I lost my pet rat 2 days ago. She came home before I got the snakes and I had had her for almost 3 years. She recently had surgery to remove a ruptured mass on her back that was 3% of her body weight. Because of her age, her recovery was very slow. She would stay in her house and stare at the wall just trying to breathe. The anesthesia had irritated a problem in her lungs that's very common in rats. We nebulized her but it didn't help.. They day before she passed she felt well enough to fight me while I tried to give her her medicine. After a decently long struggle, she paused, looked at my finger, thought for a second, and then bit me hard enough to draw blood. She definitely let me know that she wasn't happy about taking meds (The only time she's ever decided to bite me). She was so awesome :oops:
The morning I lost her, I noticed her gasping for air. She was breathing exactly like an oxygen pump.. every few seconds she'd gasp with her mouth open. I was in tears when I called the vet to see if I could bring her in. It was so painful to watch her struggle like that. She was running around her cage and climbing all over the place but the look in her eyes was panic. It was shocking after she had fought with me the previous day, seeming like she felt better. On the way to the vet she was freaking out in the box. Right when we got into the vet, he took her right away. As soon as I saw the box open and saw that she was in the corner not moving I figured she was going. The vet took her back to try to save her but came out less than a minute later telling me that her heart was faint.
My only regret is that she died after a 20 minute long car ride. If I had known that there was no help for her, I would have let her die quietly at home. :tears: R.I.P Freyja. :heartbreaI'm sorry girl, I didn't know.