Sorry if this is the wrong place to put this, but I don't know where else to.
My 1 1/2 yo rat, who I hand raised from a baby, is very sick. I had noticed he was breathing oddly, and getting thin, so today we went to the vet. First of all, the tech told me he'd lost 150 grams, about 1/3 of his body weight, since the last visit. She actually weighed him 3 times because she couldn't believe it. Then the vet came. Apparently he hasn't been eating b/c he has to work so hard to breath that he can't manage solid food. Then she took some x-rays, since there was no obvious tumor or anything. She said he either has pneumonia, or heart failure. She gave him some medicine that helps w/ heart failure but not pneumonia, and started him on antibiotics. So if he feels better tomorrow, it's his heart. Otherwise, it must be pneumonia.
As some of you may know, there is no good outcome for this. There is nothing they can do for his heart, and pneumonia is VERY serious for rats. So, I'm sitting here feeding my rat wet kitten food, because that's all I can do.
This rat is so sweet, they had trouble weighing him b/c he kept trying to kiss them, and its just going to break my heart if he dies this young.
