breathing problems and acting insane

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minnieflower

minnieflower

Senior Member
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Joined
Nov 13, 2013
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Location
Canada, ON, Toronto
I've been away for a bit, and after returning home one of my elderly rats passed away. She had two cage mates, one nakie thats 2 1/2 and a 7 month old. The nakie had an eye infection and URI, they've both completely cleared up so I don't think,they're the problem. After the death of her cagemate shes been acting insane, completely,not herself.

She begs for attention 24/7 she will sit at the cage door and weep for an hour. She did this during cleaning time, even when i talked and pet her she went back to doing the same thing. She also tries to leap out of her cage. She's in a long rabbit cage because she is slowing down, but lately shes been moving faster than ever even though shes clumsy. She also tried to squeeze through her bars just to get to me. Shes a big girl she cant fit through the bars.

I feel bad,because she looks so depressed and frantic but i dont know what to do for her. Her breathing is also very quick. Could this just be grief? Has anyone experienced this?
 
It sounds like respiratory distress or pain...fast breathing, panicked movements, trying to get out are symptoms of either. When you say "weeping" what do you mean? Is it a sound she's making? Grieving rats usually get very quiet, a little depressed and certainly not panicky. When did her cagemate pass? Was this is the big PEW I met? Have you listened to her lungs by rat phone method?
 
With my first two rats, after Minnie died and Cassie was on her own, she would always ask to come out and didn't want to go back in the cage. But your girl still has company, right? And it was never panicked. As a general rule, rats don't make much noise. This 'weeping' has me concerned. And the frantic running around. I too think you should check her out for pain or a respiratory problem.
 
lilspaz68 said:
It sounds like respiratory distress or pain...fast breathing, panicked movements, trying to get out are symptoms of either. When you say "weeping" what do you mean? Is it a sound she's making? Grieving rats usually get very quiet, a little depressed and certainly not panicky. When did her cagemate pass? Was this is the big PEW I met? Have you listened to her lungs by rat phone method?
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if you're talking about the siamese girl with the ton of tumors, yes. I had her euthanized a few days ago. I've listened to her lungs and they sound pretty good now, not perfect but shes still on meds and they have improved a lot.
 
Joanne said:
With my first two rats, after Minnie died and Cassie was on her own, she would always ask to come out and didn't want to go back in the cage. But your girl still has company, right? And it was never panicked. As a general rule, rats don't make much noise. This 'weeping' has me concerned. And the frantic running around. I too think you should check her out for pain or a respiratory problem.
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She does have a cagemate but she is young and they have never been too close. Im going to keep treating her uri and give her some pain meds and hope it improves
 
I had a girl who was quite panicky suddenly, it was respiratory. She couldn't get enough oxygen into her system. It was awful and the resp meds she was on weren't helping anymore so I let her go. If pain meds is not helping your girl, what is her breathing like? Are the uri meds improving her breathing?
 
Bundyrats said:
I had a girl who was quite panicky suddenly, it was respiratory. She couldn't get enough oxygen into her system. It was awful and the resp meds she was on weren't helping anymore so I let her go. If pain meds is not helping your girl, what is her breathing like? Are the uri meds improving her breathing?
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Her breathing is really quick. Her panicking had stopped quite a bit but shes still begging to be held and looks really upset. I'm going to give her a day or two since shes calming down, hopefully she will return to normal
 
I'm glad she's improving...I just wanted to add that when one of my girls had a horrible acute respiratory issue...she was so scared, my poor baby...it was afternoon, and I was napping as I'm often up most the night, and she came out of her cage (which sat open because those rats are very well behaved, and our room is locked away from other ppl or animals) and crawled up onto my pillow and got my attention...she was gasping and couldnt breathe...we took her in right away but not much could be done for her. I stayed up with her all night trying to help with inhalers, steam rooms...propping her up in positions to help relieve pressure on her lungs...all the things I'd try to do for her, she only wanted to be with me and hide on the back of my neck, under my hair as she'd always done. She used all her strength to come to me, and I could see the fear in her eyes, but I couldn't save her...and I miss her so much :( That's Mamma...who is in my rats section...which I need to update...I've a lot of additions now. Anyways, the panicky help me type thing is definitely something Ive experienced during respiratory distress. I hope your girl continues to improve.
 
Most times it is resp. It could be grief too, Liam acted sort of like that just after Edward passed. He refused to be alone and being in the cage stressed him out so much I would just leave the cage door open and close my bedroom door to go to school. I would come home to him sleeping on my pillow and he had no interest in being anywhere else.

But I was younger and that was my first mischief - he was also a sickly older guy. Even though the behavior started as soon as his brother passed, I can't chalk it up to just grief. It's hard to be an ailing rat when your main support - your cagemate/sibling - is suddenly gone. We can't talk to our rats the way our rats talk to each other... until we can shrink ourselves down to their size or science evolves in a way that we can transfer our consciousness to some sort of android rat, we can't even console or cuddle or groom them the same way. A young rat may not fully understand how she feels either. Grieving when you're sick must be awful tough.
 

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