Meet Speedy!

[CMB]

Nice layout for Speedy. He may just find using the wheel hard because of his back leg(s) weakness.

Hopefully he will gain strength and like his wheel in time.

[EnerHam]

Yeah, I'm hoping he'll start using those back legs properly, but at the moment he's decided he's going to be lazy and has gone back to dragging his lower half.

I've got fond memories of a rotastak cage I got for one of mine. He managed to push one of the tunnels out of the base of the cage and escape, made his house in the wheel, chewed a couple of the tunnels until they were unusable, peed in the tunnels, used them as a food store... Those cages are the definition of awful.

[Pebbles82]

Yes they are awful - but you just gave me an idea! The one I had for Charlie - the large base unit bit had a tube attachment for an external wheel. Only a 6" wheel but Speedy is tiny. I was just wondering if he could use something like that easier. Like a kind of toy in his cage base unit. This one has the external wheel at one end and tube holes at the other end. If you took the tubes out he could go through the hole and the wheel entrance would be low and the whole thing stable.

Maybe a bit whacky - and not cheap - it would be a kind of toy or play area in the Zoozone. Do you think that would work with him?

Although if he's not interested in a wheel maybe not! You could maybe pick one up second hand though.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rotastak-Su...VWPSNYYRAGVV4R

[EnerHam]

I may try that, but at the moment I've got a bit of a problem.

Speedy seems lethargic tonight, and he didn't eat/pouch as much food as usual last night. He's making a clicking noise when he breathes, so I'm pretty sure it's a respiratory issue. I've only noticed it tonight and I could be overeacting, but if I still hear issues tomorrow morning I'm going to give the vet a ring again...

[Pebbles82]

Oh dear that doesn't sound too good. I hope it's just a blip and he's ok tomorrow, but a vet check does sound like a good idea. Hope the little guy is ok.

[EnerHam]

I'm sorry to say Speedy passed in the night. I have no idea what was wrong with him. By the looks of it he went peacefully in his sleep.

I'll post in the memorial section a bit later... I don't feel up to it right now.

[EnerHam]

Update: I may be taking on Speedy's mum later today. Not sure how I feel about getting her so fast after losing Speedy, but she's currently living in something that's only 20x30 cm and she's roughly six months old. Poor baby.

[cypher]

I'm so sorry, this is a real shock after he seemed to be doing really well, he certainly gave it his all & you were a wonderful mum to him, it's very sad that it was for such a short time, we were all hoping he would thrive & live a long life but he couldn't have been given a better chance or more love & care than he had with you.
Hope you're ok *hugs*.

Speedy's mum isn't much more than a baby herself really, I can imagine the mixed feelings but I'm sure you would do really well together.

[EnerHam]

Thanks Cypher. That means a lot. It's going to take me a while to adjust back to not having him around. He was such a sweet little fellow.

Hindsight is killing me right now. I can see now that there were a couple of 'off' moments with Speedy in the days leading up to this, like how he went from trying to use his back legs to just dragging himself around... I just thought he was being lazy/he'd gotten into a bad habit. I shouldn't have assumed...

His mum was a very sweet little girl the last time I saw her. She was trying to climb onto my hand when I went to stroke her. I felt horrible leaving her there. She's going to get quite the shock when she sees her new home!

[cypher]

It's easy to think what we might have seen or done in hindsight but try not to go there, it was natural to make assumptions like that & you didn't miss anything you could have changed, sadly with a little teeny ham like Speedy there was always the chance that this might happen, try to focus on how much you did to make his short life the best it could be.