02/04/2025
Normal week happening here so far, it's pretty much matching last week in terms of drama. First we had the sad situation with the baby rat passing and as that was settling, little Zain here began scratching his ears mutilation style. You can slightly see in this picture the blood but because it looks minor from this angle, and he's so cute, I'm hoping posting this doesn't upset anyone. It's worse behind his ears but you can't tell in this picture, and he's okay.
He's being his same silly self, popping out super interested in whatever I have in my hands which currently is a syringe full of coconut oil to drizzle on his ears, he doesn't like it and immediately grooms himself, rubbing it in for me like the good little boy he is, and then he gets his piece of walnut treat.
Zain is being treated with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory and received a mite treatment and total cage clean. All his bedding, sea grass, cork and real wooden accessories were tossed out and I gave him everything brand new (thank you to his San Diego Mouse Benefactor!), his imitation wooden and ceramic items and wheel were sanitized and cleaned.
So it's been quite busy around here, making sure he's comfortable as well as attending to everything else. I feel pretty confident I achieved my goal of switching him to a brand new cage with minimal stress on him. I observed him closely and notated his curious behavior and willingness to make the new cage his own by settling down in it and creating a nest for himself. Plus he was so busy exploring he left his ears alone.
All of the cages here are wrapped in double-sided tape on the outside just as a precaution and although it's a huge pain to redo it every couple of months, it's so worth it because it prevents total infestation if this happens with one of them.
Fortunately I've dealt with it many times before while running this rescue and have become a pro at managing these things in addition to all my other animal care responsibilities, but if anyone is reading this and waiting on a return call or email from me..... I have to squeeze in a follow-up vet visit, so it's going to be a few more days until I can get to it 🙏
