| Current Overall Status: Old Quinn's went to the Bridge at 2 years, 8 months. Night of August 23: Quinn passed in my arms. My heart is broken. More to come in her bio. As of August 23: Yesterday Quinn stopped eating her regular pellet food. I've been offering fruits and snacks, but she still feels so skinny. Last night at midnight I knew I should be getting to sleep (had to get up at 6 the following morning), but I had Quinn out on my lap. She fell asleep on my lap for the second time ever, the only other time being when the tumor first bugged her. This morning she wouldn't come out of her house to greet me until after much coaxing, but I managed to get a bit of grape into her. I came home and she seemed slightly more perky, but here she is now: on my lap sleeping again. Rats with tumors have a breaking point at which the tumor sucks so much energy out of them, they get too tired to do much. She reached that breaking point. I'm crossing my fingers she'll make it to the three, but every day is an absolute blessing. A couple weeks ago, I found a tumor on her. Tumor. Ack, it's an ugly, ugly word, isn't it? I told myself it would never happen. I believed myself (you think of all people, I'd know better, hehe). But Quinn hasn't proved invincible, rather - vincible, really... It feels like it's wrapped up in her internal messings, and attached - which leads me to believe it's malignant. I took her into the vet - Dr. Baes wasn't there but a fill-in was. She didn't seem to provide much info other than that it very well could be cancerous, that it might take more than one surgery to remove all of it, that she might get more later, and that the anesthetic risk would be particularly great seeing as she's so old. I'm crossing my fingers that it's benign though, as it seems to have stopped growing over the past few days. Other than that, she's totally healthy! About a week or two ago she couldn't support her backside. She was walking about with her back legs flipping and kicking out behind her. I thought, at the time, the cancer was spreading to her spinal chord and that she was starting to become paralyzed. For about 6 hours (including a trip to the grandparents' house) I held her vigilantly in my lap as she slept for most of it. She woke up after 4 hours and seemed good as new! I counted my blessings and thanked god at that moment. :o) I first decided to not to take her in for surgery, but now I'm debating about whether that was a good call. Any ideas? Comments and stories welcomed. (Please put "Quinn" or "RATS" in the subject somewhere, it helps me spot it quicker! <:3 ) Lilac's getting up there too. She's 2 years, 3 months. Lilac is a very healthy, chubby little darling! She's old, but the only way you could tell was by the cataracts clouding her eyes! I'm not worried about the cataracts though, she doesn't seem to notice and seeing as rats don't have great eyesight to begin with, it's not that much of a handicap. I think she's mad at me. The first night without Quinn must have been hard for her. She smelled Quinn on my hands when I first went to cuddle her... She'll have nothing to do with me. Kind of how Quinn was after Lily... |
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| Quinn |
| Last updated July 6, 2003 |
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| Lilac |