My rat Lester is currently 4 and a half years old and over the past few months he's almost lost the function of his back legs completely. Despite him being crippled he gets around his cage very well, he's found an easy way to prop himself up when he eats and I've been making him beds to sleep in with fleece and such. He currently has a stuffed pineapple that I bought though which he loves lol. He's in a smaller cage so he doesn't have to crawl around too far to get food or water and he's been happy as can be. What concerns me and what I'm at a complete loss with is he's very itchy. He's constantly trying to use his back feet to scratch but he can't get them up high enough. Ive used oatmeal dog shampoo to help with his skin and it helped for a little while but if he's not sleeping he's still trying to scratch. And also when I scratch him on the back if the neck he kinda stiffens up and starts nibbling my hand and drooling really bad. Along with the drooling and itching every once in a while he'll puff up really bad and go into some kind of trance where he's drooling excessively and kicking his front feet at his mouth. At first I suspected seizures but I'm not entirely sure because when I would wipe his mouth off and hold him gently so he didn't hurt himself he would slow down and stop and just kinda lay there for about a minute or two until he would pop back completely normal. He goes weeks and even months without doing it and one day he'll start up again with these episodes. I read somewhere he that drooling excessively like that can be them choking and I was thinking maybe he was having trouble eating his food, which he does just fine as well as drinking, nothing's changed there, but when these episodes happen, he isn't eating. He's more so trying to scratch himself and it just kinda happens. I'm wondering if when he scratches he starts drooling and happens to choke on it? That's why he's kicking at his mouth? But that doesn't really explain why he goes into a sort of trance when he does it. He jumps like he doesn't know who I am even though I'm holding him and I've had him since before he could open his eyes. He's also bitten me before but once he came around he started licking it nonstop like he felt bad. I'm just wondering if anyone might know what this is and if I should take him to a specialist or something. I'm just afraid they're going to tell me to have him put to sleep because of how old he is despite him being happy otherwise. I took these pictures this morning after clipping his nails as much as I could, they've over grown since he's gotten older so I try to keep them as trimmed as possible without cutting the vein in there.
Any suggestions or even anyone with experiences similar to this? I've gotten more rats since him but he's the first rat i ever got so he's essentially been a huge learning experience as well as my best friend.. I hate to see him like this, specially with the attacks.
Any suggestions or even anyone with experiences similar to this? I've gotten more rats since him but he's the first rat i ever got so he's essentially been a huge learning experience as well as my best friend.. I hate to see him like this, specially with the attacks.