June
2008
And another :(
Barely having had to time to get over Indium and Ripple’s sad deaths Tantalum then became ill. He’d had a tendency towards a bit of a noisy chest at various times through his life so when his breathing became noisy again a couple of weeks back I dutifully started him on baytril and echinacea expecting it to clear up. After about 5 days nothing had changed however so I booked him an appointment with the vet which was for the Saturday morning. Only I ended up rushing him down there as an emergency case on the Friday evening. His breathing had become heavily laboured all of a sudden and he really didn’t seem well. The vet gave him an injection of a diuretic in case he had fluid on his lungs and prescribed a different antibiotic and an anti inflammatory and on the way home he already seemed a bit brighter. By this point he wasn’t drinking however so as well as his meds I syringed honey water into him to keep him hydrated as well as providing him with a heat mat to keep him warm. He was much more lively after all this and had a pretty good night. The next lot of meds went down fine in the morning and he was interested in the various foods I tried to tempt him with but sadly during the next afternoon he passed away. 
So Wednesday just gone when their owner came to pick up the long stay fosters for the final time (they will be able to go to university with her next year) only 4 of them remained which I found hard given everyone was doing well just a few weeks back. It seems to be the way it goes sometimes but it never gets any easier to deal with.
However fortunately its not all doom and gloom here as I’ve also welcomed two new little girls to my mousey family. They’ve come from starlight trust rescue and are a mum and daughter (a male/female pair and their babies were handed into rescue). Mum I’ve named Pippa and the little one is Maisy and she’s on baby watch as unfortunately she accidentally came in contact with young males before coming here. Everyone’s keeping their fingers crossed that she isn’t pregnant, bless her.
I will also homing the original daddy who will be reunited with Pippa after being neutered at the rescue. Apparently they were quite devoted to each other so it will be lovely for them to be able to live together again. Daddy will get a name once he’s here which will be in a couple of weeks once I know whether Maisy is pregnant or not. I will of course keep you updated!
