# Little Agnes...only 1 month after we met.



## noMoreFaith (Apr 28, 2010)

Agnes didn't make it. She died yesterday night, next to their little basket where they slept. I knew when it was because I couldn't hear her loud breathing anymore. She had been sick from the start but this weekend her health went downfall. Ever since I brought her home, she'd been sneezing and I assumed it was just a reaction from moving to a new enviroment. After more than a week later,I realised something was wrong. Her breathing was fast and loud. I got antibiotics. I didn't even have enough time to use them. Friday, she couldn't walk anymore. She crawled around weakly, and kept rolling to her side. The next morning I woke up to find she had gone blind. Her one eye was reddish with porphyrin but the other one was wide open, blurry and blank like a fish eye. Like a transparent membrane covered it. She couldn't eat or move. The real pain started then. I wanted to put her to sleep, and all vets were closed for the weekend. According to a schedule I found, though, some of them were supposed to be open ALL DAY and we called them all and nobody was there. They were away having fun (Monday is a day off and celebrated here in Greece, so what's better for them than close down and go away, ignoring their rensposibillities??) . I didn't have the means to euthanise her at home. She died exhausted and weak. I feel so ashamed of myself and everyone who let her die like this. No animal should ever go through that ****.

Little Agnes was with us for just a month. At least, she was happy for a little. My other three rats were like mothers to her. A few photos of her, from the other thread about her:























































I can't stop thinking about her. It was heartbreaking and painful to see her climb weakly on her cage, wanting to get out. That was the last time I saw her alive. It's the first time I lose a rat. I can't quite express how devastated it feels to having lost a little beautiful baby like her this way. I can only conclude it's the breeder's fault, for what I can't find a disease with similar symptoms.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

The membrane over her eye was just that. Rats have a 3rd eyelid that can drop and not retract if a rat is sick. I am so sorry about your wee one, but at least its over with now, and she's not suffering any longer.

I wouldn't call the people that produced her a "breeder" but a BYB or a rat mill. ((hugs))

Fly free little Agnes.


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## bcfromva (Nov 22, 2009)

I'm very sorry for your loss. A sure sign of a good person is one who feels they're "not doing enough" even as they bend over backwards. I'll tell you what a friend told me recently; although you feel sad and guilty, that little rat received more love and care than 99.9% of the rats in the world and I'm sure she was thankful for it.


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## Kiko (Sep 18, 2009)

I am so sorry for your loss :'(

Even though she was unhealthy in life, at the rainbow bridge she is healthy and happy, and playing and running with countless rat friends, and waiting for you to walk over with her.

RIP Sweet girl.


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## 1a1a (May 6, 2011)

Sounds like she had an advanced respiratory infection. Similar thing happened to my rat, she went all lopsided like she had had a stroke, then she recovered, then she relapsed then she got really weak, stopped eating solids and drinking, at this point I tried antibiotics but by the second day she couldn't walk same as Agnes' and she stopped eating period. I took her to get euthanised but didn't feel great about it (see my post "RIP Nicky" for the outburst of emotion and frustration). Your story is the alternative version to mine (to euthanise, or die naturally), my thoughts are with you.


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