For Posterity: Trigger Update 3, Probably Last.

This will likely be my last update for my ailing pet rat, Trigger. I post it only to bring the whole ordeal to conclusion for anyone who may have read the original post and the subsequent updates.

Saw the vet today and confirmed my fears. He should have been responding to the medication by now. She ran a battery of tests to make sure it wasn't Congestive Heart Failure, but his heart seemed fine. I'm basically left with two options: Leave him in the hospital for an unknown amount of time while he undergoes aggressive nebulizer therapy or euthanasia. There's no guarantees the therapy will work because it may be far too late to fight off the infection in his lungs and due to his age. With the vet's blessing, I brought Trigger home so my wife and I could discuss our next choice and so my wife could say goodbye to him should that be the case.

As if to somehow force my hand in the decision making, Trigger's condition rapidly deteriorated over the last 12 hours since he's been to the vet. He's not taking his medication any more, nor will he eat, and when he tries to walk he literally is dragging his backside behind him, legs and all. So it looks like tomorrow we'll be seeing the vet again - only this time I'll be coming home alone. Not sure how Winks, his cagemate, is going to take to being a solo rat so I'm concerned on two fronts.