Yeah... another not so happy trip to the vet. My Shirley had what we thought as a uterine infection (blood appeared to be coming from the vagina, which is NOT normal in rats) so our local vet put her on Baytril. Last night, however, a gob the size of her leg was out of her (which is scary as fuck to see your child in this situation). I called our local vet for the on call ER vet, no answer. I put a fast post on a big rat group regarding the situation while I thought through other possible options at 11pm at night.

I remembered that there is an ER vet clinic a little over two hours away, though I didn't think they would see rats. Turns out they do, and had an exotics vet on call. My lady and I got Shirley ready to go and headed out the door around 11:30pm (maybe alittle later) for the long drive. We got to the vet around 2:30am. When we were seen, I explained all what our vet here had said, gave all the medical details, and at this point, I was still hoping that this was just a simple infection that would be taken care of with antibiotics. In the back of my mind, however, I knew it wasn't. It's never that simple with elderly rats.

The ER vet gave Shirley an ultrasound to see what was going on, and he found that her bladder has abnormal growth in her bladder, which is behind the blood coming from her little bits. So when she tries to pee, this is when the blood happens (dark blood and discharge thankfully (this means it's older, we don't want to see bright red blood), knocking on wood for no bright red blood).

The vet believes that this is a bladder cancer (I don't recall what kind of sarcoma he stated it was), but the only way to confirm this is surgically. Shirley is 2yrs, 10mo old, which in humans years translates to approximately 83yrs old. At this point, surgery is a massive risk, and even if the cancer was verified and she survived, medication to address the sarcoma may or may not be available (the only one I'm aware of for use in rats is Tamoxifen, which looks to me more aimed at breast cancer). At this point in her life, it's about (what I refer to as) omega care, aka end of life care. It's about making her as comfortable as I can until the very end.

I'm opening up $10 Flats to help defray the costs of the ER visit, as well as the additional vet visits this week for both Shirley and her sister, Ruth (she appears to have mites, which means the entire mischief needs to be treated with Revolution (flea/tick meds).

$10 single character flats, +$5 for additional character,
SFW only
Complexity fee of $3 applies to any complex character design
I'm on board for making artwork of your furry babies too! All I need is a photo or two, just like a character ref
Rattify comms welcome (turn your character into a rat; these are so much fun to see the transformation from)
By commissioning me, you agree to my Terms of Service

Below are just a couple examples of flats :)

Wolfbird Conbadge
Diphy Couple Comm
Misomie's Rattify
Surfin' Brightfire Conbadge

In short, I'm in need of some cash to help defray vet bills to take care of not only my twilight years rattie, Shirley, but to treat the entire mischief for mites. Please consider nabbing a commission slot from me, or spreading the word so more people can see, so I have a greater chance of receiving a much needed commission!

Thank you.

For any donations, I've got a handy link to my Paypal:

paypal.me/mcatcomms