The Rat Room

Too many times new rat parents are faced with an issue they don’t understand and can even have a hard time explaining it. One of our members on the Rat Shack is our go to girl for anything medical and health related when it comes to rats. She’s a rescue and hospice and has seen, treated, comforted so many rats with medical issues. From toe nail wounds to enucleations of the eye. lispaz68 had the good sense to record many of the ailments her rescues have had. I’ve asked for her help and permission to compile her videos and place in them in one spot. You will be able to find them here in the Rat Room but more importantly, it will also be in the Rat Shack in the Reference section.

Many many thanks to Lilspaz68 for putting this together for us to learn, research and do better for our rats.

HED Hind End Degeneration. There can be a number of reason why a rat develops this progressive condition, pituitary tumour, arthritis, spinal tumour to name a few.

Here is Declan, starting his HED, not fully developed yet. This can progress slowly or quite fast.
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/Declan/?action=view&current=DeclanwalkingHED.mp4

Head Tilt due to a neurological event. Head tilt is sadly becoming more common than it once was. It is a common symptom of an ear infection as well as early pituitary tumour. Most rats will adapt and live full and happy lives with their head tilt.
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/Lilith/?action=view&current=JillsneurosymptomsSep24.mp4

Severe head tilt and spinning. This condition can be caused by an ear infection, a pituitary tumour or some other neurological event. It is imperative that you seek a vet for antibiotics and even steroids to help alleviate the symptoms.
Here, Fred is showing a tilt and spinning.
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/Fred%20and%20Marley/?action=view&current=DSCF6068.mp4

Hind end spasms. These are quite common, mostly in aging rats especially those with spinal nerve degeneration. In the video, Asha has a nerve twitch in toes and haunch.
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/medical/Videos/?action=view&current=DSCF5169.mp4

Anesthetics side effect. It’s always a risk when going through surgery. Anesthesia can have side effects but even more so when the right combo of drugs is not given correctly or in too high a dose.
Here is poor Wilbur recovering from a simple neuter. It took him several hours to overcome the effects of anesthetic overdose.
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/medical/Spays%20and%20Neuters/?action=view&current=DSCF4214.mp4

Open mouth breathing. Gasping is a progressive symptom of a serious respiratory infection. Pinta, a five week old baby is struggling with her congestion. It is necessary to bring your rat to a vet before it gets to this point.
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/medical/Videos/?action=view&current=Pinta5weekoldbabywithresp.mp4
Another rat Bradley with gasping and panicking movements, coastal breathing.
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/medical/Videos/?action=view&current=DSCF9657.mp4

Babies on Board! This is a great video. You can see Lilith’s babies moving about, hours before they were born.
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/Lilith/?action=view&current=DSCF7530.mp4

In Estrus. Here’s a funny video of a female in heat. They flutter their ears as part of their mating dance.
Bella is demonstrating her skills.
http://s61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/medical/Miscellaneous/?action=view&current=Bellainheat.mp4

Please visit the Rat Shack, it contains a wealth of information and experiences from long time rat lovers.

Hairless rats are prone to all kinds of ailments. One of the worst ones is eye gunk. The hairless rat has no way of protecting his/her orifices, and eyes are no exception. In fact it’s a pretty good reason why hairless rats really shouldn’t be bred. When you think about it, it’s an anomaly. It’s a defect in the pet rat. The hairless rat is cold, has a faster metabolism to try and stay warm, they are prone to multiple skin issues from dryness to keratin cysts. They get cut up easily and gashes are always deeper and more serious on a hairless. Most hairless seem to remain smaller which I would think is a stunted growth. In the past, many hairless barely made it to 2 years.
But breeders need to make their money. So they make these lovely babies with these issues and don’t give it a second thought.
A Rat Shack member Lilspaz68 rescued 4 hairless rats with extensive and critical eye damage. They were rushed to the vet who was able to clear them up, clean them from all the debris buildup and save the eyes. Due to lack of immediate vet care, sweet Melvin had to have his ruptured eye removed and might very well lose his other one.
Fortunately, the other members rallied and helped Lilspaz68 because vet cost is not cheap. These rats will have a lifetime of special care living in a cleaner environment. During their treatment, these rats are on antibiotics, they need special drops and daily cleaning. Their cage must remain lint and debris free. My sister and I from The Cozy Corner will be donating special hammocks for these babies. We have found broadcloth that is a blend of 35% cotton and 65% polyester and hopefully this will be better suited for them. Fleece and flannel are completely out of the question for these special rats. And worse yet, they can never live with a furry buddy since the fur can actually become debris and affect the eyes.
If you have a hairless rat and you notice any kind of changes around their eyes, even excess porphyrin, it is imperative that you see a vet as soon as you can. Eye gunk can accumulate and damage the eye in no time at all.
Take special care of your hairless, so they can live healthy and happy lives.

Here are a few pics of these rats before they were brought to the vet.

And thanks to their guardian angel Lilspaz68, these rats are looking so much better.

