Pancho's wake
December 9, 2008 - Last Friday I discovered a huge
swelling on the outside of Pancho's throat,
under his skin, between his arms. At first I thought it was a tumour
because he'd been losing plenty of weight lately, but then it occured to me
it could also be a gland, or even an abscess. So I took him to the
vet on Monday, and she did a
biopsy. It definitely was an abcess, because a lot of pus came out,
especially after she made a tiny cut in it. However, the swelling didn't
really shrink all that much, so there was either more pus or something else
beneath it. The vet suggested surgery to further check out the swelling,
and hopefully reduce or remove it. So I made an appointment for the next
afternoon, and I took Pancho home again. At first I put him with
Lefty in my hospital
cage, but I then decided it was better to setup my spare hospital cage
just for Pancho.
That night when I wanted to go to bed, I discovered that
the abcess had burst open. There was pus and blood all over the place, so I
cleaned up both Pancho and the cage as well as I could, hoping (praying)
the abcess wouldn't burst again. This morning I found almost no pus or
blood, and Pancho was even enjoying the cookie I gave him the evening
before.
This afternoon I took Pancho to the vet, and she called me
a couple of times while operating on him. She'd tried to clean and remove the
abcess, but it was way to deep inside his throat. There wasn't anything she
could do for him, so we decided it was best for Pancho if he wouldn't wake
up from sugery. :'(
So here we are, at Pancho's wake. When he and Lefty
came to live with me when they were only a
little over 2 months old, Pancho
weighed a mere 291 grams. I
quickly discovered Pancho would probably grow really heavy, and at his
height (in January 2008) my little heavyweight champion was no less than
821 grams. Pancho's been sick only once, when he had an
inflammation of the middle ear, which gave
him his characteristic head-tilt. He's shared the cage with three
generations rats, and although he's had his quarrels with
Dylan and recently with
Uisce & Ulixes,
at the end of the day he was always willing to share his food bowl or his
hammock with all of them. Goodbye my little big boy, you will be sorely
missed. :'(
Pancho, October 25, 2006 - December 9, 2008
2007
2008
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