Autoimmune Diseases in Rats: A Case Study

Several months ago we had to say goodbye to one of our pet rats, Percy.  Rats are a relatively uncommon pet and do not have the same knowledge infrastructure as the more popular pets.  I publish his symptoms and story here for anybody else frantically googling in the middle of the night like I was:

I picked Percy up from a Petsmart. I honestly intended to go with a rat rescue to honor my animal shelter roots, but I played with him on a whim and it was akin to being hit by a spiritual truck. I was a gonner and had to have him.  He bloomed into an intelligent, feisty, and adventurous companion. His favorite thing to do was follow you around the house in his over-sized hamster ball.  He never sat still unless it was to gobble a dried cherry.

In the space of a weekend road trip when he was about a year and a half old, I came home to discover he had scratched all the fur off behind both his front legs.  There were quarter sized patches of scabs while the rest of his fur remained glossy and healthy.  His upper lips were also swollen.  A skin scraping at the vet turned up mites, so we started treatment for both rats in our house (each were already housed individually).   The vet also prescribed antibiotics in an effort to treat the lip.  Then more concentrated antibiotics because Percy was sneaky about spitting the doses out. Then a different combination of concentrated antibiotics because there were hints of improvement. A ring worm test turned up negative. 

Meanwhile, the other rat in the house (who kind of became the default "control" rat to rule out infectious disease even though I kept them very separate) continued happy and healthy and Percy's scabby patches grew and his lip became even more swollen and started scabbing over.  He started loosing weight so I switched his diet to soft baby food in an effort to keep weight on him, which he devoured.

Finally, the vet gave me the steroid prednisone.  And it worked!  Rapidly, Percy's fur started to grow back, the scabs fell off his lip and swelling reduced, his energy that had drained away came back, and he gained weight. Around the time I tried to taper his dose of steroids down, he took a turn for the worse. Within a week I had lost all progress gained plus more, and no matter what I did I could not reverse it.  My poor Percy looked like a miserable plague rat carrying a whole host of infectious diseases, and you could finally tell he felt awful because he stayed in one place for extended periods of time, wouldn't eat his favorite treats, and got super snuggly (adventure rats don't sit still long enough to snuggle). We made the gut wrenching choice to have him put down instead of having him decline into nothingness.  It was the first time I have ever had to make the euthanasia decision and though I believe it was necessary, I do not wish to make it again in a hurry.

Side note that did not sit anywhere else, but might be useful to somebody: I had a cat in high school who was also diagnosed with an autoimmune disease where prednisone was the treatment.  Albert presented with the same swollen upper lip as Percy, but instead of raw patches on his shoulders Albert's paws would bleed.  After several years Albert's end was also euthanasia.  I noticed and worried about similarities early on in Percy's illness, but the vet seemed quite convinced antibiotics were the best initial treatment in the hopes the illness wouldn't require steroids.

***

Ugh.  I have been trying for weeks to think of an adequate closing to this post, to give some sort of closure beyond e-hugs and love and sympathy to anybody else going through this.  I even thought about not posting it because why dwell on the end when there was so much good before that?  Somehow I do not think Percy would understand my brooding.  Rats are the greatest teacher of zen I know.  Falling in love with a creature who has a big personality and naturally short lifespan only serves as a reminder to stay anchored in the present moment and enjoy the good while it exists alongside you.

ACME Overtime

Just as life settled down after an awesome wedding and travel season and I was beginning new projects....BAM.  Like Wile E. Coyote in that shining moment of promise before he grabs the roadrunner I got hit with a LOT of overtime at my day job.  My boss is convinced I sleep under my desk, my loved ones feel unloved, and the lizards don't recognize me (not that they ever did....)

