why my best female breeder rat died...

[Ginevive]

I made a post regarding orphaned ratlings last week; let me first say they are doing great and eating solid foods awesomely.
Now, I think I have figured out why their mom died of convulsions last week. Here's the gross, disgusting details.
Our landlord uses rat poison out in the barn. This never seemed to be a problem, cuz our rats are in the house. But this gets nasty. A few days ago we smelled a HORRID stench in our kitchen coming home at night. There was a dead, wild rat under my cabinet in there!! He must have come in, climbed up on top of the mama's cage to investigate. Now, I had a metal grill type thing as a lid on her cage, and my theory is that he had some of the food in his mouth (rats often do this) and it maybe dropped into her tank and she ate it? I know it says it takes 10 days to kill a rat, and for about that long, she had been looking bad;bleeding a little out of her mouth and avoiding the babies, preferring to curl up on the other end of the cage.
I am just really thankful that the babies are doing OK and are not dead. They were nursing off of ehr though, so i am still watching them to see if they show any bad signs.
Of course, this could be completely unrelated to the poison. Mama was kept on cedar chips all her life at a girl's house, and then given to ym friend's pet store where I got her. Maybe it was a fatal RI?

[Shelby]

Wow that's nasty.. I think it's more likely that the wild rat came to check her out..

[Ginevive]

Yeah. Now I have to deal with the mental anguish that comes with knowing you had a wild rat in your house. They come from the farms nearby though, that's why they're here. No farming going on at our place right now, so they are pretty much out of luck unless they want to eat rat poison.

[tigerlily]

So sad to hear about your mama rat. Just curious if your little babies are still doing ok?! I've had my fingers crossed for them!

I know that feeling about unwelcome critters in the house! Ever seen a palmetto bug? UGGGHHH!! gross gross gross!

[frankykeno]

When I was a little kid we lost our beautiful big black male cat Spooky to a rat poisoned rat. I remember my dad saying Spooky had gotten a rat from the old building across the field and that it was probably poisoned.

So sorry you lost the mom rat but super glad the babies are doing well for you.

[Ginevive]

Yeah, I got rid of the rat poison today. I am too scared of what it might do to my cat. Since the rat was in our house, of course it could have come in contact with my Inky, and if something happened to my cat I swear I would be devastated. I already lost one cat years ago due to some idiot letting him outside, and I know how it feels to lose one.
But thanks Franky; your post made me realize that my cat is in danger if the poison stays. So it's gone!

[frankykeno]

Great to hear. Better safe than sorry. My dad didn't get Spooky autopsied (old school kinda dad that way) but it made sense since Spookster was a hunter, our neighbour had just put out the poison the week before and dad found the remains of a rat meal. Too bad we didn't know about that or we would have kept the cat in. Know how you feel tho about your cat. Our current senior citizen cat Barney is approaching 16 years and my dear old cat, Puss Puss passed last Easter at the ripe old age of 18 (had her since she was a 8 week old kitten, Barney is a rescue we adopted over 12 years ago). You sure do get attached to them.


Barney NOT enjoying his birthday hat!


Our last picture of Puss Puss

[Ginevive]

lol, Barney in that hat is funny. He is so indignant!
My mom;s cat just was put to sleep this past month; she was 16 years old. She was having really bad kidney problems so we just knew it was time. She had lost alot of weight too and was peeing blood in the bathtub.
Here's a pic of my guy, Inky. We got him from the Spca roughly 3 years ago. I love him to deth!

[frankykeno]

Good for you for using the SPCA (tho to be honest I don't like either of the ones up here but that's another whole issue). Barney was a "pound kitty" too.

Amazing, that's exactly what Puss Puss did. 18 years that kitty always used her litter box without fail then we found her in the bathtub passing blood, it's like they don't want to make a mess poor things. We raced to the vet (not easy on Easter Monday) but nothing much can be done with a cat of such advanced years that won't put them thru so much stress it isn't worth their quality of life. Please send my thoughts to your mom though, it's a horrible decision to face.

As far as "indignant" Barney LOL...he's always in a snit over some slight or other. He's always been rather "wierd". One time years ago we moved and he took an instant HATE to the new kitchen floor. Lived for 2 months on top of the fridge except to bound from fridge to counter and take a flying leap to the carpeted hallway to get to his litter box in the bathroom. Absolutely REFUSED to set one foot on the kitchen floor and I've no idea why. We had to put a towel up there with food and water or the nitwit woulda starved. One day he came down and was fine. Barney is just wierd (well it was a really ugly patterned floor so maybe Barney is just a really frustrated interior decorator).

He also plucks his butt and half of his tail bald (like parrots do with feather plucking) if you tick him off by daring to bring a puppy home!

Barney has "issues" LOL

[Ginevive]

One time years ago we moved and he took an instant HATE to the new kitchen floor. Lived for 2 months on top of the fridge except to bound from fridge to counter and take a flying leap to the carpeted hallway to get to his litter box in the bathroom. Absolutely REFUSED to set one foot on the kitchen floor and I've no idea why.

That is absolutely hysterical
Our cat hates my mom and sister. He is extremely affectionate to anyone else who comes over; but if one of them is there, he jets under the bed. Once he actually got underneath the inside of our bathtub and stayed in there for over 5 hours when they came over!
I cannot explain it. My mom and sis are wonderful people who have pets and would never harm him. Weirdo cats...