#shadow the rat
This weeks ratty paw paintings! Everyone was super excited to paint & take photos again - we took a bit of a break last week, but we are now starting up again!
Pickle had her last photoshoot the day after her 1st vet visit, and she is no longer painting or training. She painted these 3 paintings seen here about 2 weeks back, but we hadn’t gotten pictures yet, and I was holding off until I knew she wasn’t in pain. She’s doing well so we snapped the last few photos of her with her final paintings, and she really enjoyed the yummy yogurt and photo session!
If you would like to commission a painting from Omelet, Olive, Egg, or Donut, you can do so on our Etsy shop (called “RatPaintings”) here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RatPaintings
Olive’s turn to work fetch while walking backwards on two rolling barrels in a row - and yes she is walking backwards on them, watch her feet closely and you’ll see she has to backup on each barrel in order to move it forwards!
Trick tutorial on training a rat to walk on a barrel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KVjImgn0-c
Trick tutorial on training rats to fetch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNsALU4xbzo
Sweet Donut doing some fun scent work with the mini chests - she has to sniff out and tip chest 4!
Trick tutorial on training a rat scent work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os7rOc7EOWI
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
Hey guys, so unfortunately I have some bad news - Pickle was diagnosed with a zymbal’s gland tumor today. I suspected she had one when I saw the left side of her face swell up this weekend - I went ahead and gave her infant motrin to reduce swelling/any pain, and while the swelling went down, that just made it apparent that she had a small bump between her ear and jaw (see picture 2 & 3 - the lump is on her left side (right in the picture)).
This is a classic location for zymbal’s gland tumors (ZGT’s), and these tumors often present with an abscess or cyst alongside them, making it easy to misdiagnose them if you’re not looking for them. Unfortunately, while this is my first time dealing with ZGT in my own rats, I’ve seen plenty of images and videos of them in other people’s rats, so I immediately had to suspect one :(
So I made an appointment to take Pickle to the vet today, and the vet quickly confirmed my guess. She does indeed have an infection on top of the ZGT, so we are treating that aggressively with antibiotics, ear drops, and metacam.
The tumor itself is always untreatable, as the location makes removing or even debulking it impossible (it’s right next to the jaw, and if removed it would take the jaw and part of the ear - so impossible to do on a living rat. The tumor also tends to grow more aggressively if messed with, making surgery even more risky). These tumors are almost always malignant, meaning they grow quickly and often spread to other parts of the body - but they are so aggressive in growth that often the rat has to be PTS before this. Prognosis is usually 2-4 weeks before needing to euthanize after initial symptoms, and treatment is all about palliative care to make the rat comfortable and reduce any inflammation, pain, and any accompanying infection.
Once the tumor grows too large, it will also begin to shift things around, causing malocclusion and pain. I already see some very slight malocclusion in Pickle, and the lump has grown some even in just the 3 days since it popped up, so we will be watching her quality of life closely from now on. She has another appointment in 9 days to see her progress, and we will determine our continued treatment from there.
Regardless of what we do, Pickle will be put to sleep before the end of May (right before she turns 1.5 yrs…that was going to happen June 8th) - I can’t believe I’m typing this while looking at her now, because she’s still acting so normal and happy. I hate that this tumor is taking away an otherwise healthy and happy 17 month old rat - she’s not even in the old age bracket for tumors yet, and it just feels like she’s being robbed of so much life. I can’t even describe how I’m feeling - I know illness is never fair, but it really feels like Pickle is too young for this shit.
I’m so so sorry Pickle - I will give you the best last few weeks possible, and I promise I won’t let you suffer at the end </3
This weeks adorable rat paw paintings by my sweet ratty girls - they all did such a great job!
If you would like to commission your own rat paw painting, you can do so by going to our Etsy “RatPaintings” here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RatPaintings
Omelet has taken on a new fun trick, that being bowling! Desktop bowling sets are the perfect size for rats, and I think mini bowling is just the cutest trick!
Trick tutorial on training a rat to bowl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uINkalAPa9I
Olive (black self) and Egg (pink eyed white) practicing their vs basketball trick! Its been a bit since they worked this, but both girls did great!
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
A bit late, but here are some of my adorable ratties posing for easter pictures!
Doing some agility with Omelet and I wanted to try and include her ring toss trick…Omelet did pretty well considering its been a bit since we practiced this, and also considering she’s never done agility while carrying an item (other than flyball)! She’s such a awesome little rat! ❤️
Trick tutorial on training rats ring toss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwTicilZNuE
Trick tutorial on training rats basketball (prerequisite trick): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMf3wUl89nE
Trick tutorial on training rats agility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5Q-vAIpNME
