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mr flibble's operation
12 years ago
Mr Flibble did not come back from his hernia operation today. He had to be euthanized while under anaesthetic.
The vet was pretty annoying, actually, and kept trying to tell me the lump was an abscess and unlikely to be a hernia. He just didn't seem to actually respect my opinion, or the 16 years of rat keeping I've had whereupon I've seen too many abscesses to count, and know generally when something is not right with one of my rats.
He kept telling me hernias are rare in rats. How come I've seen at least 3 in the last 5 years, then? Maybe HE hasn't seen any before, but then, as I said, I've had 16 years of living with multiple rats all day, every day. I've owned over 250 of them to date, and each one has shown me some kind of medical issue. Im not a vet, but I know rats, and I know what Im looking at, and, most importantly, I know how to tell an abscess from something more serious.
Vets get a tiny amount of training on small furries, and that which they do get lumps all small furries in together as one. So their rat knowledge is really not going to be great, unless they have a personal interest in rats and have taken it upon themselves to better their knowledge.
So he went on about how he wanted to put a needle in it to check for pus. I was pretty pissed off at this point. This was NOT a cheap operation, nor was it something I could easily afford. I had to really scrimp and go short to afford this, and he was trying to bump more cash onto it by doing pointless things such as that.
The bottom line was, there was a lump the size of a small walnut on my rat's stomach, over his bellybutton, matching exactly umbilical hernias I've seen on other rats. It could only be one of four things: a hernia, an abscess, a tumour or a cyst.
Regardless of which one it was, ALL would need surgical intervention, so why mess about with needles and such when whatever the outcome, the rat has to be opened up?
I told him I really wasn't happy with the abscess diagnoses, as it just didn't fit ANY of the typical behaviours of an abscess. It came up the second Mr Flibble was bitten by his brother, something an abscess does not do: they take hours or even days to build up, and they usually come to a head or become obvious as abscesses after a few days.
But I had no choice but to leave Flibble with them, as he needed surgery, and if the only way I could convince the vet to do it was to go along with his stupid needle tests, then I had to do it.
He rang me about an hour later to say he had been unable to find any pus in the needle aspirate so it was looking less like an abscess after all................which is what I said all along.
They got him on the table and opened him up, and found he did, indeed, have a hernia which had infection in it, and parts of it were necrotic, so basically, there was no option with surgery. Nothing could be done.
I opted for him to just not be woken up.
This was just.......a horrible day. So stressful, having a vet who doesn't respect or listen to your view, who you get the distinct impression would take the whole thing more seriously if it were someone's beloved dog or cat.
And so I have a horrendous vet bill to pay, and not even the joy of knowing I have a healthy, happy rat at the end of it.
Fuck it.
The vet was pretty annoying, actually, and kept trying to tell me the lump was an abscess and unlikely to be a hernia. He just didn't seem to actually respect my opinion, or the 16 years of rat keeping I've had whereupon I've seen too many abscesses to count, and know generally when something is not right with one of my rats.
He kept telling me hernias are rare in rats. How come I've seen at least 3 in the last 5 years, then? Maybe HE hasn't seen any before, but then, as I said, I've had 16 years of living with multiple rats all day, every day. I've owned over 250 of them to date, and each one has shown me some kind of medical issue. Im not a vet, but I know rats, and I know what Im looking at, and, most importantly, I know how to tell an abscess from something more serious.
Vets get a tiny amount of training on small furries, and that which they do get lumps all small furries in together as one. So their rat knowledge is really not going to be great, unless they have a personal interest in rats and have taken it upon themselves to better their knowledge.
So he went on about how he wanted to put a needle in it to check for pus. I was pretty pissed off at this point. This was NOT a cheap operation, nor was it something I could easily afford. I had to really scrimp and go short to afford this, and he was trying to bump more cash onto it by doing pointless things such as that.
The bottom line was, there was a lump the size of a small walnut on my rat's stomach, over his bellybutton, matching exactly umbilical hernias I've seen on other rats. It could only be one of four things: a hernia, an abscess, a tumour or a cyst.
Regardless of which one it was, ALL would need surgical intervention, so why mess about with needles and such when whatever the outcome, the rat has to be opened up?
I told him I really wasn't happy with the abscess diagnoses, as it just didn't fit ANY of the typical behaviours of an abscess. It came up the second Mr Flibble was bitten by his brother, something an abscess does not do: they take hours or even days to build up, and they usually come to a head or become obvious as abscesses after a few days.
But I had no choice but to leave Flibble with them, as he needed surgery, and if the only way I could convince the vet to do it was to go along with his stupid needle tests, then I had to do it.
He rang me about an hour later to say he had been unable to find any pus in the needle aspirate so it was looking less like an abscess after all................which is what I said all along.
They got him on the table and opened him up, and found he did, indeed, have a hernia which had infection in it, and parts of it were necrotic, so basically, there was no option with surgery. Nothing could be done.
I opted for him to just not be woken up.
This was just.......a horrible day. So stressful, having a vet who doesn't respect or listen to your view, who you get the distinct impression would take the whole thing more seriously if it were someone's beloved dog or cat.
And so I have a horrendous vet bill to pay, and not even the joy of knowing I have a healthy, happy rat at the end of it.
Fuck it.
I wish you weren't so far south from me, I know our vets is brilliant with small furries, and rats especially, because we've had hundreds of ops with them now, and virtually all successful, and not horribly expensive either. None of our ratty ops have come to more than £100 each, and aftercare is great.
Think you should complain about this. This is unacceptable.