RIP Miss Demeanour the mouse
One of our three little mice, Miss Demeanour, had to be euthanised yesterday. It was very sad. She developed a massive tumour in the space of less than a week, and I do mean massive—it was in her groin and about half the size of her body again. There was no way it could be removed without killing her, and she couldn’t walk properly.
Tumours are common in rodents, and all our mice are about a year-and-a-half old. They don’t live longer than two years.
Imagine, if you will, having a gigantic ball sticking out of your inner thigh, so big that your leg sticks out at a right angle from the hip, and is uselessly hanging in the air. Yeah. Not very nice, probably painful. Miss Demeanour was eating just fine, and I marvelled that her sisters were taking food to her. I had no idea mice were so socially responsible towards one another.
tags: cancer, euthanasia, kindness, mice, mouse, tumoursMandrake may have FIV or Feline Leukaemia
Mandrake, our three-legged marmalade tomcat, started being ill at the end of last week. He stopped eating and drinking, but was able to go to the toilet, and when we took him to the vet we found out he had a temperature of 104 and a distended stomach. He was given an antibiotic shot, but over the weekend his temperature did not go down and we had to resort to all manner of tactics just to encourage him to consume a few pieces of chicken—about seven in total, next to nothing, but nevertheless, strangely enjoyed even though the efforts we went to were extraordinary. Water was administered by syringe, one little mouthful at a time.
tags: cancer, cats, Feline Leukaemia, FIV, vets
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