Our timid little girl has passed away

We are very sad to say we had to have our sweet girl Tulip put to sleep this morning. She had been unwell for awhile, and we were forced to come to the difficult conclusion that it was best to say goodbye to her.

Just over a month ago we noticed that Tulip was looking a little round, at first we thought maybe she was getting a bit fat, though deep down we knew it wasn’t true. As the weeks passed the roundness in her tummy kept getting worse, it didn’t stop her getting about and enjoying her play time, though it she did begin to alter her walk to compensate for her roundness. A few times she showed real signs that something was wrong and we’d find her laying flat out in a plastic tube, with her feet behind her not responding to us. These bouts usually passed very quickly and she’d be back to her old self again.

Then three weeks ago she started with very bad diarrhea, at first it didn’t seem to bother her, though it did make the cage a little smelly. We got her some baytril and some pro-biotic to try and help settle her tummy, but unfortunately this didn’t help. Eventually it became obvious that Tulip was havening more and more difficulty going to the toilet and she would often just collapse on the floor obviously very uncomfortable. Her energy levels were also beginning to drop and she would get very tired while out playing, and because of her round tummy the other rats would find it very easy to roll her over, and while they didn’t mean any harm it wasn’t very nice for Tulip.

Tulip only had five short months with us, and it all seems horribly unfair. While we don’t know exactly how old Tulip was, we do know that she was kept on her own, in too small a cage and not handled enough, if at all, by her first owner. She was always very nervous of us, though she loved living and playing with her sisters. In the time she was with us she learned to jump up things and get into all sorts of mischief, but we always struggled to get her to interact with us, even if it was to take a treat from us. Her timidness also meant that we struggled to take photographs of her, which is a bit sad for us as we love looking at pictures of our babies and remembering our time with them.

Our little girl will always be very special to us and we know that Tulip was as happy as she could be given the circumstances, but still we are going to miss her very much and I can’t help but wish that we’d had more time with her.

Tulip enjoying a drink at playtime and eating with one of her sisters