Resources For Rat Owners In Korea

Keep an eye on this post as I will keep updating it.

If you want to adopt some rats but Korean sites and language are difficult for you, I can arrange much of it for you, though I do charge for translation and communication. Contact me and we can work out a plan.

Keep in mind that you can not take your rats out of the country so if you get pet rats during your time in Korea make sure you’ll be here long enough to care for them throughout their lives.

Buying/Adopting Rats:

Unfortunately, there are next to no responsible breeders producing healthy rats in South Korea and those who want to breed responsibly are hard pressed to find healthy rats with which to begin. As I and other rat owners compare notes over the years we have discovered trends of health and, in males, aggression issues. Be prepared to neuter your males to prevent aggression and to deal with anything from tumors to stokes to overgrown teeth in your rats.

Firstly, check with me. I might have some rats available for adoption. After that, here are your options:

Naver cafes:

Beware a breeder by the name “Hamlin”. They change their username but if you look at their posts there is usually a link to them or mention of their name somewhere. I bought a rat from this guy and his rats not only bite (badly socialized) but my poor baby died days after of what we assume to have been a deadly rat disease called SDA (http://ratguide.com/health/viruses/sda.php).

Also, if you see someone selling “tail-less” rats it is a scam. Cutting off the tails of baby mice and rats to make them more appealing is a practice I’ve observed in Korea all to often. Luckily, the strong community of Korean rat lovers has put enough pressure on certain breeders that the practice is becoming rare.

The only cafe I recommend for reliable information is Rat Community. A friend of mine runs it and she is one of the most reliable and educated rat owners I know. She has written a lot about irresponsible breeding practices in Korea.

래트커뮤니티 (Rat Community) 

https://cafe.naver.com/ratcommunity

The following are active cafes but beware irresponsible breeders and misinformation. You might find rats for adoption that someone can no longer raise.

샵더마우스 (Shop The Mouse): 

http://cafe.naver.com/shopthemouse

래트홀릭 (Ratholic):
http://cafe.naver.com/ratholic

우리 래트 (Our Rat):

http://cafe.naver.com/urirat#

There are more cafes but I do not have experience with them.

Petholic Petholic occasionally breeds rats that are, in my experience, healthy. I got my first two rats in Korea from Petholic and they lived long, healthy lives. However, I don’t recommend them because their rats are not kept in good conditions. Petholic ships but, if you do choose this option, I recommend taking the weather into account and bringing a Korean-speaking person with you to the bus depot. Mine arrived via bus in containers packed in a cardboard box and were sitting in a bus line’s cold office when I got there.

Rodent Club in Ilsan, Goyang City sells rats. I know a few people who have bought from them. I don’t recommend buying from pet shops but I’ll include their information here. 

HBC Rattery Located in Haebangchon, Seoul. The breeder speaks English and seems to be breeding as responsibly as they can. I have no experience with them, however.

And lastly,  you can always try checking the Paw In Hand app to check shelters for any abandoned rats. Occasionally one will be available.

Supplies

 Food: Search any major online shopping site such as Coupang or Gmarket for ‘익스트루전’ to find options for buying lab blocks. Purina makes a block specifically for rats, as does Harlan, but the only formula I have seen available from Harlan is 2018 or the 18% protein formula, which is on the high side for rats. You can check various other lab blocks for 조단백질 (crude protein). I often buy a few types of blocks and mix them.

Finally, Selective food is available in Korea. Search 셀렉티브 래트. Gmarket often has the big bags available from certain sellers (Hamtopia sells it but their Gmarket minishop carries the large bag consistently so I’ve been ordering it that way). I recommend this food as your main food. I give about 60-70% Selective and the rest lab blocks.

You can also search various site for Oxbow products. Their rat food is very good but for whatever reason my rats don’t like it. If you feed Oxbow be sure to provide your rats with something to chew on to grind their teeth on.

I buy seed mixes in a pinch to supplement my rats’ diet but ideally you should make your own. Check some of the sites below for ideas and dietary guidelines. You can buy most of what you need at any mart or online. You don’t buy expensive, small packages of dried foods, nuts and seeds marketed to exotic pet owners, just buy them from regular grocery sources.

