Good Bye Pixel

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in by Cassi

My sweet little Pixel passed away on Saturday. It was extremely sudden, and he was so young. When I got home from work Thursday evening he was hunched over, not moving much, and his fur was all puffed out. I took him into the vet first thing the next morning. After an xray and blood work, the vet determined he had an ear infection and possibly infection elsewhere. We got him on Baytril and Meloxicam. I got him to eat some ground up lab blocks mixed with water, and was hopeful he was doing better. But on Saturday he started getting worse. He was so lethargic he couldn’t stand up to eat out of his shallow dish. He was taking meds from the syringe pretty well if I held him in my lap, so I decided to suck up some watery food and feed him with the syringe, too, since he wouldn’t eat on his own. Somehow I think he inhaled some of the food, or choked on it, because his breathing got really labored and I could tell something was wrong. From everything I’ve read in the past, it said to let a rat work it out if he’s choking because intervention could make it worse. But after 1 or 2 minutes he stopped breathing. I called the e-vet immediately, and she suggested CPR. I managed to blow air into his lungs a few times, but it was too late.

I feel so terrible about it. He was a great rat. He always knew how to win people over with kisses and cuddles - I called him my Rattie Ambassador. I know I’ll never have another rat just like him.

Hue and Pixel

Here he is with Hue just a couple weeks ago.