Swollen leg

The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
R

RatDaddy72

Guest
Howdy y’all.
My sweet little girl LuLu has a swollen leg. She is lethargic, and just stayed in her house all day today. She is usually very active. She is almost 3. She ate some banana and walnut today (a treat I give them sometimes) and seems to have an appetite. Has anyone ever seen this? If she doesn’t get more active in the next day we will see the vet. She has been a very healthy and happy girl her whole life and I hate to see her immobile.
Thanks everyone.
 

Attachments

  • E692040A-0C33-4FC1-AA62-8C1920B9FC71.jpeg
    E692040A-0C33-4FC1-AA62-8C1920B9FC71.jpeg
    109.2 KB · Views: 172
It looks like it could be broken... Can you get her to a vet and on some pain medication like Metacam.? Does she have any cage mates.? And what's her cage set up like.? I would suggest putting her in a smaller cage with less to climb on so she can just relax, because she's an older girl I'd try to keep it low stress and see if she'll eat any baby food or something like that...
 
If you don't have metacam, infant ibuprofen will work. Lilspaz can give you the dosage, but you'll need her weight. Www.ratguide.com can help too. She's in pain, and she's going to lay around where she feels safe. Get her some pain meds, and see the vet as soon as you can.
 
If there's just an overall swelling and no red or purplish marks/streaks then its likely just a bad sprain for your old lady. If you have ramps in her cage and they are bar type ramps, you'll need to cover them. Put Catch hammocks any place she could tumble. Oldies have weak hind legs/haunches so if they get caught it can cause these issues. You can definitely buy infant liquid ibuprofen to bring down any swelling and reduce her discomfort. Or if you have Metacam/meloxicam that is even better, as it only needs to be given once a day, rather than every 4-6 hours like the pediatric ibu.
 
Thanks so much for the info. I’ve simplified her cage so she doesn’t have much to climb on. Have moved her food and water close by. Since she is eating and drinking well, it seems likely it is a structural issue. We live in a small town in the NW, and our vet options are limited and they don’t have much rat experience. I’ll try the pain meds and if it doesn’t improve we will drive to other town and find a rat friendly vet. She is such a sweet girl, I found her and her brother as tiny babies with their eyes closed still while at the dump in California a few years ago. Bottle fed them and they grew up to be happy little rats! I keep them in the same cage but built a wire seperation thingy so they feel together but we don’t have a new batch of rat babies. Thanks again, glad to be part of this forum now.
 
Back
Top