Dear god, please help me help my rat.

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larch

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2010
Messages
88
Location
Vancouver, BC, CANADA
My rat Sucksuck got his name because he's a flippin' vacuum. He always ate a bunch and was the bigger of the two.

Unfortunately he got bumblefoot, which ended up getting really bad since I kept trying to take care of it myself. Worked for a little bit, but it eventually got huge and scary. I finally brought him into the vet, got antibiotics and a special soap for his foot. By this time, he was still acting normal.

Now he's still got bumblefoot after all this, except they have turned a dark colour and hardly bleed anymore. He is acting really ill, he's lost a lot of weight and is fairly lighter than his (rather lean) brother. He's tired, he falls over when he tries to groom, he cannot see his food and I think it's too much effort for him to try to keep eating it. But he seriously does try to eat before he gives up...

But I don't think he's eating enough. He drinks water when I put it in his face... Yet he doesn't urinate. Right now he is asleep on a heating pad, he falls asleep everywhere which is very NOT NORMAL. My theory is that the blood supply is getting cut off from his feet and it's making him sick. But I really don't know...

I have a vet appointment tomorrow in the evening. There is a long time before then and I'm so scared he's gonna die. I have to bring him to school for the day if I want to get him to the vet in time, but I'm not sure if this is a good idea AT ALL...

I've tried feeding him a bit of peanut butter, peas, scrambled eggs, bananas, and he only ate some of this stuff, not all of it... I don't have any yogurt or porridge or anything liquidy and healthy for the rat. I have very limited money and no car to go get him something... Right now I'm going to go make him some mashed potatoes. But I don't know how much to feed him and how often.

What else should I do to keep his strength up? He's scaring me so much and it makes me cry D:
 
Maybe the first thing would be to take him off the heating pad. If he can't stay awake, he could get too hot and not be able to move away.

If he is not peeing, that is a bad sign. If he is willing and able to drink, that might be a first priority. Maybe make the potatoes more liquidy than usual. He really does need to see a vet, because doesn't sound easy to figure out what is wrong.
 
Wow, thanks for the quick reply!

He moves freely off the heating pad when he gets too warm, which he has done. I know not to keep him on it for too long, too... I just figured maybe it will help his feet a bit/add some warmth.
He is still sleeping though...

I will get him some water pronto. Also I'll be sure to make his taters really liquidy too... more so with water than with milk probably. I really hope he eats it.

Is there anything else I can do?
Will he be okay at my school if I keep him fed and hydrated? I know it will be stressful, but I hope it won't kill him...

Edit: ALSO, should I bring his brother along?
His bro thinks he is the alpha male and beats him up sometimes. Thus I separated them, but I dunno if it's a bad idea due to comfort reasons.
 
If the boys don't live together right now, then I wouldn't put his brother with him, that might be too much stress.
Is your boy over 18 months old? It almost sounds like a pituitary tumour which is quite common in older rats.
Keep him warm, fed and hydrated.
 
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that. He isn't two years old yet, but he is definitely over a year.
I hope it's not a tumor. I don't feel anything on him. I hope so bad it can be taken care of...

I just fed him a spoonful of mashed potatoes. he almost ate it all, and drank some water too. I will wait maybe an hour or two and feed him some more... (not sure if it's a good idea to wait that long or longer)
 
You could try every 30 minutes to offer him food/water.
A pituitary tumour is in the brain so you won't see it. A good vet might be able to determine that. I'd bring him to a vet as soon as you can.
 
Not yet. I'm going to leave in a few soon to get him there. I ended up staying home cause he scared me so much.

He kept up eating mashed potatoes and drinking water. I dunno if he peed, but he had a little poo and started to chatter about it.

Though for the past couple hours, all he wants to do is sleep. I'm gonna make myself some veggie soup and share it with him right now.

I'll let you guys know what happens. Thanks for all the help.
 
I had to get him put down.

His bumblefoot was bad enough to mention amputation, but the main issue seemed to be his teeth. They were not wearing down properly and started to grow in the wrong way. This is what was preventing him from eating.

On top of it, they were pretty sure he had a pituitary tumour. He was showing classic signs, hair loss, clenching his hands, all the other odd behaviour making it obvious something was wrong in his brain.

I was willing to pay thousands of dollars to save him.
But the chance was basically zero.
So I had to end the suffering.

I'm so sad >:
 
I am so terribly sorry for your loss. I know nothing I say can lessen that pain for you but you have my sympathies. If you need to talk, I will be around. As hard as it was, you did the right thing. Bless you for that.
 
Thanks everyone. I'm okay. I cry every time I think about him or talk about him, but that'll soon go away.

It was strange, Susan Armstrong of the little mischief rescue was in the vet the same time I was, taking care of her ratties. The vet asked her to come in to give a second opinion (she's not a vet, but has been with rats for 25 years), she gave comforting words and stayed in the room with him as he went, cause I just couldn't do it. After all of that, she drove me home.

It's really weird that she was there at that time. But she made it a whole lot easier. My freakin' hero, really... :sad3:

From now on, Sucksuck's brother, Ketchup, shall have me as a new best friend. I can't be having him getting sad or lonely.
 
Ratty Momma, I'm sorry for your loss too. That's just one too many a rat lost in one day :(...

Thanks everyone for your condolences. I have no idea when I'll get over this... First rat, first rat loss. I'll be a wreck forever. Like Susan told me, there's a rat shaped hole in my heart.

You guys really are helping though, since you know this pain. Everybody else is so oblivious to how much a rat can mean to someone...

jorats, I will get Ketchup a buddy if he seems lonely. For the time being, I'm playing it calm, trying to be the buddy he needs. Taking him out to play for long periods of time every day, etc. Right now I'm gonna look up some super fun things to do with him besides simply letting him run around.
 

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