Cages: I got my main big cage by searching Naver for what I wanted and ordering it though a seller who got it from America. I got a Prevue cage similar to the Midwest Critter Nation. A friend of mine did manage to get an actual Critter Nation. Sometimes Amazon will ship as well. Do Naver searches and have a look around Coupang, Gmarket and the following sites to find something suitable for you. Recently, I’ve found large cages on Coupang from Marshall. Try searching ‘마샬 케이지’ and see what turns up. 

Don’t underestimate Daiso in finding some good accessories. A child’s shower stool I bought there is still my rats’ favorite ‘igloo’.

Coupang has exotic pet cage accessories and other products available on their main site and through 직구.  Start your search HERE and HERE on Coupang. 

Gmarket also has similar things.

On any site, the categories you are looking for are 반려동물용품 –> 소동물용품 

Veterinary:

My husband is a veterinarian and I’m a vet tech and he and I run Chansaem Animal Hospital 찬샘동물병원 in Incheon (check out the blog, there are a few articles I’ve written on rats). Because rats are complex to treat and my own standards as a rat owner and veterinary worker are high, I don’t personally feel comfortable recommending anywhere besides our clinic even though some claim to be exotic animal specialists.

That said, it’s good to find a vet close to you should you need regular medication refills or nebulizer treatments for your rats. Others have recommended Acris and Echo veterinary hospitals in Seoul. For other areas, ask in Facebook groups and Naver Cafes and feel free to contact me as I might have some recommendations. If you have a vet you trust who is willing to see your rats but needs some guidance or if you have any problems with communication, of course feel free to contact me and I will help you out as much as I can.

As for us, we have seen many rat patients and done a number of different treatments and surgeries. Also, I would not recommend getting your rat euthanized by any other veterinarian unless you are confident they can satisfactorily perform this delicate procedure  humanely as it involves injection straight into the heart. Please read the euthanasia section of this blog I wrote. 

My blogs on rat medical care:

Safe Anesthesia For Exotic Pets

Keeping Rats Cool During The Summer

Korean Rat Owners of Interest:
Rats are quickly gaining popularity in Korea. Most Korean rat enthusiasts can be found on Instagram and the number or people posting about their pet rats grows every day.  This is also an excellent way to see who is breeding for hobby and has healthy rats available for sale. Try searching hashtags like #래트 #렛스타그램 #덤보래트

I’ll be honest, Korean rat owners are so proactive that if you do not have enough Korean skill to be keep up on news in the Korean rat communities, you risk missing out on some important information. I will try to keep this blog updated as much as possible, but I am not at liberty to share sensitive information shared in the private communities. 

General Resources in English:
  Rat Guide:
http://ratguide.com/
For anything you would ever need to know. Particularly helpful for medical things.

  Rat Fan Club:

http://www.ratfanclub.org/
Everything Debbie does is gold. I highly recommend getting her books if you can.Take advantage of her free articles on the homepage.

My 4th Liver Transplant Part 1: Korea

For background information please see my page about chronic illness HERE.

The summer of 2016 started out with my health a little off kilter, though that’s not exactly unusual as the heat and humidity often make the symptoms of my many illnesses more severe. This time it was mostly a ton of migraines. I had to stay home most of the time and restrict my activities but, again, it wasn’t like I hadn’t gone through similar rough patches before. The last week of July I decided to go to a dessert fair in Seoul with a friend. There are a few bakeries I like to support and the events are so fun I attend them often. I knew I would have to take things easy because of my health but I was desperate to get out of the house.

By the time I said goodbye to my friend I was feeling pretty sick. I got on the train home to Incheon but about halfway there I started to have terrible abdominal pain. I seriously considered getting off, finding a bathhouse and just waiting it out. I took a seat in the handicapped area and held my disability card in my hand so that no one would bother me. I somehow endured the pain through the rest of the train ride and the ten minute walk to my house from the station.

When I got home I took pain medication but it didn’t work so I took more and it still didn’t work. After my husband got off of work late in the evening we went to the emergency room of our local hospital. However, the emergency room was full and we were going to have to wait a long time just to get in. My husband argued with the staff saying I was a transplant patient and needed to be seen quickly but they were uncooperative. I suggested we go to the local Catholic university hospital because I had had good experiences with their Seoul and Daegu branches. It was a fifteen minute cab ride away but we were doing to have to wait longer than that to get into the emergency room where we already were. At the Catholic hospital I was seen promptly and taken care of. Some scans were taken and that is when it was discovered that I had blood clots in a main artery to my liver. This artery had previously had a stent placed in it at Mayo Clinic to keep it open but now blood had pooled and clotted around it.

