Olive: 11-11-2011

I adopted Olive in April of this year. She traveled with her sister Fern, all the way from Star's Rat Rescue in South Dakota. Olive was a feisty adventurous rat. About a week ago Olive started having some slight balance issues. She kept tipping over. She was on antibiotics for about a week for treatment of a possible ear infection. She seemed to be getting better and was more active but still having balance issues. She also was losing weight.

Then she took a turn for the worse. I'm pretty sure she had a pituitary tumor, like my rat Spice had years ago. She was very weak the one night when I came from work, she could only hobble a little bit and she would tip over. The next morning she couldn't walk at all. She would lay on her side and move her legs like she wanted to move, but she just couldn't. She stopped eating & drinking. It was so sad because she would lift her head up and stare with her dark eyes and look at you like she wanted to get up and run around, but her body wouldn't cooperate. Olive passed away in the late afternoon yesterday... I only had a very short time with, but I will miss her so much...

Fern & Olive when they lived at SRR

Olive & Fern after arriving from their long journey from SRR

Honey & Olive

Olive the morning before she passed away.