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After dinner, he suddenly started acting very strange, hopping around with his head tilted to one side, and he kept losing his balance, falling onto his side. His eyes were also twitching. Whenever I'd try to pick him up, he'd freak out. We ended up taking him to an emergency vet clinic where our sister in law was actually working at. The vet told us that he had Pasteurella: Snuffles.
Basically it was an infection in his inner ear which had come on suddenly and maybe moved to his brain, resulting in his strange behavior. I was told that you can try to treat it with anti-biotics but that may not work, and it can take some time (up to three weeks) for it to help (if it even does at all). The vet however though that he seemed so far along that it probably wouldn't help, but it was still up to me.
I couldn't bear to see him suffering like that for a minute more, let alone three weeks ....and the medicine may not even work? We'd have to syringe feed him the medicine and feed him and give him water because he couldn't even stand up, let alone be able to go to the bathroom.
I made the call to have him put down and my sister in law carried him away. I couldn't watch.
I did choose to take him home so I could bury him. We took him to my parents house and burried him under my favorite tree in their backyard, a weeping willow. I even tucked in his favorite toy, his Flip-n-toss carrot that had bells in it.
As much of a pain in the butt he was, making a mess of his cage daily by tossing his litter around, I'm really going to miss him. His cage used to be right here behind me in the computer room. The room now seems so empty.
Who knew that you could become so attached to such a little animal. Who knew he'd cause so many tears.
I miss you, Buddy. And so do the three boys (one human, and two furry - they've been sniffing your spot, wondering what's up).