It gets a little fuzzy for me around this part. I was hospitalized but when the severity of my situation was understood I was transferred to the hospital branch in Seoul, which was more specialized in liver transplant patients and could offer us more options.

Around this time a couple friends of mine were often with me because my husband had to be at work most of the time. And since I was transferred to Seoul, the trip to and from the hospital was a long one. One friend in particular was there with me almost constantly. She is fluent in Korean and could help me with communication where my barely intermediate level of Korean failed. I was in so much pain and so disoriented that I really didn’t have it in me to speak much Korean at all.

I had an excellent team of doctors at the Catholic hospital in Seoul and they tried everything that they could. Some procedures were attempted to open the artery back up, but they were unsuccessful. My condition was quickly worsening. I was unable to eat much of anything, was often in pain and had daily fevers. I developed infections and had to be quarantined. My liver was failing and it became apparent that transplant was the only option left to save me.

My previous transplants had all been at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota (America) so I was in contact with Mayo and my parents and we were trying to work out what to do. I could not get a transplant in Korea since I needed a whole liver in order to replace the faulty “plumbing” and to get one meant receiving from a deceased (cadaver) donor.

In Korea the majority of liver transplants are from a living donor, usually a relative of the recipient. The liver is comprised of two lobes, so in a living donor situation, one lobe is removed from the donor and placed in the recipient. The liver is a regenerative organ so it will grow back to completeness in time. The donor can regrow the part of their liver they donated and the donated organ can grow to fit in a new body. In a cadaver donor situation, a deceased person’s viable organs are donated to people on a waiting list who are listed in order of how urgently they need the transplant. The donor would have previously agreed to be an organ donor or their relatives made the decision to donate after that person’s death. While there are cadaver donors and a waiting list in Korea there are very few who consent to be donors and therefore the list is long and then chances of receiving an organ in time are slim. There are probably many reasons why there are so few cadaver donors in Korea but much of it is probably due to Korea’s Confusionist background. That’s another subject that I will not go into here.

My best chance for a liver was to go to America where a whole liver would be more easily attainable. However, I was unsure as to whether I wanted to get another transplant, let alone if I was in good enough physical condition to endure surgery. My previous transplants took place after long and painful waiting times on the transplant list. My third liver transplant in particular took years of waiting to receive. I suffered a lot during that time and had always told myself I would not go through that again. My intent had always been to enter hospice and live out my life more comfortably should I find myself in need of another transplant. So, my other reason for going to America was to be near my family should I pass away or choose hospice. Needless to say, there was a lot of thought that went into how we should go about doing all this. The difference this time around was that the cause of liver failure was not directly related to the rare liver disease responsible for my other liver failures.

First, my parents began applying for me to get medical insurance in America since I had not maintained any there, having been receiving all my medical care satisfactorily in Korea. This was a complicated process and we hit a lot of snags. Second, we booked my flight to America. I was in such bad shape that we were nervous about me getting through the flight. We booked an expensive business class ticket because I was not going to survive sitting upright in economy. I needed to be able to be more comfortable, so a business class ticket was the only way I was going to get to America without having a medical emergency along the way. Lastly, after much deliberation, it was decided that my husband should wait until later to come to America. Because of mounting medical costs and the even higher ones we would be encountering in America, he would need to work as much as possible, which he could only do in Korea. Because of tight immigration laws and my disabled status, he would only be able to come to America on a 3 month tourist visa. To stay any longer would require months of preparation and a lot of complicated paperwork. We didn’t have time for any of that. Chanshig was to come in time for either my transplant or my death, depending on how things went.

Needless to say this was an extremely stressful and emotional time. We didn’t know how we were going to pay for any of this and we didn’t know if I was going to survive and either way I was going to have to be apart from loved ones. I grieved for all the things I was sure I would never get to do again. I had so much more reason to live now than I’d ever had before. I had a husband and we’d only been married a year, I had a wonderful life in a country I loved and I was able to freely pursue my passions such as learning Korean. I had amazing friends and the best family of in laws one could ever hope for. For the first time I actually had a life of my own that I had helped shape and I was grieving for it because I was sure it was all coming to an end.

