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a heart attack whether I need one or not
Fantastic winter's day; t-shirt weather and even the feet were exposed for the first time in months. I have been doing some major pruning in the front yard, so my shed is now full up of branches which need to go out in the bin, week by week.
In my last post I made references to the way my luck turns out sometimes. That was in reference to the value of our dollar dropping against the greenback. So anyway, I moved almost the maximum allowed from my Visa card into American currency on the foreign card. That's fine. I'd done my shopping, wouldn't need any more money that day, Thursday. Went home, did stuff around house. While taking a break from gardening on the back steps, I heard frantic running and thumping in one of the Ferret Kingdoms and thought the rats must be chasing one another. Bit odd to do it in the midafternoon, though. So I took a look to see what was going on and found Ernest, on his own, scrabbling in the midst of what looked like a grand mal seizure on the floor of the cage! I grabbed him out and held on, which was all I could do.
Poor Ern shuddered through the seizure, calmed, went into another one and then a third, so violent that I had trouble holding him. He had been showing some signs of myco but nothing to indicate a major problem. He seemed to be having breathing problems so I took him in the bathroom and turned on the shower to make steam. Yes, I have a nebuliser, but I didn't think I could set it up and fill it with saline while clutching a frantic rat. I thought he was going to die, as this has been the outcome every other time I've seen such a thing happen. He did calm down finally and I then decided I had to take him to the vet now. If there were drugs that could help, they needed to be used at once and I was out of antibiotic.
Don, friend and landlord, came to the rescue with his ute and we carted Ernest off to Morley Vets; not my usual, but there was no way a car would reach Subi quickly, due to known peak hour traffic congestion. And that train line was off again this week. Morley were very good; they rushed Ernest in and he was examined. Heart okay, which was one worry off the table. He was now breathing normally, though was very lethargic. [A human epileptic has now told me this happens after seizures]. The vet tried to get all the details of the seizures and I did my best, but I now see I need to learn how to use my tablet comp to make a video, as anything I could say was not precise enough.
There's a list of unpleasant things which cause seizures; epilepsy being one, but it is rare in rats. A brain tumour is another and we really hope it's not that. Really the best bet is infection and that's now being treated with antibiotics the vet provided. Ernest spent the night in a hospital cage and has steadily improved in the two days since. He's now back with his cellmates.
But to the matter of luck. This was the one day when I wasn't sure whether there was enough money for the vet bill on my card! I believed there was about $70 left to use on this day. However, I'd practised loading $ on to the foreign currency card and had stuffed up, loading about $50 in our money, not US dollars. Explained to the receptionist the situation and that I would need to take from both cards. Yes, the vet bill was indeed about $120. How odd is that? First the rat emergency and then managing to have precisely the needed $ remaining. Rats do do this. If there is a public holiday, your rat will pick then to get sick. While this wasn't one, the trains being off was an equivalent. Obviously I needed the stimulation of panicking in the surgery about whether there'd be enough $, as well as being terrified for Ernest's welfare.
But Ernest seems to be all right, or at least improving for now.
In my last post I made references to the way my luck turns out sometimes. That was in reference to the value of our dollar dropping against the greenback. So anyway, I moved almost the maximum allowed from my Visa card into American currency on the foreign card. That's fine. I'd done my shopping, wouldn't need any more money that day, Thursday. Went home, did stuff around house. While taking a break from gardening on the back steps, I heard frantic running and thumping in one of the Ferret Kingdoms and thought the rats must be chasing one another. Bit odd to do it in the midafternoon, though. So I took a look to see what was going on and found Ernest, on his own, scrabbling in the midst of what looked like a grand mal seizure on the floor of the cage! I grabbed him out and held on, which was all I could do.
Poor Ern shuddered through the seizure, calmed, went into another one and then a third, so violent that I had trouble holding him. He had been showing some signs of myco but nothing to indicate a major problem. He seemed to be having breathing problems so I took him in the bathroom and turned on the shower to make steam. Yes, I have a nebuliser, but I didn't think I could set it up and fill it with saline while clutching a frantic rat. I thought he was going to die, as this has been the outcome every other time I've seen such a thing happen. He did calm down finally and I then decided I had to take him to the vet now. If there were drugs that could help, they needed to be used at once and I was out of antibiotic.
Don, friend and landlord, came to the rescue with his ute and we carted Ernest off to Morley Vets; not my usual, but there was no way a car would reach Subi quickly, due to known peak hour traffic congestion. And that train line was off again this week. Morley were very good; they rushed Ernest in and he was examined. Heart okay, which was one worry off the table. He was now breathing normally, though was very lethargic. [A human epileptic has now told me this happens after seizures]. The vet tried to get all the details of the seizures and I did my best, but I now see I need to learn how to use my tablet comp to make a video, as anything I could say was not precise enough.
There's a list of unpleasant things which cause seizures; epilepsy being one, but it is rare in rats. A brain tumour is another and we really hope it's not that. Really the best bet is infection and that's now being treated with antibiotics the vet provided. Ernest spent the night in a hospital cage and has steadily improved in the two days since. He's now back with his cellmates.
But to the matter of luck. This was the one day when I wasn't sure whether there was enough money for the vet bill on my card! I believed there was about $70 left to use on this day. However, I'd practised loading $ on to the foreign currency card and had stuffed up, loading about $50 in our money, not US dollars. Explained to the receptionist the situation and that I would need to take from both cards. Yes, the vet bill was indeed about $120. How odd is that? First the rat emergency and then managing to have precisely the needed $ remaining. Rats do do this. If there is a public holiday, your rat will pick then to get sick. While this wasn't one, the trains being off was an equivalent. Obviously I needed the stimulation of panicking in the surgery about whether there'd be enough $, as well as being terrified for Ernest's welfare.
But Ernest seems to be all right, or at least improving for now.
no subject
Isn't it just a lovely day? I'm trying to get washing dry and hoped to get out in the garden this afternoon, but it's probably not going to happen with all the other stuff I need to get done in the house and then my delightful mother in law will ring in about half an hour and spend no less than an hour on the phone (because she can speak for an hour for free) during which time I'll have to make dinner and deal with tantruming children. She does speak to Adam for the best part of it, but it's still really inconvenient.
Sorry. That became all about my griping and nothing about the gorgeous day :D Enjoy the rest of it!
no subject
Condolences on the MIL. I know what that's like with my M, though to be fair she doesn't do it regularly, even though she doesn't understand that I don't talk on the phone for fun. The invention of texting was better than sliced bread, IMO.
If I'd had to, I could have borrowed from Don, though really didn't want to do that. I had already hauled him and his ute out to Morley! If it had been Subi Vets they would have waited, but I had no idea whether Morley allowed that.
Now preparing to devote evening to rat room service.