It’s never a good thing. Rats who develop a tumour in the face have a very poor prognosis. Facial masses can be abscesses in the bone, nasal cavity, sinuses, eye socket, ear or tooth. None of these are very treatable and most end up in severe pain and in need of euthanasia. These masses can also be tumours, cancer and in which case, euthanasia is the most gentlest thing to do for the rat.
My Jenny has a facial mass. It’s very hard and bony. My vet believes it could be a tooth abscess or bone cancer. It’s affecting her left eye slightly as well as her nasal cavity. Jenny is highly stressed out, sleeping more and in obvious pain. My vet has recommended we try clavamox, hoping the abscess will respond if it’s an abscess and metacam. Since giving her the metacam, Jenny is more alert and eats on her own again. She has lost a lot of weight. But, I’m not holding out much hope for her. The lump is still there, it has not gone down in size, it is distorting her face… I fear the worse. Jenny may need to be put to sleep early next week. I won’t make her suffer much longer.

Edit to add: Jenny didn’t make it. She died early evening on Dec 31st. Be well sweet Jenny.

Of course we already knew that.
But scientists put it to the test and have found rats to have empathy and pro-social behaviour. In the study, they trapped a cage mate in a tube, while the free rat had the choice to release the cage mate or move on to something else. On average the free rat, released his cage mate before doing anything else. The article goes more into details. There is also a video to show the difference the rats faced with a trapped cage mate, a trapped stuffed toy or nothing in the tube.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6061/1427.full.html

Over the years, I’ve experienced my share of rat empathy and social capabilities. I remember once, my old girl Bijou was being harassed by 3 young bucks. My Mielle out of nowhere during out time must have sensed Bijou’s worried signals because she bounded back to the cage and found Bijou at the bottom. Mielle pushed the big bucks away and convinced Bijou to enter a tube by nudging her gently into it. When Bijou was in it, one end was already blocked, Mielle dutifully placed herself at the open end, daring any of the young boys to come near. That day, I knew just how special rats truly are.

Klebsiella is a little known bacterium that hides away in your rat’s gut as part of the flora living a comfortable life until for some reason it decides to flourish. A heavy growth of this bacterium along with other factors can kill a rat, factors such as a weakened immune system or in combination with another bacteria like staph.
Klebsiella is not a contagion but it can be spread via acquired contact from rat to rat. It is imperative that you clean your cage and disinfect the habitat regularly when maintaining large colonies or rats.
It should also be noted that klebsiella can be transmitted to animals from humans or from a hospital type institution.
Klebsiella pneumoniae can present itself with pneumonia like symptoms along with mycoplasmosis as we all know causes havoc on the lungs.
But klebsiella is also seen in abscesses where it can become an opportunistic infection.
No amount of quarantine can safeguard a colony from a rat susceptible to a klebsiella outbreak. There are drugs available to combat this bacteria and infection if caught early. A long term treatment and at high dosing seems to be the most effective method of treatment.

http://www.criver.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/rm_ld_r_Klebsiella_Spp.pdf

http://ratguide.com/health/urinary_renal/urinary_tract_infections_lower.php

http://ratguide.com/health/integumentary_skin/abscess.php

Having helped raise a handful of litters and watching them raised by a friend, I’ve long since realized that mom rats have a definite impact on the social and behavioural development of the pups. Happy moms will have happy pups. Scared moms will instill that fear and anxiety in the pups as well. A pet rat will do better with a happy mom but in the wild, moms must raise their pups to deal with all the many stresses found in their environment. Mom’s effect on the pups is in part due to epigenetics as we see from this study. http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/rats/
Mom rats lick their pups which causes a change in the rats’ metabolome altering their epigenome which results in more docile behaviour. So in essence, if you have a female rat with a calm and gentle nature she will nurture her babies into becoming more docile rats.
This might explain how some rats are naturally skittish and why in some cases no amount of human interactions and socializing will change your pet rat into a more social rat. It’s up to you to manage your friendship with this rat as best as the rat can handle. Many skittish rats live happy lives listening to their humans talk to them, sing to them or just being near them. They don’t need the constant cuddling and touching that some rats do.
All in all, you must accept your rat for who he/she is… because in the end, it’s how he/she was raised.

I seem to always be talking about things that are a great concern in the pet rat a warning of sorts so it’s time I add something that is not a great concern. Some rats get these harmless smallish hard lumps on their skin. It doesn’t feel attached to anything and doesn’t bother the rat in any way. Pony has such a lump. I’ve noticed it a long time ago when he was much younger. He’s now 26 months old and his lump has grown some but not much. I did in the past have a couple more rats with such oddities. It never bothered them, it never harmed them or became malignant or anything. I remember the first time my vet saw one 8 years ago, she was not as rat knowledgable back then as she is now, and she was sure it was cancer. I opted to leave it alone because I knew at the time it wasn’t causing any issues and it never did.
Other skin issues are common like tiny little hard bumps, it’s almost like dried up skin excess, even dried up pus. They are easily squeezed out. The point is… any lumps or bumps should be observed first, if it gets worse or grows fast, that’s when you make your appointment with your vet to discuss your rat’s options.

Pony’s abnormal yet normal bump.

