Well, I have just adopted a beautiful elderly female rat who has recently had a stroke. (Big shout out to my wonderful Mum for letting me keep this gorgeous girl - I love you Mum!) She is such an enormous sweetie, I love her to bits and she evidently loves me too... but this is not just a topic for me to rave about how cute she is (although I might start one just for that, lol  ). Oh and by the way, her name is Cherimoya!

Now, as a consequence of her stroke she is kind of on a permanent lean (Mum has nicknamed her 'Sideways,' while Dad calls her 'Spaz,' but in a completely non-derogatory way), and her coordination is pretty poor. I can't have her up off the ground unless I've got a firm hold on her, otherwise she will definitely fall, she can't sit on my shoulder or climb at all - for those uninitiated in rats, they are normally extremely good at these things. A few times when I have put her back in her cage, she has slipped somehow and wound up on her back (she can right herself though).
All this may make her sound like her life is pretty unhappy but she really actually seems very playful and in love with life, which is great, but I'd like her physical state to reflect her mental one a bit better, so I'm putting her on a green smoothie challenge to see if it helps her at all. I always feed my rats green smoothie every day anyway, simply because they love it and, of course, it is very good for them, but I can't wait to see if this has an effect on her.

I'll keep you updated! 

Oh wow Freedom.  Another baby for you?  Congratulations

I do hope Cherimoya loves her gs as much as Kiva and Willow do.  And hope even more that it brings her to rights.  How exciting - loving rat experimentation!!!  Give her a little rub behind the ear for me won't you?

Heaps of love
May

Hi Freedom,

My boys loved their green smoothie so much this morning they licked the bowl spotless and then turned it over to check if there was any hidden underneath.  So funny!  They also love mixed peas and corn - there's a race between them to see who can pick out the most corn first then they're left to eat the peas at their leisure.

I've decided to name them Natty (the brown one) and Pippin.   I love having rats again - I don't know why I waited so long!


xo
Michaela

Oh Freedom, your new rattie sounds awesome!!! I love the nicknames too. One of my friends had an Mexican Walking Fish that only had three legs when she got it and so she called it tripod!!! LOL. Made me larf.

I hope she does well on her challenge.

xoxoxo

Well, a little update on my lovely Cherimoya... just days after starting on her GS challenge, late on Thursday night, I was putting some food in her cage and picked her up for a cuddle only to find myself with blood all over my hands. She was bleeding copiously from her reproductive tract, which is definitely NOT normal in rats, so I was obviously extremely worried and upset. First thing Friday morning I managed to get in at the specialised rodent vet (only one in Perth!) and my suspicion was confirmed that she probably had ovarian cancer. She received a cortisone injection, to stop the bleeding, because it is impossible to operate while an animal is loosing blood like that. She came home yesterday and I was feeding her watered down green smoothie through a syringe, and I continued getting up throughout the night to keep her fluids up.

Amazingly, she made it through the night and I got her back into the vet this morning to have a hysterectomy. I watched the surgery (yes, it is horrible - their breathing is so slow, after every breath you're just waiting for the next one, hoping it comes) and I got to see the awful thing inside her. There was a growth the length of one of her legs (about 3 cm) and the width of my little finger just hanging off the side of one of her ovaries! It was just a big, black/blue blood clot basically, so thankfully not a malignant cancer (phew!) It took her a long time to wake up from the anaesthesia, which was made worse by her stroke, and in fact she is still a bit wobbly but amazingly she seems very well! The big challenge now is, can she re-generate all the blood she lost?

I am still regularly giving her very watery green smoothie through a syringe (which she loves!  ) and I honestly believe that it is this incredibly mineral dense food I've been giving her that has enabled her to survive this far.

I will keep you posted!! 

Oh Freedom I hope your Cherimoya will be OK. She definately has a much better chance now that she has you to take care of her.

I wonder if our mice would like green smoothies. They are not really big on much fruit although I have always given it to them. They eat mouse seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, lettuce mix, baby spinach, broccoli, corn cobs, dandelion flowers and leaves.

Unfortunately my son has kinda lost interest in them and doesn't clean out their cages as often as he should. Thankfully we have stopped them breeding and have had no baby mice for a while.

Much love to you and your ratties
Tracey

I totally agree with Peta, she's in the best possible hands(my thoughts and prayers are with you and your 'baby')!

Freedom, I really admire your selfless love and dedication for all life / beings.

Best wishes for Cherimoya Freedom. The poor girl. I'm sure she will do well. My heart aches for you both.

Much love

xoxoxo