Sunday, September 09, 2007

Ratty wounded on escapade

Toby contemplates the cost of his adventures.

On Thursday night we let the ratties out for their evening run. Toby, the more adventurous of the two (Billy is a woos and spends his "running" time hiding under the couch) discovered a hole under the stove. Down he went, under the house, and didn't return. Eventually we had to go to bed, and just left a macadamia nut under the stove to entice him back. It worked! He came trotting out holding it proudly like a basketball. So, all was well until last night, when we noticed that one of his back feet was lacerated, perhaps crushed (sob) and had blown up hugely. There's redness and pus and it's not pretty. Off to the emergency vet, a delightful young woman who told us she loves rats and said "Right, Mr Piggy, we'll have to confiscate that" when he licked the lubricant off the thermometer that had been taking his temperature you-know-where. So, $145 later and armed with a bottle of antibiotics, and under strict instructions that he is to rest(!) here we are trying to get his infection down so he won't lose the foot. "What if we just amputated the foot now?" I asked, but no, the philosophy with animals, as with people, seems to be save it if you can.

7 comments:

Ampersand Duck said...

Oh no! Poor ratty. My cats would love to give him a sympathy cuddle, but that might not help matters...

Pants said...

Poor Toby. Poor You.

xxx

Pants

Anonymous said...

Is that a Go Cat box? Do they eat cat food?

Meredith Jones said...

Yes it's a Go Cat box, but no, they don't eat cat food. We give them all our empty boxes & they spend all night making nests out of them. They love the Go Cat boxes because they're roomy inside but only have a little opening - so they can get up to Ratty secret business inside them.

This old world is a new world said...

Random personal gripe about that "Seniors" Go Cat box: the picture of the kitteh on the front is completely adorable, but completely inappropriate to the idea of the older cat with his/her own special food. I would like to see something much more dignified. But that's really off topic. And it doesn't sound as if Toby gives a rat's....

Meredith Jones said...

I recall from when I had an old cat (RIP Professor Runty) that the Whiskers Senior food has a more age-appropriate and dignified moggy-shot.

News on Toby: the foot still looks SHOCKING, enough to gag at the sight of. Normally his whole foot would fit on one of my fingertips but at the moment it is as big as a cherry tomato. All purple and with pus spots. But he seems fine. He's eating and drinking well and is extra keen on chocolate biscuits at the moment.

JahTeh said...

Well as we all should know from Canberra, you can't keep a good rodent down.