Today is a very sad day for us since our little buddy passed away today.
He had some problems a couple months ago so we took him to the vet and the vet said he had a mild case of Bronchitis and gave Jerry some Baytril and Doxycycline liquid to take 2 times a day until gone which helped.
Last night when I gave them their late night snack they all three were fine since all three ran to the gate to get some Organic Romaine Lettuce and early this morning when Jennifer feed them they all came and got their banana chip.
I went in to feed our little buddies this afternoon and noticed Jerry was just laying in the hammock and not coming to the gate so I thought he was just tired so I grabbed the bag of banana chips and shook the bag which would make all 3 of our little buddies come running to the gate to get their banana but this time Jerry never wanted to come.
I reached in and picked him up from his hammock and noticed he had a hard time breathing and I could see every breath he would take as his body would expand and contract and I knew something was very wrong.
My wife Jennifer had Jerry on her tummy and we could see our little buddy was having a harder time breathing since he was now opening his mouth with each breath. Kayliauna got Myles and Amadeus out of the cage and brought them to Jerry and they seemed to know something was wrong with Jerry since they both started grooming him and Myles even laid his body on Jerry as if he wanted to comfort Jerry.
Jennifer opened his mouth to see if anything was stuck in his throat and could not see anything and she even got a syringe filled with water and gave that to him and it went down without any problem so nothing was lodged in his throat.
Jerry would walk around a little then just lay down and after a few minutes or so Jerry was not wanting to move at all and his breathing got really bad and I just felt he was going to pass away and there was nothing we could do and I have never felt so helpless.
I decided to take Jerry and put him back in his cage so he could be with his two brothers since I felt he was going to die and I stroked his little head and was telling him how much we all Loved him and when I opened up the cage I put him in the hammock and he rolled over on his side so I got him back out and I could see he was not breathing so I yelled for Jennifer.
Jennifer and our daughter Kayliauna came running and I told them Jerry had passed away. We all three started crying our eyes out. It was very emotional for sure.
I never thought we would be able to Love Rats as much as we do and just how much a Rat could become part of the family but we all Love our Rats so very much and we all stood there balling our eyes out knowing Jerry was gone.
We ended up taking Jerry to a small park that has lots of wooded area and baried our little fatty ratty.
The below images show Jerry's Grave and Jerry shortly after passing. Not sure why I took that picture after he passed away but I guess it was part of my grieving process. You can click the images for larger view.
I think Jerry had something wrong with him other than a mild case of Bronchitis since Jerry was a Fatty Ratty and his 2 brothers are very slim and not fat at all but we all fell in Love with him and he will be missed so very much.... We love you buddy! Rest in Peace little buddy!
Jerry was a fatty ratty but we never fed him anything differently since we always put the food in their bowl and usually Jerry would grab and run to the top floor to eat so when he was eating he was getting more exercise than his two brothers since they usually stayed right next to their food bowl when eating or at least remain on the same floor as their food bowl but Jerry ended up being a fatty ratty.
Myles and Amadeus are fine but they do know their brother is not longer with them and they seemed sad like they knew Jerry had died.
We knew our Ratties would not live a long time but we thought for sure it would be more than 265 days but we are Blessed to have had the time we did with Jerry and he brought so much happiness to our lives and we will always have those memories.
He was born on November 19, 2009 and passed away August 11, 2010
WE LOVE YOU JERRY... WE WILL MISS YOU VERY MUCH EACH AND EVERY DAY... REST WELL MY LITTLE FATTY RATTY... YOU GAVE US SO MUCH HAPPINESS AND JOY AND YOU WILL ALWAYS BE PART OF OUR FAMILY AND WE WILL MISS YOU DEARLY.
