Yakko

NARR: None - rescue/pet only Color: Black Ears: Standard Coat: Standard Markings: Berkshire D.O.B. 8/23/2009 D.O.D. 5/1/2012 Cause of Death: Euthanized due to failing quality of life Breeding Status: Pet Only, Never Bred, Neutered Show Results: Not Shown Notes: Yakko is one of the rats we had at school for our Veterinary Technology program. He and his siblings were kept for a semester so that students were able to practice handling, medicating, sexing, taking the temperature, and other skills. At the end of the semester the animals are adopted out to students, and Yakko is coming to live here! He is the more adventerous of the brothers, especially enjoying climbing onto my microscope at school when I was holding him on my shoulder while looking at slides. The names are from the main characters of the Animaniacs! Yakko and Wakko were both neutered as they continued to display more and more aggression, mainly directed at each other and to their sister, Dot. The neutering seems to have helped curtail this behavior, and their reintroduction went smoothly. He's back to enjoying his time hanging out with his siblings in a hammock or stashing treats around the cage! Yakko has always had some noisier breathing, and has been on and off meds several times for suspected myco flare ups, etc. Neither of his siblings or the other rats around him seem to experience respiratory symptoms at the same time, and its suspected that he may have some lung scarring contributing to his breathing sounds. Despite this he remains an active guy with a great appetite! Yakko started experiencing some hind end weakness in the fall of 2011, which progressed to a full loss of use of his hind legs. Despite this, he continued to be able to navigate his cage, even climb the sides, quite successfully. As happens when anyone stops using limbs, he had some significant loss of muscle around his back legs. He was very clever about managing to keep himself clean and well groomed though, using hammocks and other objects to help him bend to groom his back legs and tail. Early in 2012 Yakko started showing some signs of further problems, as he seemed to have difficulty holding and gripping food with his front feet. He figured out how to push blocks into a corner so he could eat them, and we started him (and his sister Dot), on daily supplementation with baby food, and sometimes ensure, to help them get extra calories without him having to work at it. Yakko LOVED his baby food, and would come trucking out for it whenever I came in, boggling his eyes happily as he chowed down. Into April we started seeing a decline in how he was doing, more muscle loss, and problems getting around as easily. He didn't seem to be showing any more respiratory problems than usual for him, but had stopped grooming as well. Despite baby food and ensure, he was steadily losing weight. He developed and abscess on his back end, despite attempts to keep him and his cage clean and well cushioned for him. We made the decision that it was best to help him across the bridge, rather that let his condition continue to deteriorate. He went very peacefully without any resistance. We'll miss you tough guy, stash lots of treats and chow down on lots of great food with your brother Wakko.