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Drama for Feather 03 May 2011 ~ 16:40 On the night of Tuesday 26th April, I was giving the rats a goodnight cuddle when I noticed that Feather was unnaturally cool. She also seemed very listless and wasn�t interested in food (I�d given her some salad leaves earlier which she usually snatches but she wasn�t anywhere near as keen as usual).I woke Mark and asked him to help me give Feather some Ceporex, an antibiotic we use for rats who have pneumonia. However, she refused to swallow the medicine, even though it was orange flavour, and just held it in her mouth. We put her back in the cage and Lilac climbed all over her licking the medicine out of her mouth. Instead of fighting back like Feather usually would, she just lay there. Thus we took the decision to rush Feather to the vets. It was nearly midnight by the time we arrived. We asked the vet to give her a shot of Ceporex, which he did, and we also asked that Feather be kept in overnight. Neither we nor the vet could tell what was exactly wrong with Feather. Feather stayed at the vets for a total of 4 nights. At first, she wasn�t eating, but after the first day, she picked up, her body was warmer and she was eating a variety of foods that had been offered to her. The vet nurse had written on her notes pinned outside her pen �Loves Cheese!� On Wednesday night Mark & I visited Feather and on Thursday night Mark visited her alone. I�m sure our visits kept her spirits up. I posted on some rat forums to ask if anyone knew what could be wrong with Feather and the suggestions were mainly pneumonia (Debbie �The Rat Lady� thought so) or that Feather had fallen in the cage and gone into shock, hence the cold body temperature as effort was switched to her vital areas. The day of the royal wedding (Prince William & Kate Middleton 29th April), Mark & I had arranged to stay overnight in Windsor, so we came home via the vets on the Saturday morning and picked Feather up to take her home. She was overjoyed to be back with her sisters and enjoyed free range time Saturday night immensely. I pray to God that Feather is over this glitch and will live a happy and healthy life from today on. 
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