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Originally Posted by wooÐs
Oh I loved my rat. She was one of the best pets I've ever had. She was solid black - named her Emma. Got her as a baby from a friend whose rat also had babies. A lot of his got cancer for some reason - like it was in their blood - tumors on their bodies would appear and such. I just woke up one morning and she was dead. No symptoms beforehand or anything. She lasted about a year. aw Emma :/.
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I'm afraid that's what's going to eventually happen to mine - her mom died this past summer. Last I saw her she was full of cancer. A day later she died. She was barely 2. She was a hairless rat, which are much more prone to sickness, especially cancer, than normal rats. She was a little sweetie. I felt horrible. From what I understand though, cancerous tumors don't hurt rats like they hurt us.
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Originally Posted by JStrider
I had a rat for a couple years when I was in high school. he made a pretty cool pet. I got him from my little brothers kindergarten class.... he was named porkchop. he knew his name and if I unlocked his cage and called him he would climb to the top, open the latch, and climb down the side and wait for me by the edge of the counter. I had him for 2 years before he died... pretty sure he hurt himself falling off the cabinet... was really lethargic the rest of that day and dead in the morning.
sounds like yours could be having trouble... make sure its cage has good ventillation and is dust free.
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Oh her cage is extremely well ventilated. Dust free, however? Not so much. It's kinda hard to do though living in Colorado - dust for an entire day and you wake up to a fine layer of the shit. I could probably get her a new cuddle cup, tho. She and the other one have destroyed it and I'm sure it's quite dirty what with two rats sleeping in it. It's about a month old.
Rats are amazingly intelligent, huh? Freya knows her name and can hop on my hand and crawl up my arm to my shoulder on command.
And this is off topic, but I LOVE your avatar - Kurt Vonnegut is my favorite author.
---------- Post added at 11:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:30 PM ----------
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Originally Posted by spindles
Tumours are quite common in rats - my ex-wife's rat had a huge lump behind the right front leg - the lump ended up bigger then her head. Sad day taking her to the vet to be put down  |
You can actually put them down yourself by using nail polish remover on a paper towel. It sounds absolutely barbaric, but it puts them in a state of euphoria. It's much like what vets do for animals when they put them to sleep. I imagine it's quite difficult to do to a rattie you love, though. One of my best friends had to do that to a few of her's and it tore her apart (I made a reference to it in my poetry thread as her Lost Beloved).
But I'll probably do it if I have to with any of mine. I hope though Freya lives long and dies peacefully.