A Rat's Tale, with a little bit of a preachy ending

My friend Enricka loves rodents, especially rats. I know what most of you are thinking: vile pestilent creatures with disgusting long naked tails. But, rats are actually quite intelligent and very social, forming groups with each other and with humans. (Enricka tried to convince Anna to get a rat, but she had her heart set on a hamster.)

Enricka loves her rats and gives them excellent lives for the short time they are with her. That's the problem with rodents: they only live about 2.5-3 years before breaking your heart (dying, usually from cancer).

Lucretius (center rat in above picture, white) has acutely developed diabetes. Enricka had noticed that he'd been losing weight and drinking a lot -classic symtoms- when she found glucose and ketones in his urine. Glucose is there because there are such high amounts in the blood it spills over in the kidneys into the urine. The ketones were a more ominous sign. Without insulin to get glucose into the cells to power them, the body starts to catabolize proteins. The byproduct of this is ketones, which also means the patient is also likely getting acidotic (very sick).

Enricka was ready to give her rat insulin, but how much do you give a 50 gram rat? She found a published dose of 1 unit, but that sounded like a lot to me, since we routinely give 10 lb/5kg cats 2 units. "Give him 1/4 unit," I told her, "Hypoglycemia would kill him a lot faster than hyperglycemia." If blood sugar gets too low (hypoglycemia) you get seizures, organ failure, death. She gave the little dose, but he was still listless.

Later that night, Lucretius was worse, so she started researching the web. Enricka is a real scientist, so she was researching scientific journals, not just anecdotal websites. She found out there was a paper about diabetes in rats at the library at UT, so she had her boyfriend drop her off and circle around to wait for her (no parking). But the library was closed, so she went home and paid $50 with a credit card for the article.

The article said to give 7 units of insulin to rats. SEVEN UNITS! This is a ton! I'd never start off a dog or cat on SEVEN units. Enricka said as she gave the injection her hands were shaking.

The next day, Lucretius started improving, eating again, and as you can see from the photo, playing with his brothers. Apparently because of the rats' body weight to surface area ratio, they need a much higher dose of insulin.

I know many people would not pay $50 to save a rat that could be replaced at the pet store for less than $10. But I've seen people pay thousands to save dogs and cats that they got for "free." Witness our dog Terlingua. The thing is, it doesn't matter what the species is, if you have a bond with an animal, that is real. It never ceases to amaze me how people will sit in judgement of someone spending big bucks on veterinary care, but no one judges someone who spends their disposable income on new golf gear, or at the Harley-Davidson store, or on a luxurious weekend getaway.

If you have a relationship with a domesticated animal, and that animal is dependent upon you for everything, and in return they provide companionship, affection, devotion, etc, you have a responsibility to provide good care for that creature. We should all be so lucky as to be looked after by a person as caring as Enricka. LONG LIVE LUCRETIUS!