.
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Date: 2007-05-02 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-02 08:41 pm (UTC)Good thoughts for that big bub pile too. They look very sweet as always.
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Date: 2007-05-02 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-02 08:49 pm (UTC)The bubs are really cute. I keep getting all these red eyes, though!