A blog about Skip's and Alxandra's pets. The rittles are pet rats. Bittle is our Catahoula Leopard mutt. And, my crafting which is mostly for the rittles.
As you may have read in my blog, Mabel has recently recovered from a severe bout of pneumonia. On the other hand, Rose... Rose had a much milder bout of pneumonia and she just hasn't bounced back. Last week, her vet informed us that Rose wasn't likely to recover. There's very little air movement in her lungs. She's back on 2 antibiotics and theophylline, and she's supposed to receive albuterol twice per day, but we stopped that because it was too traumatic for her. However, if Mabel starts wheezing, we can give her two puffs of albuterol, and Mabel stops wheezing.
Rose's weight is plummeting. She actually weighs less than Mabel. And, Mabel is our smallest rat.
Here's an older photo of Rose. Yeah, she's our Siamese rat. Unfortunately, Rose is cyanotic most of the time now. So, I'm sparing you a photo.
Today, though, she's been more chipper. She's been very energetic, hanging out in various hammocks and the cube. We hand feed her every time we go by the cage. I'm hoping that her increased energy is a good sign, but her vet did tell us not to expect recovery.
Here's a recent photo of Mabel grooming one of our blondies. She's gaining weight beautifully. The doctor was totally surprised that she survived never mind that she's recovering, but she's expected to remain on theophylline for life, but she's doing great off all antibiotics.
I'm about to make more liners, so the Critter Nation remains fairly similar this week.
I call the upcycled record file the "crib". And, this week it has Doctor hanging in the top layer. A hammock covering the wire floor, and the double hammock hanging from the bottom of the "crib". We also have the big teal ball from their tunnel set in the upper floor this week.
Martha says, "hi" from the top layer of the "crib".
Mabs says "hi". I wish she was perfectly in focus because that would be an awesome photo.
Downstairs in the Critter Nation.
Walter being adorable.
Walter being cleaned by Mabel.
Isn't Mabel cute in her almost full coat of hair? Her fur will probably fall out soon. Sigh. She being a rex and all.
(Note: Mabel is a rat with the rex mutation which gives her curly whiskers and fur, but she also has hair loss. Her fur grows in and then, falls out in patches.)
By the way, I'd been working with her on charging the clicker for several days. And, unfortunately, she had a lung exacerbation, so she took a break from training for a few days. So, the first part of the video is from her first session after she returned to training, and the next day, she was just an extremely bright pupil and learned the spin, which is what you see in the second part of the video.
Also, Mabel saw her doctor yesterday. The doctor was thrilled that she's gained 50 grams since her pneumonia, but she still has lung issues, so she's going to be on theophylline for the rest of her life which reallybums me out. But, we just will have to deal with it. At least, she likes the taste of theophylline.
And, on the subject of medicating rats, Dean has just been started on Bactrim for a secondary infection of contact dermatitis. And, Skip Lee was thrilled to report (Skip is just amazing at medicating rats, so he gets to do all of it --grins-- ) that Dean avidly reached for the syringe when he clicked, and Dean drank all of his Bactrim quick as can be. A couple of weeks ago, I'd done a few clicker training sessions with him. This is a wonderful consequence of clicker training, easy medication administration.
Now, I need to figure out what Dean is allergic to. Hopefully, it was a one time issue. My rats are all on a gluten free diet because of Rose's sensitivity, so it's not wheat.
Does anyone know what the most prevalent rat allergies are other than wheat?
Mabel figured it out. She is now distinctly looking for her chocolate reward when she hears a click. I am so proud of her.
So, after her training this morning, I gave her a really big test by having Slytail give her the commands (working on generalization). In the above photo, Slytail is rewarding her for coming when called. Slytail called her and scratched the comforter and gave her the "kissy sound" (she ran for the scratched spot) then he clicked and she beelined for the reward.
I think Mabel is starting to understand that she's gets chocolate when she hears a click.
It seems that my clickers are too loud as Mabel and Dean were shivering whenever they heard the click, so I've switched to just making a click with my mouth. However, my timing is lousy with my mouth clicks. I wish there was a real soft clicker.
Mabel has a good "come", so I'm thinking of pairing that with the click and a treat, and then, to teach her to spin on command.
Mabel Update- If you've read my other posts, you may know that Mabel recently had pneumonia which almost took her life. Now, she's doing awesome as you can see in her above picture.
