Eye update.

well...Nixon's eye hasn't gotten any better nor any worse.
I'm not really sure whether that's a good or a bad thing.
I'm really fighting the urge to take her to the vet.
my mom and Robert both think I'm just overreacting and I've really tried to reassure myself that they're right but I'm also really worried since I can't seem to find any kind of information on products that I could use so that the swelling will go down and to prevent infections.
if I was at my parents' house we'd definitely put some bepanthen on it (an ointment that is safe for mucous membranes and works well on pets) but since it's only sold in europe we're out of luck. I can't seem to find anything similar over here despite all my googling.
I've tried two different message boards and one of them was finnish so of course they recommended bepanthen. I had a lot less luck getting any responses on the other message board.
(and unfortunately you can't send creams and things like that overseas. otherwise I'd have my parents ship me several tubes of bepanthen this instant!)

if it was a scratch anywhere else on the body it wouldn't be a big deal.
but it's next to the eye and infections in that area can be really nasty.

I guess it's not infected right now since there is no pus coming out of it.
but it is still swollen and will bleed a little if she rubs it against something.
I saw her scratching it earlier. I don't know if that's good or bad.

I guess I'm just gonna have to keep monitoring her and if it gets worse then probably take her to the vet.
while it's not getting better nor worse I might as well keep searching for products that are rat safe and that will help her heal.

Nixon's first time to the vet.

as the title says Nixon had to go to the vet for the first time today.
good thing I had prepared for the day this would happen and looked up vets that would see small animals!

last night I noticed the corner of her eye was bleeding and there was a lot of dried blood around it. today she kept squinting and had more dried blood around it so I decided it was time to call the vet in case it was something more serious.

poor Nixon was scared and actually tried biting me a couple of times :(
but once we got to the pet hospital she fell asleep for a little bit.
everyone there - including the people waiting for their pets thought she was so adorable :) one lady actually came up to us and asked what her name was and said she was really cute.
the people at the hospital were very nice and kept us updated on what they were doing while we waited.
I thought it was a little funny that Nixon's papers have her name and my last name printed. as in her name is Nixon -my last name- :D

they tested her for ulcers in the eye but she was fine.
they said everything was fine and it was just a scratch.
her fur and stomach were normal and apparently she had behaved well :)
I was worried she was going to be scared and try to bite everyone but luckily that wasn't the case.
in fact - when they brought her out she was energetic and didn't seem scared at all!

on the way home she was being good too.
she didn't poop or pee herself and she wasn't trying to chew on the cage bars.
we made a quick stop at a store on the way home and she slept while we were in there.

when we got home she ran to the cage immediately and after eating the blueberry I gave her she went right to sleep. she slept a couple of hours and just an hour ago we gave her her medication.
I thought it would be hard to get her to take it but I was wrong: she even tried to grab the syringe from me. she got a big energy kick out of her medicine and came out to hang out a little together with Garbo.
she was very playful and jumped on my hand playfully "attacking" it.

Nixon is supposed to be on medication for a week and the swelling in her eye has gone down a lot. she isn't squinting anymore but I can tell it's still a little swollen.

I'm glad it wasn't anything serious :)


edit: forgot to mention that the discharge(?) they gave us suggested that we cut her nails to prevent scratches like this. I know nothing about cutting rattie nails and actually it sounds a little scary to me. I haven't really found any info on it either so I'm not really sure if I should do it or not :/

Loft!

Robert has been asking me when am I actually going to post some pictures.
well tonight would be a perfect time for that since I was just cleaning the cage and I gave the rats a new loft and took a few pictures.

we've had this piece for the cage with a cup hole in it and we use to have it at the bottom of the cage back when the girls would drink out of a cup. since we got a bottle for them that piece hasn't been used and it's been laying around in the closet.
I always thought it was meant to be a loft since the cage also came with a set of stairs but I could never fit it in the cage until today when I decided to cram it in there - and it worked! and the stairs attached perfectly to it.
I made sure to put something cozy up there too so I took a piece of an old t-shirt (I used the same t-shirt to make a hammock for them but that hammock is long gone)and Garbo started arranging it around immediately.

I noticed Nixon has a tiny sore on her tail :/ I read that if it's just a small surface wound like that and it's not bleeding it should heal up but you need to clean it every now and then. it doesn't look bad but it's a little red like it may have bled when she first got it. I also read that you aren't supposed to use hydrogen peroxide to clean rat wounds since it burns off the tissue or something like that :/ unfortunately that's all I have right now and I don't know which would be worse - not cleaning the wound or using the 3% hydrogen peroxide. maybe I should just wait till tomorrow and go pick up something more suitable. I need to go supply shopping this weekend anyways so it would be appropriate.

oh and I just realized that these texts look really confusing and annoying - it's cause my keyboard hasn't worked normally for months :/ some of the keys on the right side (such as the comma) are completely dead. bear with me!








the loft and Garbo trying out the new loft. Nixon was up there for a little bit too and actually used the toy in the middle of the cup hole to climb up there! I've never seen her do that before. Nixon decided that the best place to go pass out at the moment was behind their little kleenex box while Garbo decided to stay up stairs.





pictures from yesterday. Nixon was being cute.
the first picture is from today and that's Nixon in my lap :) bad quality though cause I reeeeaaally don't want to blind my rats by using the horrible flash on my camera. it leaves people blind for a little bit - so I really don't want to find out how my rats would react to it!

I've never really had this problem with pets before as I've always lived in small cities where there is one vet available.
in fact I've only had to call a vet once but was lucky enough to get really good service with the vet that I turned to.

so I've been researching vet clinics a lot lately.
not all of them will see smaller animals like rats but I think I've found (based on people's experiences. I even looked this place up on rmca.org)the one where I'll be taking my rats if they need medical attention.

and speaking of which...Nixon might need that.
I noticed yesterday that she doesn't want to open her left eye. I've seen her open it but most of the time she tries to keep it close. it could be that she has debris or an eyelash in her eye so I need to get some terramycin and try to clean around the eye but if that doesn't help then I better contact the vet and take her in :/
I read that good pet stores might have terramycin so I guess I'm gonna have to go look. and if not I know you can purchase that from vets. if I'll have to take her in anyways I might as well pick some up on the same trip.

I feel bad for Nixon. hopefully it's just some debris. I did notice she had some around that eye but I didn't think it would be a problem :/

I will keep you posted on how Nixy's eye is doing.