#pickletherat

Here’s a compilation of some of my favorite tricks that Pickle learned - she’s only been with me for a little over 13 months, but she’s always been so confident and sweet and she’s picked up so many tricks so quickly!

On Monday morning I will be taking Pickle in to be humanely euthanized - I’ve decided its not fair on her to keep putting her through procedures like tooth trimming when she has no hope of recovery. I want her to go when she still has a good quality of life, and that’s clearly starting to dip now. This is the part I hate about having such short lived pets like rats - nonetheless I don’t regret getting her or any of my rats, and I’m happy that she got to have a good and happy life, even if it is being cut way too short.

(Music credits: “Mischief Maker” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Here was Pickle weaving with a ball from about a month back - present day Pickle is continuing to do well, although her facial abscess (which is on top of the tumor) did open up yesterday. It doesn’t smell bad, which is interesting because it smelled pretty nasty when it first leaked on Thursday - so hopefully that means the AB’s are doing their job. I’m kinda afraid to flush it due to the location, so we will see what my vet says when we meet up Wednesday for another checkup.

I’ll post some update pictures later showing the progression - thankfully Pickle herself seems to be unbothered and has no issue with me poking around the area either.

Trick tutorial on how to train a rat to weave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bz4EXnFa78

Trick tutorial on training rats to fetch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNsALU4xbzo

Pickle continues to do well, and she’s enjoying all the extra banana chips she could ask for! As for this clip, this is the last trick clip I recorded with Pickle from last Thursday - here she and Omelet were playing vs basketball, which is pretty much their signature trick because of how much they’ve practiced it (and yet Omelet still missed once lol - hey, she tries her best!)

Trick tutorial on training rats to play basketball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMf3wUl89nE

Trick tutorial on training rats vs basketball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHBaOt2K1hg

Pickle continues to do well, and she is not liking her training retirement much yet lol - she sees me training the other rats and she stares daggers at me for not giving her a turn! I’m giving her yummy treats to compensate though, and she’s enjoying several hours of free-range & foraging daily ❤

As for this clip, I took this back in February when I was teaching Pickle and Egg to wave - this was a clip from Pickles very first time training the wave trick, and she got it so quickly!

How to train a rat to wave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQFSrjemIug

So I’ve stopped training new tricks with Pickle because I don’t want to add any stress to her life right now, however I have some trick clips of her that I have yet to post from before, so I’m going to post those alongside updates.

As far as today’s update, its mainly good news - Pickle has responded really well to the metacam (although she HATES the taste lol), and is back to being 100% active and playful! Very happy to see her act this way, she really seems to be comfortable and doesn’t seem bugged by the tumor.

Another good thing is that Pickles ear infection has cleared up - the ear drops + antibiotics have done an amazing job, and while she’ll continue to be on them, I’m glad to see one issue resolved.

Then unfortunately we have some bad news, which is that the tumor is continuing to grow pretty quickly. In addition to that, it seems that she has an abscess on top of the tumor (common with these types of tumors :/ ), and I can see a scab forming on the lump. Once it opens up, we can flush it and treat it like a usual abscess, but in all likelihood it will never heal back up, because the growing tumor behind it will make that impossible.

Right now I’m just happy that Pickle is comfortable and active, and while I hate seeing this progress I’m glad to know that at least Pickle is continuing to do well and enjoy life <3

Pickle working on some scent work - here she has to find and fetch me the cinnamon scented ball!

Trick tutorial on training a rat scent work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os7rOc7EOWI

Trick tutorial for training fetch (the indicator cue Olive is using here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNsALU4xbzo