We also had to rehome our many pets because with me in the hospital and my husband working, taking care of me and preparing to come to America at a moment’s notice, we were unable to care for our animals properly. Thanks to a Korean animal rescue Facebook group, many people came together to help us. Two of our cats ended up having to go to a no-kill shelter and, sadly, we will not be able to see them again as we cannot track their whereabouts. But our other two cats were cared for by a family member and my pet rats have been in wonderful homes and I will be getting them back upon my return to Korea. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who helped us with our animals! We are so thankful. What a relief it was not to have to worry about them!

One of my friends in America started a fundraiser for me and we were surprised when so many people donated money to help us. My friend Nichola of My Korean Husband made a video about my story and many people donated because of that. Without the money from the fundraiser I don’t know where we would have ended up but I know it wouldn’t have been good. The fundraiser is still active HERE.

I don’t know how to even start to say thank you to all the people who donated, spread the word about the fundraiser and sent good thoughts and prayers our way. Every little thing that everyone did helped. My family and I are eternally grateful. Thank you and 감사합니다. So much. You made all the difference, really.

In Part II of this story I will write about my going to America and what happened when I got there.

Pet Cremation in Korea

 

A few days ago, Chansik and I very suddenly lost our youngest cat, 찬성 (Chansung) to FIP. He was only 10 months old. We miss him so much and life without him has been tough.

I wanted to write a blog about what the process and options are like when you have a pet die in Korea. 

Since Chansik is a vet we were able to make all the decisions related to Chansung’s health care and, ultimately, the decision to end his suffering by euthanasia. If your animal passes away at the vet clinic (동물병원) the staff can help you in freezing the body there or at home until the time of burial or cremation. After Chansung’s death, we took his body home to clean him up and then keep in the freezer.

We made an appointment with an animal funeral home called AngelStone. The day prior to our appointment we were instructed to remove Chansung’s body from the freezer to thaw. The next day we cleaned him again and Chansik sewed his eyes shut. I had written about Chansung on social media but Chansik wrote a letter for him that we had cremated along with Chansung’s body. We also included one of his toys.

We wrapped up Chansung’s body, placed him in a large gift bag and took him to the clinic (which is a 5-minute walk from our house) where one of the employees from AngelStone met us. They had brought a box to place him in but we preferred to keep with us in the bag. The employee drove us almost 2 hours out to the AngelStone facility. When we arrived, an

A tree where people have written wishes for their pet

employee with a cart decorated with flowers met us with a deep bow. We put Chansung on the cart and we were taken to a waiting area.

AngelStone has a lot of options for cremation. You can dress your animal in the traditional white clothes before their cremation. After cremation, you can have the ashes turned into beautiful stones which can be displayed different ways or put into jewelry.

After filling out some simple paperwork we had to wait for about 30 minutes during which we took Chansung outside since the weather was nice and the sun was shining. We sang a little song I had made up and had sung to Chansung almost everyday that goes, ‘kitten in the sunlight, kitten in the sun..’. We picked a flower and put it in his paws.

 

Some cremation options.

Jewelry displaying stones that are made from the ashes.

Chansung

Viewing room

When it was our turn we took Chansung (on the flowery cart) into one of these viewing rooms. We were told to take our time saying goodbye and when we were ready they would take him in for cremation. We lit some incense and gave Chansung’s sleek and black fur some last pets. When we told them we were finished the employee came in to get him and gave a deep bow before they left. We then could watch as they very respectfully performed the cremation. They lay Chansung’s body on a sort of table which was then rolled into the large, metal chamber. We waited for about 20 minutes while the cremation took place. During that time we looked at photos and videos of Chansung and talked about our favorite memories with him.

When the cremation was finished the remains, which is pretty much just bones, were gathered and placed on a silver and gold tray. The tray was brought up to the window and shown to us and the employee gave deep bows of respect. The bones were carefully put in a machine hat turned them into powder and then even more carefully placed in an urn.

We then returned to the waiting room where an employee tied up the urn in a white cloth and put it in a pretty bag. We didn’t do any of the fancy options so our total bill was 200,000won or about 200 USD. Then we were driven to a bus stop where we could board a bus to return home.

I would definitely recommend AngelStone. The employees were so careful, kind and respectful. The treated every bit of the process as if it was their own pet. If you have any questions about the process please email us. We are happy to help foreigners living in Korea who are navigating any veterinary issues, including those for end-of-life.