1. karasratworld:

    Lucy and her tolerant subordinates

    Throwback Thursday!

    This is from a looong time ago and sadly these 3 girls are long gone. I miss them :(

    But this picture is hilarious!

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  2. karasratworld:

    Ellie eats a Yogie.

    aka the cutest set of pictures ever.

    One of my favorite photosets!
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  3. Picking 10 of my favorite pictures of Ellie was hard but here ya go :) Sorry I don’t have more baby pictures but those were all so blurry. She was such a cute happy fatty <3

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  4. RIP Ellie

    Well Ellie is gone <\3

    We took her and Lucy in to the vet and the vet said that from watching her, it’s obvious that Ellie can’t eat at all. She can break up the food but she isn’t able to swallow it so even if we tried to put her on some medication to reduce the tumor size, she would probably be starving slowly which is not what I want for her. I could have force fed her with a syringe and probably kept her alive for a couple more weeks but I think that would have been selfish and cruel of me. She just looked so miserable and out of it- I think it was the right decision to put her to sleep. She went peacefully and doesn’t have to suffer anymore.

    Lucy also got some eye drops because she has had a lot of discharge in one of her eyes these last few days so it wasn’t all bad news. She charmed all the vet techs with her hilarious personality as usual :P

    I really want to thank everyone for your support- it’s meant so much to me to have people here that care about her and are here for me.

    As sad as it is to see her go when everything happened so suddenly, I’m relieved that she isn’t in pain or confused anymore. She was just circling around the igloo last night and it broke my heart.

    Their short lives is definitely the worst part about owning rats but they give so much in their short time here. Ellie was a cuddly charming chubby girl and I’m so glad I got to love and spoil her. Rest in peace Ellie belly

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  5. Ellie is alive and eating a little baby food this morning. She still looks awful but she’s here. On our way to the vet in a few minutes :/ Preparing myself that this will probably be the last time she’s here in the cage with her friends

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  6. Ellie is really concerning me :/ she isn’t moving and seems really floppy and out of it- I’m worried that she’s not even going to make it to the vet tomorrow :/

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  7. Ellie sleeping in one of Quinn’s (my sister’s hedgehogs) sleeping pouches in my lap. She hasn’t moved in the past 2 hours I don’t think she’s feeling very well. She did eat a little strawberry though but no food :/

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  8. Ellie can’t go up the ramps anymore so I’ve got her all set up on the bottom level with her hammock, bed, water, and some cut up fruit.

    She looks even worse today. I think she will be put to sleep tomorrow but I’m not going to make any decisions for sure until I hear about all the options. I’ll keep everyone updated :/

    I want to thank everyone for your support. I’ll get to peoples’ messages soon. We are going to dinner for my sister’s birthday but I will answer when I get home. Your support and good thoughts means a lot to me and I’m passing on all your cuddles and kisses onto Ellie

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  9. Poor Ellie couldn’t get into her hammock and fell asleep like this :/ I feel so bad for this little girl

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  10. John getting his quality time with Ellie belly <3

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  11. Ellie liked her banana. She mostly licked it but she did get some good bites and she ate 2 spoonfuls of baby food. She wouldn’t eat solid food but at least there’s something in her system :) She looks all puffy and squinty and awful. And when I came home she was by herself on the floor downstairs and everyone else was upstairs in the hammock and that broke my heart :/

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  12. Gave Ellie her first dose of pain meds this morning and it seemed to increase her appetite a little. I was able to feed her a little bit (maybe a spoonful?) of her mashed up food with yogurt and then she licked some veggie baby food but not much. Here she is eating a chex :/ you can see her balance is off in the beginning of the video and actually she fell off the chair right after I finished filming :/ poor baby

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  13. Ellie Update :(

    Well I don’t have good news about Ellie. I’ve been talking to my vet and Nikki (my cousin who is a vet) all day and based on her condition, they may be able to slow the tumor development and get her on some pain meds but they aren’t going to be able to reverse her condition at all.

    Since she couldn’t eat a Cheerio this morning and she kept dropping it and accidentally pushing it away as she tried to pick it up with her mouth, I knew she wouldn’t be able to eat her solid food anymore. I soaked her Oxbow rat pellets in water and then drained the water and mashed them up and added yogurt and baby food, thinking she would be okay eating that. She had no interest and she sat next to me all puffed up and bruxing. While bruxing is usually a sign of happiness, it’s also an indicator of pain and discomfort and I can only imagine that she is feeling really bad if she doesn’t want to eat at all. She tries to groom herself but her fingers are curled up and she is sort of using her arms to groom instead of her hands and she keeps falling over. It is absolutely devastating to watch. This all happened so fast I can’t believe that she was actually completely normally on Sunday. 

    I ordered some pain medication that I will pick up first thing tomorrow so she can get some temporary relief and I will take her to Nikki’s practice on Saturday for a full evaluation. I have a sinking feeling that I will make the decision to put her to sleep that day :/

    My #1 priority is that she doesn’t suffer. She doesn’t understand why she’s in pain and can’t balance herself or eat. Slowing the tumor growth won’t be very helpful for her because even if it stopped growing today, it’s already impacting her quality of life in an unacceptable way. If she can be put on something that can reduce the tumor size along with some pain meds, I will absolutely consider that. But I don’t want to be selfish and keep her in pain or discomfort because I want her to be alive. Even if I am not ready to say goodbye, she deserves to be happy and comfortable and if life can no longer provide that for her, I will euthanize her. I am heartbroken. She is sitting on my lap with a sock filled with warm rice and she’s bruxing away :/ I will enjoy the time I have with her now, even if it’s only a few days and try not to think about losing her. This is so overwhelming right now :(

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  14. After giving Ellie a bath tonight, I can definitely tell she’s lost weight. Which means I’m not just being overprotective and there is something wrong with her. She feels much lighter and deflated :/ My baby…I’m sitting here on the bed with her crying I’m going to be so anxious until tomorrow when I can call and talk to the vet.

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  15. Guys I am heartbroken. Tonight Ellie is not even using her hands to eat. She can’t hold on to things and she seems confused as to where the food is. Something is wrong and I have a sinking feeling it’s a pituitary tumor. I don’t know what to do. I’ll call the vet tomorrow but PTs aren’t really treatable- although I think you can slow them down so maybe she can be on some long term medication that would make it so she wouldn’t be in any discomfort as the tumor grows.

    Anyone have any experience with this or know what else it could be? She’s her normal happy self and I think she will be able to live comfortably for a while with it but if it is a PT then eventually I will have to put her to sleep. I can’t even think about that right now. I’ll keep you guys updated on anything the vet says.

    This really reaffirms my decision to spay all the young female rats I get. I’ve had to deal with too many tumors and it’s heartbreaking. Spaying really really helps with tumor prevention and I think it’s worth the risk of the spay surgery.

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