Sudden (overnight) FRONT-END degeneration?

Has anyone seen a rat go from normal to "front-end-paralyzed" overnight?

He can't hold food with his hands anymore. He can't even use his front legs to walk. He just pushes himself like a slug with his hind legs and lets his front legs drag. He doesn't seem "all there" mentally either, like the intelligent spark is gone.

He eats normally if I hold his food for him. Still able to crunch up hard food with his teeth. Still boggles and chatters when petted. I sniffed inside his ears and smelled no infection. He's not wheeling in circles nor does he have a head tilt.

I got him in June 2014 as a tiny baby.

Can u get a video? It really sounds like potential pituitary tumor

He has deteriorated to the point where I am unsure if he will make the night. He can no longer walk/crawl. Can pituitary tumors rupture? Would that explain a sudden crash?

I'm not sure if they can rupture or not but I know with my rat the symptoms came on very quickly. She had had a couple things that, in retrospect, might have foreshadowed that she had a PT (some loss of appetite as well as what I believed was a small head tilt thought to be caused by an ear infection). But she went from moving about as normal to suddenly being unable to move. If I propped her up she would eat baby food or cereal for me. I gave her prednisolone which, for 2 days, restored her ability to move although she wasn't running nor could she move quickly. But that only lasted a couple days. From start to finish, it was 5 days between the time she was unable to move to when she had to be PTS. She was by then very dehydrated and while meds, had she had symptoms earlier, might have stopped the growth of the tumor they couldn't shrink it. So the damage had been done. What's happening with your rat does seem similar to what happened to Dallas; she was definitely not "herself", before the symptoms came on she pretty much didn't like anybody (including me) except my sister, but the last 5 days of her life she was completely dependent on me and wasn't her brat rat self.

A PT can't rupture but it can bleed which would explain fast deterioration. I've had a few rats with bleeding PTs and it usually takes a few hours from onset of symptoms until they pass. I'm so very sorry this is happening to your sweetie.

He's still alive this morning; drank some water off of a spoon and somehow managed to climb up two of the ramps. Will get him into the vet ASAP but I don't think they have the experience to deal with this. I can get 10 bromo tabs for $34 but I need to talk the vet into writing out the script. I don't even know if he can recover from where he is. One of his front legs is completely useless, the other seems to have regained some move-ability. His back legs seem to be losing coordination and he "knuckles" his hind paws when moving... I have no idea how he got up those ramps.

Ask for a steroid (dexamethasone) injection when you are at the vets as well as sub-q fluids if he is dehydrated. This will hopefully reduce the swelling on his brain, reduce the symptoms and hold him until the bromocriptine kicks in. I have taken almost completely immobile rats from PT and brought them back, so keep your fingers crossed you can get the treatment and the response.

Well he's gotten a dex injection and we are back home... the vet is hesitant to jump to PT since she says she would expect more "endocrine signs" (I assume she means porph/discharge/saliva?)

She says he still reacts to "deep pain" all all of his limbs (I assume this means he pulls away when she pinches a foot?)

How long before I would see results with the dex? She wants to try it and possibly add bromo later if he doesn't react to the dex at all.

My PT boys and now my girl all feel deep pain and they didn't drool. They only rat I had that really drooled was Finn amd he had kidney disease. Yes, my girl now was a quick on set, but she was a quick on set of a bunch of stuff - she's a mess. Peanut was hit quick and passed fast - we didn't treat. We haven't treated the last two since we haven't had any positive results. However, since our girl is fighting so hard against a bunch of things we started bromo four days ago and tomorrow will give her a dex shot. We had to take her off her metacam first for 72 hours or we would of done the dex shot sooner. We probably should of started treating a week ago, but like I said we made the decision not to treat anymore PT's. Our vet doesn't know much about PT, bromo or dex so we're all learning. Our's are the first rats they have ever treated for PT. I don't know if you can say when the meds will start to work since they all respond differently. We're on day four of bromo and I think I'm seeing a slight response. I wish you and your rattie the best and I hope everything goes well.

Ugh I hate this. I want him to be normal again or just pass in his sleep... I don't like the in-between and having to make choices for him.

How is he doing today? Any change?

Same. I feel like we should have seen some improvement if there were going to be any.

Please... can everyone post suggestions on what might cause this? Think of weird things, like molar abscesses... What could cause a rat to become almost completely paralyzed overnight? No one dropped him or stepped on him; he was in his cage the night it happened. The farthest he could have fallen was maybe a foot if he walked off a ledge.

Stroke? Spinal tumor? Our Finn's kidney disease had a lot of PT symptoms.

So the daily dex injections have done nothing...

What do I do?

Can u vet us a video?

Video is on the way...

EDIT:

Video is here: https://vid.me/gnZV

It's been 24 hours and no one has replied... getting bromo tonight even though I don't think it will help if dex hasn't. Any advice appreciated...

lilspaz is out of town I think she will be back tomorrow. I tried to bring her attention to this on fb maybe she can access long enough to be able to answer. I personally would try the bromo. usually when our pt girls lose the use of their limbs it is all not just two but I also have a harder time tellng with boys becasue it hits them differently than girls in my eyes. I dont see the typical pt puffy face but his movements are odd. The dex should be helping at least a little. I would try the bromo and see how he looks tomorrow.

Ohhh hunny, definitely not PT, and I am not seeing neuro symptoms as such. I am seeing something physiological like a tumor on his spine. This doesn't look good. I am so sorry

That's definitely not PT. Sorry