last week i noticed a lump under mocha's arm, and i knew immediately what it was.  so i scheduled a removal for her.  well, a couple of days ago i also noticed another lump by her tushie.  sometimes these things grow so fast!

mocha was really mad at me last nite because i had to isolate her from the group and she couldn't have anything to eat. and today was the surgery.  she is now at home (and i would have posted much sooner, but we both took a nap on the couch) (i love it when ratties will sleep with me, it happens so rarely).  she is still really groggy from the pain meds, so i can't tell if she is still upset with me or not.

"...wah happened..."


"where am i..."


a rare tummy shot


this is not the face of love. this is the face of "stop flashing me and let me get back to sleep"

the vets and techs loved her sooo much, too.  when Dr. D called me to tell me how everything went, she mentioned that so-and-so was doing her hair.  i said what hair? (she already looks like she had a fight with a shaver) she told me that they had to wash her up a bit after surgery and apparently there were several people who wanted to do it.

Poor girl.  She looks like she needs a good rest.  I'm glad she came through OK.

If you ever have rat surgery done again, talk to your vet about withholding food before surgery.  It shouldn't be done with rats.  Rats can't vomit as a reaction to the anesthesia, so withholding food and water isn't necessary.  In fact, because their metabolism rate is so high, my vet says it can actually harm the rat and make him a lot weaker.

Poor little sweetie!  She is just the prettiest rat in the world, so it's easy to see why they would want to "do her hair"  I'm glad she made it through!

I made an appointment today for Channah to see Dr. D this Saturday for an exam of her tumor (same spot as Mocha's original).  I was less than pleased with the receptionist with whom I made the appointment; I had to keep telling her it was a "rat" - who is Channah? she said, my pet rat, I said, and what species is she? she said, and I said, uhhhh, rattus norvegicus, your standard pet rat, a brown berkshire...  she says, ohh, a rat, ok, and what color?  

Melissa, she asked for the name of who referred me and said they send out thank you cards

I'm glad everything went smoothly.

she gave me a scare today.   i looked at the inscision by her tooshie and it looked as if she had picked it open a little.  of course i rushed to the vet, and they "saw" her by means of having a tech bring her to the vet so that i would not have to be charged for the visit.

turns out it was just a little swollen a little bit drainning but they said that the inscision was still shut.  (i could have sworn... but then again i am a mommy)  (a rat mommy)  so they gave me some bitter apple to put around her inscisions.

if looks could kill    she took one lick of it and the poor baby! "what the....   BLEH, BLEH, BLEH....."  she started rubbing her tounge all over the hammock.   i could not stop laughing.  and of course the other two just had to make sure she was all right.  (i had all three on the couch for a bit and they didn't seem interested in bugging her too much, sooo...)  now the hammock is getting tounged to death.