Last Weigh in (June 2013)	Today's Weigh In (December 2013)
Sero	8.6 oz	12.2 oz
Atticus	11.4 oz	14.4 oz
Vaux	12.1 oz	15.2 oz
Pip	1 lb 9.3 oz	1 lb 6.2 oz
Beret	13.8 oz	14.2 oz
Molly	9.5 oz	9.6 oz
Nymeria	9.9oz	11.3 oz
Aniston	10.7 oz	14.9 oz
Paisley	11.1 oz	11.3 oz
Scarlett	11.0 oz	12.4 oz
Chelsea	13.8 oz	14.8 oz

Sero- given olive oil bath; minor scratches on body

Atticus- given olive oil bath; minor scratches on body; dry patch/scab on tail appears to be mostly healed

Vaux- given olive oil bath;  minor scratches on body

Pip- exfoliated tail gently (build up under scales); scab on side (appear to be bite wound); no other issues

Beret- some scabs along neck and sides of body other than that, looks good. Wheel tail is still present but does not affect her mobility or balance at all.

Molly- looks good, no issues!

Nymeria- scabs along neck, shoulders, and sides of body- this is typical of Nymeria- they appear more like bite marks

Aniston- lumps have become quite large and are just now starting to hinder her mobility but only slightly as she still walks in the wheel. Increase in weight due to tumor size

Paisley- looks good- cataract in eye still present but doesn't appear to have increased in size by too much, no other issues

Scarlett- left eye has hard lump directly below it, squinting. Flushed it out as best as I could with natural tears eye drops and wiped it gently with a cloth- will continue to monitor and wipe it daily

Chelsea-  marble sized lump on right side (mammary tumor); strange mass on groin area- appears to be like thick, raw skin- has  been there for weeks with no change in appearance or size. Doesn't seem to affect her even when I touch it gently

Chelsea's odd growth. No hole, just an indent in the center.

Chelsea has a nasty burst abscess on her tummy. Flushed it with sterile saline. I also discovered two very small lumps forming- one on her right side and one on her left side just above her hindquarter. No surprise, her sister, Scarlett No-Haira had to have a lump removed not too long ago.

Sero's facial bite wound is looking much better. Still some bruising but the wound itself looks pretty good.
Vaux's lump is indeed a abscess.  It now is flat but has a blackish crusty scab over it. In my experience, its almost worse to mess with them at this point so I am leaving it alone but will continue to monitor it.
Cicero's breathing appears to look a bit labored. He isn't making any noise, but his sides move in and out much more than normal. Putting him on Baytril.

Rushed into rat room after hearing loud distress squeaking to discover that Sero got bit on the left side of his face. All the other males were laying about, looking at me innocently (go figure!) The skin surrounding the area appears to be bruised. Definitely going to have to keep an eye on this to make sure it doesn't become an abscess.  Speaking of which, while examining Sero, I noticed that Vaux, who was standing up with his front paws on the cage side, has a small pea sized lump on his abdomen. I suspect an abscess since he is male (likelihood of it being a mammary tumor is much more uncommon). Applied a warm compress.

My S.A.V.ed boys (get it? Sero, Atticus, and Vaux...SAVed?) all received olive oil baths to cleanse and to moisturize their skin (less traumatic and just as effective as a water bath). They are so sweet! They were bruxing and boggling away at the attention! The scratches appear to be minor, although some look worse than others. I believe they will heal up very nicely.

Sero had a lot of buck grease and multiple scratches. He also has quite a bit of porphyrin coming from his left eye. He is the smallest of the group.

Atticus's right eye appears odd to me for some reason. At first I suspected he might be odd eyed- as that eye looked more ruby and the other looked more black. It appears after further examination that he is just ruby eyed but the abundance of porphryin in that one eye made it look more reddish than the other. His skin is the least scratched up.

Vaux came in with the most scratches. He is the largest of the group.

They were estimated to be about 3-4 months of age.

Weigh Ins:
Vaux     12.1 oz
Sero     8.6 oz
Atticus 11.4oz


Drained some sebum out of Cicero's cyst. It was last drained June 4th. Didn't have too much sebum in it and I was able to extract it easily, which is good- we are keeping on top of it to prevent it from becoming too painfully impacted.

Scarlett's tumor has grown very little in this amount of time, although we are still going to have it surgically removed.

Welcomed home three new additions! Sero, Atticus, and Vaux- three hairless males adopted from an overcrowding situation in PA in which the original owner was going to just release all the rats into the wild. There was about 20+ rats, including pregnant females, that were removed and transported to various parts of the US via volunteer transporters. All three boys arrived very scratched up and had excessive porphryin coming from their eyes, but their noses and breathing appear clear. They are being quarantined where they will be kept for 3 weeks before I attempt to introduce them into my mischief with my current males. Tonight is mainly about letting them settle in and get used to having space (there were 10 of them crammed into a 10 gallon aquarium!). They all appear friendly- not biters- but are shy as they probably haven't been held except for affections they received by those who rescued and transported them to me.

Noticed some porphyrin around Emerson, Cicero, Aniston, and Molly's nose. Scarlett did not have any porphyrin but I did hear her "snoring"- sounded somewhere in between a whistle and a wheeze. I had dusted the ceiling fan that is in the rat room today so I am certain its just a nasal irritation (it even got me sneezing for a bit). Going to continue to monitor everyone. 

Emerson has a small scratch on his right lip, just below the nose. Most likely from getting into a typical squabble with Pip.

Cicero: finally was able to drain all the sebum from the cyst on his back. The hard, pea sized lump on his back is now gone, and their is just a small hole which I will be keeping clean and watching for any sign of infection. His noisy breathing is completely gone, however, I am a bit concerned about his breathing in general. You can see his sides move more than my other rats when he breathes. No discharge from eyes or nose, lungs sound clear from what I can tell.

Nymeria: discovered quite a bit of crusty dried blood in her left ear. Discovered a small laceration on the tragus (not sure if that is what it is called in a rat, but that's about the same location as that of a human). Cleaned the site with saline wash.

Scheduled Aniston's mammary tumor removal for May 3rd. 

Discovered a small scab on Nymeria's back- most likely a nip injury from Paisley who seems to be relentlessly harassing Nymeria the past couple days. It does not appear to be very serious at all.  I noticed Paisley displaying typical behaviors that would indicate she was in heat. I am going to start tracking this to see if there is a relationship to her aggressive behavior and her heat cycles.

Discontinued flushing Emerson's abscess area as nothing other than a very small scab remain. Eyes looking much more even- suspecting the squinting had to do with discomfort perhaps?

Flushed Emerson's abscess area with sterile saline wound wash (purified water and 0.9% sodium chloride). Will continue flushing area 2x daily until healed.

Flushed Emerson's abscess area with sterile saline wound wash (purified water and 0.9% sodium chloride). Will continue flushing area 2x daily until healed.

Flushed Emerson's abscess area with sterile saline wound wash (purified water and 0.9% sodium chloride). Will continue flushing area 2x daily until healed. Looking MUCH better today! Its already gone down in diameter! Moved Nymeria into the big cage at last after introducing all the other girls to her for a few hours in her cage. Great success!