As a rat ages, the kidneys become damaged by too much protein. Kidneys are quite important in the living being’s body. It’s important to feed a low protein diet to keep those kidneys happy and functional. But meds can also affect kidneys, so far though, we have not seen any ill effects from long term Baytril nor Zithromax, a small blessing for sure.
My mom adopted a sweet little pew a while back from a rescue. She’s 19 months old and at the right age for things to go wrong. Usually this is the age we watch for strokes, tumours, respiratory illnesses, heart issues… but with Luna, she developed a largish tumour on her left kidney. Her first symptom was splayed walking. My mom figured she must have a bladder infection, or worse yet a uterine tumour. She also had a change in behaviour, she became more clingy. So it was off to the vet with Luna. She was palpated and our vet felt an enlarged kidney with nodules. An altrasound was made and it showed a tumour. At this point we still didn’t know if it was affecting both kidneys, if it was free standing or attached to anything. We weighed the pros and cons and my mom decided to give surgery a try. The vet was in and out in short time. She removed the left kidney and it’s appendage. Luna is recovering very slowly from surgery. She’s in a lot of pain but being managed with metacam. It’s also important to keep her well fed and hydrated so Luna is currently enjoying baby cereal and Ensure.
We are not sure how well a rat will do with only one kidney… but we are hoping she was given a few more months. 19 months is simply too young to say goodbye.

Our sweet Luna

Feeders… a touchy subject but totally relates to rats. Sure reptiles must eat but when humans are cruel to rodents in order to feed reptiles, that’s when it becomes wrong. There is no humane way to kill a rat. Many feeder breeders use CO2 to kill the rats but even this method has been proven inhumane and downright cruel. No matter which way you use, either pre-filled chamber or gradual fill chamber both have shown to cause much distress and pain to the rat. (Those attending University will have access to the studies.) This suffering should not be acceptable. When a rat is placed in a pre-filled gas chamber, he immediately starts to panic. Those placed in a gradual fill chamber, they start to panic the minute the oxygen in the air starts to diminish. The CO2 burns the mucous membranes, the nose, eyes and mouth/throat. The rat tries desperately to claw its way out of the chamber, looking for air, some will gasp in their panic. If there are multiple rats, they will start to climb each other to get to the top where the air is cleaner. Dying, the rat will become limp but will continue to try and lunge towards the top all the while collapsing several times before succumbing to this painful death. On top of all this horror, if the gassing is done in the rat room, where the other rodents await their turn, they hear and sense the fear and suffering of the rat being gassed, that in itself is pure cruelty, to the babies and the males and females who are breeding machines.
I’ve had numerous conversations with reptile owners and most will turn a blind eye to the pain and suffering of the rat. They choose to disbelieve that they are indeed inflicting pain and suffering to another living being or supporting those who do. It’s simply evil.

It is always upsetting when your pet dies either at a young age or even at a proper older age. Many people even vets can speculate at the cause of death but you will never be sure unless you have a necropsy done on the body. Same goes with tumours and masses and other internal growths. Again, we can only speculate as to what it might be and only a culture, a biopsy, a histopathology will tell you exactly what is afflicting your pet. Learning the true nature of a lump will help you decide if removal is worth the procedure, if siblings might be affected down the line and how you deal with that situation.
A few times a necropsy had left me questioning and formulating theories.
A while ago, a necropsy showed my rat who I believed had a serious lung infection to not have any infection at all but a thymic tumour which is what ended his life. Another rat, again, who I thought had pulmonary abscesses had clear lungs but died of a huge pituitary tumour. A few times now, we’ve seen rats with symptoms of pituitary tumours walking with her legs splayed. A necropsy shown that rat to have a uterine tumour. So now, when we see a female walking with her legs splayed, I am going to assume uterine tumour and not pituitary tumour.
Some vets are now thinking that pituitary tumours are prolactin based and not estrogen based. New treatments are proving successful in some cases like Bromocriptine and Cabergoline, the latter being the better of the two, fewer side effects and better results. So far we’ve tried the bromocriptine once and it didn’t work in our rat but Maya had an advance tumour. In another rat, the Bromocriptine had wonderful results until the rat missed a couple of doses, she simply refused to swallow the med. So again, in this case only a necropsy will show how successful is a drug.
My parents had a rat fall from a 5 foot distance, he was phased and slowed down that day but he seemed to be better. That rat died a couple of weeks after the fall. The necropsy showed an enlarged organ and trauma surrounding it, due to the fall. If we had not had the postmortem, we would not have known what he died of, we would have speculated stroke or heart condition. Speaking of heart condition, many people claim their rats have heart issues but again, only a necropsy will tell you for sure. With all the rats we’ve had here and done with postmortems, only 2 had heart issues. I don’t think it’s as common as the lay people think.
In x-rays, the heart shows to be enlarged but that’s not necessarily a heart issue, lung disease can also cause an enlarged heart. An internal tumour pressing and pushing on the circulation can also cause an enlarged heart.
My point is… don’t speculate with certainty. Always leave room for much more. If you need to know the cause of death then get a postmortem done. Nothing will tell you like a postmortem. Who should have these done, everyone who is interested but mostly breeders so they know which line to continue… but then, that cost money.