Terminal 7 week old Male in advanced stages of infection.
WARNING: THIS PAGE CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES OF A RAT DISSECTION
* Health history of subject
This boy developed a rattle at about 3 - 4 weeks of age. His health was always poor in comparison to the others in his litter. Given his young age and sudden onset of bad infection he was not treated with either Doxycycline or Baytril.
* Treatment history
No treatment was given
* Symptoms prior to death
Hunched over, occasional open mouth breathing. Coat was 'fluffy' brittle and course. Almost all muscle had degenerated and no fat was present under the skin or around the organs. Rat would 'rock' back and fourth while trying to breathe.
This boy developed a rattle at about 3 - 4 weeks of age. His health was always poor in comparison to the others in his litter. Given his young age and sudden onset of bad infection he was not treated with either Doxycycline or Baytril.
* Treatment history
No treatment was given
* Symptoms prior to death
Hunched over, occasional open mouth breathing. Coat was 'fluffy' brittle and course. Almost all muscle had degenerated and no fat was present under the skin or around the organs. Rat would 'rock' back and fourth while trying to breathe.
Above: Liver. Appears to be healthy and of an average size.
Kidneys. Not any excess fat build up around them. They appear healthy and of an average size.
The stomach. As you can see despite being at a terminal stage of illness the subject was still eating and digesting food. This is another example how how important it is not to assume that the animal is rescuable based on its eating behaviour.
The lungs. Infection is very advanced. The lungs should be a rich pink colour. They should not have any lumps. Notice the bad white 'bubling' area's on the lungs. This is bad scarring caused by infection. The subject became ill and reached this stage of lung damage within a period of only a few weeks. This rat had little to no use of its lungs by the time it died.
Above you can notice the difference between the left and right lung. The white fluid coming from the lung is pus and fluids that were resting inside the lungs.
This is a cross section of the right lung (the white, infected looking lung) you can see more fluids coming through the bronchial tube. These lungs were packed with infection. The amount of fluid in the lungs was quite astounding.
Fluid coming from the lung cross section as I applied pressure to it.
Final Notes
CONGRATULATIONS YOU MADE IT AND IT WASN'T EVEN THAT BAD!
This subject came down with respiratory infection at a young age and succumbed to it extremely quickly. It is doubtful that if a course of antibiotics were administered at the first signs of infection, that the animal would have recovered. Many breeders have reported that in the event that they have attempted to treat such a savage and early onset of illness, the animal has survived only to pass some months later. These animals also appear to suffer from recurring infection which does a small amount of damage each time. Over the life of a rat these many small instances of infection do an equally large amount of damage over time.