It is not the worst thing by any means as I enjoy the opportunity for a challenge and the bump in my paycheck (Thanks for the shiney new iPad, overtime pay!), it does mean in the low moments I feel like weeping for lack of time and energy for creative pursuits.  Though it is stress release to type out drafts of blog posts during lunch, energy for editing to publish is scarce.  When I get home I usually opt to play free iPad games that take a long time to play and often require minimal cognitive effort. (For anybody interested: Pocket Minions, My Singing Monster, Skylanders, and Tribez)

It unexpected how much I appreciate the opportunity to put my nose to the grindstone on a large corporate project.  It reminds me of the rythm of school more than my own projects do.  School had a seasonality to it.  I would loaf through the first few weeks while I built a routine and marveled at the newness of my supplies and subject matters.  After fall break things pick up a head of steam until the critical pitch of finals where you drink so much coffee that your hands vibrate when you type and you giggle nervously at nothing.  Once finals are done there is the release of energy and recovery period before it all begins again.  My nine-to-five cubical job, which pretty much does the same thing all day, every day, doesn't create the same yearly work cycles in my life.  Being busy at school usually fueled a burst of energy in my independent pursuits even if I didn't always have the time and energy to see them through.  I find the same thing happening now.

In a month or two my workload will migrate to the desks of others, I will get some good sleep, and I will try to capture some of the corporate momentum for my own purposes.  Until then, if anybody has some free and easy iPad games to recommend...I would love to hear them!

There is probably a life lesson somewhere here

I was recently gifted a blender by Mudflap, who tends to adopt flotsam and jetsam of the material world and try to find a home for it.  I often pick up my phone to find a picture text with the caption: "Do you want this?"  It's kind of like a year-round Secret Santa, only more random.

The blender he turned up is a hardworking little machine.  It is a thing of beauty because it provides crushed ice for the Pirate and smoothies for me.  Yet I find myself running into the age-old problem: when I make a smoothie, I want to put EVERYTHING TASTY into it. I toss in whatever is in the fridge.  Spinach, flax seed, yougurt, orange juice, random fruit that needs eating.  This results in a smoothie bursting with nutrients, but perhaps not quite as delicious if I had restricted the ingredients.  This is a chronic pattern of behavior whenever I "build my own" food item.  Frozen yogurt, stir fry, sub sandwiches, salad bars. I pile my plate so full of delicious goods that the flavors run together and I end up not really tasting them at all.  I notice this with recipes too.  The fewer ingredients the recipe has, the tastier it is and the more I like it.  

Note to self: taste is not additive or exponential in nature.  Possibly with the exception of butter.

Blogging Boundaries

Okay, I admit it.  I was nervous about the IUD post going up, and ever since then I have struggled with the impulse to post a lot to bump it down the front page.  The post garnered a lot of page views fast (yeah, I'm totes watching you guys) but dang was it scary to publish.  I was actually forced to post it early because I hit the "publish" button instead of the "save draft" button and caught the mistake a bit too late to take it back.  Instead of freaking out I took a deep breath and concluded it was the universe giving me a gentle nudge in the publishing direction.

Blogging and boundaries is a topic never ceases to fascinate me.  On the one hand, it would be very easy to pour my soul into this blog.  Letters to the world.  I love writing letters and sharing secrets and telling stories.  On the other hand, privacy WHAT.  As I was growing up I hoarded privacy and put significant energy into controlling who knew what.  Slowly I have opened up, thanks to five years in an liberal college environment, yet I still tend to become hostile when I learn unintended people have learned something I meant for private ears only.   And my wee blog on teh internets?  Why, it is open to EVERYBODY.  How bloody terrifying is that?  VERY.  Mean, judgmental people are out there!!  Instead of hyperventilating, I try to look at the flipside: How friggen awesome is that?  VERY.  Friends and besties and social connections ahoy!

The ironic thing is the blogs I love the best are the ones that bear all.  Joys, fears, pain, challenges, laughter, advice.  As a reader there is nothing I like more than feeling I am a best friend the author is imparting secrets to.  I devour archives and life stories.  I swear I'm not a stalker, but I do sometimes feel like a creeper who should occasionally send out an email saying "HI THERE. I read all your secrets.  In exchange, a list of my secrets is attached.  Kthxbai."

So here I am, trying to strike a balance.  Trying to be respectful of my friends and family and employers that might not want their stories shared while being true to my own.  Trying to follow my intuition and write soulful posts I would really like as a reader, even when they take courage and personal pep talks to post.  Trying not to be a perfectionist and edit my archives to erase or update my story.  Trying not to make this blog into something it's not or somebody else's vision.

So here's to future blog posts and the archives of the past: may I be a writer who is brave and coherent enough to tell a story that contributes to the blogging world and seeks to repay the joy I have reaped for so many years.