Sad News - My Rat Stella

[Miss Vicky]

As many of you already know, I am quite the animal lover and one of my favorite kinds of animals is the rat. At the moment I have two of them, Stella and Cy, but soon it will be only one. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a large bulge on the side of Stella's head. I had my veterinarian examine her and he determined that she likely had a tumor growing in her ear canal and that removal would not be an option. However, it turned out that the bulge was actually an abscess (though it is still possible that there may be a tumor in there). After draining and cleaning the abscess several times and maintaining her on antibiotics, she has not improved. The infection has caused her to develop a severe head tilt and she is no longer able to keep her balance. Worsening the matter is her chronic respiratory problems and now she has stopped eating.

This has left me with no real option but to have her euthanized. She's about three years old, which is a pretty typical life expectancy for a rat, so this is not really unexpected, but I was really hoping it wouldn't come to this so quickly. I'll be taking her in this morning to have it done.

R.I.P Stella.