thomas – Silly Degu

Thomas April 2013 – 26 August 2017

Thomas was a lovely, friendly little guy; he didn’t like being picked up but accepted being handled if he had walked on to my hand. There were times when he was being chased by his brother and he would climb me and sit there, using me as a safe place. He was the most intelligent and photogenic of my degus, he quickly learnt tricks such as how to spin for food, if he was doing something he wasn’t meant to be and I said no he would stop, look at me, and walk off.

Thomas died due to complications from the anesthetic, most likely a blood clot. It was very unexpected and sudden. There are always risks with anaesthetics, especially in such small animals, but as you usually only see when it’s gone badly I want to mention that others of my degus have had anaesthetic, some of them several times, and every other time they’ve been fine. Even though there was a risk the surgery needed to be done, or else there would have been a more complicated surgery later on. I know that we did everything we could. We were at the vets again yesterday morning and there was no indication that his death was imminent. I don’t have the words for how much he’ll be missed.