Sandra Beasley and the Spaz Rats

Leyden's Last Chance Kids
One baby Born June 15,2006 - Died June 17,2006
Her 3 siblings died Inuterus

Mom: (was to be) P4P Jana
Agouti Mismarked Hooded Standard-coated Top-eared Doe

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Father: (was to be) SPAZ Leyden
Slate Blue Collared With a Head-spot Standard-coated Dumbo Buck

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May 24,2006: I chose another partner for Leyden. This time it was Jana. She is a pet store rat but she is big and "healthy as a horse" at 10 months of age. If they breed tonight I will expect babies around June 15. This is Leyden's last chance to reproduce his lines. The theme for this litter is "Last Chance", and the babies will be named after games of chance.

June 15,2006: It's time to clean out the cage one last time before Jana has her babies. She does look pregnant, but she doesn't look like she is going into labour. Expecting babies in the next few days.

Jana scurried into the leg of the fleece pants that I had given them for bedding. I reached in to bring her out and I felt a baby in there. Sure enough Jana has already given birth to one baby. It was a surprise to find this single perfect little baby and I named her "Bingo" right away.

Two hours have passed and there are no more babies. OK, now I'm getting worried.

June 16,2006: Jana never did have any more babies. She's looking distressed. And worse, she has not fed Bingo. She's cuddling the baby and licking her, but there's no milk band. I jumped in and started feedings for Bingo, but she's not cooperating, and I can't get enough milk into her. I'm using warmed baby soy forumula and a tiny, sponge-tipped, model paint brush. This is not going well. Cona will have her babies any day now. She's as big as a house. All I can do is hope that Bingo will hold on and I can put her in with Cona's babies.

In the meantime, Jana is not doing well either. I took her in to see the vet, and again the diagnosis is Pyometra with three dead babies still inside her. Jana's case is worse because it's all internal. There's no vaginal discharge, and the pus is building up with no where to go. When the vet did the spay she said it smelled bad, and gave her a fifty/fifty chance of surviving the night. Jana was already up and around so she didn't have to stay overnight.

June 17,2006 3:30pm: Jana is doing great and spoiled the vet's prognosis.

I tried to feed Bingo and Cona babysat her, but sadly, Bingo died. And wouldn't ya know it, Cona had her babies the next day.

June 22,2006: Jana is healing just fine. She will be on Baytril for at least 30 days. There were a couple of small lumps by the incision site but I used homeopathics to fight infection and eventually they went away. Jana was stubborn in taking her Baytril so I was really depending on those homeopathics to help her through her recovery.

You wouldn't think that it could happen twice in a row, but it did. I guess Leyden was never meant to be a daddy. In hind-sight, maybe it was a good thing? As I look back on the lives of Leyden's relatives, the "Spring Lambs" and the "Cheezenips", I see that they were burdened with health issues, despite their beauty and sweet temperaments.

The bodies of Jana's babies did not come home for cremation, but Bingo will be cremated along with her mother when it's time for Jana to cross that Rainbow Bridge.

RIP ratties can be seen here

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