Foster rat unable to use one “hand”?!

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Thepawsitive

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Just want to preface this by saying she has seen the shelter vet, and at the moment I’m just continuing to monitor. I will of course bring her back in should symptoms worsen!

These two girls, estimated to be about six months old, were found abandoned in a parking garage. Both have lice and have had the first treatment of revolution already. One of the girls, Badger, is bright and alert, normal energy, good weight...aside from a couple scabs from itching herself, she’s no worse for wear. The other girl, Possum, is in much rougher shape. She is covered in scabs, has some hair loss, is underweight, and is a little more dull/not as active. Her appetite is excellent, but as I’ve been feeding her, I’ve noticed that she is only holding the food with one hand (and as a result, has a lot of trouble eating solids). She is walking normally, and when I touch the palm of that paw, she is able to grip my finger seemingly normally. She also frequently topples over when cleaning herself. I also don’t see her climbing around the cage much— not sure if that’s related to the paw, or lethargy from anemia from the lice...?


My first fear is a pituitary tumor... but in a young female? And only seeing symptoms in one paw? Of course it could be an injury too... and she’s likely anemic because of the lice, not sure if that’s related. I’ve been giving her Pediasure to make sure she’s getting enough to eat.


Has anyone seen anything like this? Any thoughts?
 
Can you get a video of it.?(post it on YouTube and link it here) It could help a lot with figuring out what's wrong. You mentioned she's falling over.? Is her head tilted at all or is she spinning in a circle.? This could indicate an ear infection and she might need medication for it.
 
Can you get a video of it.?(post it on YouTube and link it here) It could help a lot with figuring out what's wrong. You mentioned she's falling over.? Is her head tilted at all or is she spinning in a circle.? This could indicate an ear infection and she might need medication for it.



The first half shows her losing her balance while grooming, the second half is her trying to eat. Watching her walk towards the camera, maybe her head is a little tilted??

No spinning though!
 
Ah ha.! It looks like she could have the start of an ear infection.! I'd get her to a vet if possible and get her on antibiotics right away.! Another possibility is that she could have something neurological going on... What was she doing with her mouth as she groomed.? It looked a bit strange...
 
Ah ha.! It looks like she could have the start of an ear infection.! I'd get her to a vet if possible and get her on antibiotics right away.! Another possibility is that she could have something neurological going on... What was she doing with her mouth as she groomed.? It looked a bit strange...
Eeek!! I’ll be at the shelter Friday, I’ll bring her along to see the vet again.

I did put a dab of tasty stuff behind each ear to get her to groom herself, maybe she was licking that off her hands? Although if she’s had neurological symptoms all along I wonder if that might be why she was abandoned... :(

Thank you so much for taking the time to watch the vid, I’ll come back with updates!
 
Eeek!! I’ll be at the shelter Friday, I’ll bring her along to see the vet again.

I did put a dab of tasty stuff behind each ear to get her to groom herself, maybe she was licking that off her hands? Although if she’s had neurological symptoms all along I wonder if that might be why she was abandoned... :(

Thank you so much for taking the time to watch the vid, I’ll come back with updates!
Well I hope it's as simple as an ear infection.! And I bet that's what the mouth thing is, just her cleaning~
 
Well I hope it's as simple as an ear infection.! And I bet that's what the mouth thing is, just her cleaning~
Sent the video to the shelter vet and she doesn’t think it’s an ear infection...just said since she’s a stray with an unknown history, the “prognosis is poor.” :( I’ll bring her in for an actual exam on Friday.
 
Could have had a stroke and recovered less than 100% but thankfully more than most usually do. Also, she's been that way for how long? Looks like some time now, and if so then I would just clean her up and let her be. She's old too right?
 
Could have had a stroke and recovered less than 100% but thankfully more than most usually do. Also, she's been that way for how long? Looks like some time now, and if so then I would just clean her up and let her be. She's old too right?
She came in as a “stray” (abandoned outside) about a week ago. I noticed it on the 15th, not sure how long she’s been this way. She and her sister are pretty small, so we guessed they’re under a year, but don’t know for sure.

Had the vet team take a peek today and they were pretty stumped! Vet was leaning towards a pituitary tumor or something else neurological like that. She agreed that Possum doesn’t appear to be in pain, and since she needs two more treatments of revolution for her lice anyway, I’m just going to keep her at my place and I’ll just continue to monitor. If the symptoms don’t worsen, we’ll put her and her sister up for adoption when their lice treatment is complete! If she does take a turn for the worse, it’s likely a brain tumor and that will be a different discussion. :(

Good news is she’s already put on a little weight, and her eyes look brighter/more awake! I’m optimistic!
 
Update for anyone interested: found a mammary tumor on this little girl, and that paired with her neurological issues made her prognosis very poor. The vets ultimately decided to humanely euthanize her :( now to find her sister a home with other ratties.

thank you everyone for the advice!!
 
Update for anyone interested: found a mammary tumor on this little girl, and that paired with her neurological issues made her prognosis very poor. The vets ultimately decided to humanely euthanize her :( now to find her sister a home with other ratties.

thank you everyone for the advice!!
Awh no.. I'm so sorry for your loss even if she was just a foster...
 
I'm very sorry to hear this. She definitely looked older than 6 months so the mammary tumor isn't surprising.

I'm going to refer back to the shelter vet's comments though as I'm a bit concerned that the vet may not be fully knowledgeable about rats

1) Revo is only given once usually as it's effective in the bloodstream for a month which is longer than most buggie's life cycle. Giving an anti-parasitic 3 times once a week is the treatment with ivermectin which only kills hatched adults so you have to wait for each cycle of adults to hatch, re-infest the rat and then treat every 7-10 days.

2) that was definitely inner ear infection and she looks like she's had it a long time, with the mites usually infesting the most compromised rats first, she had poor body condition but everything else was pretty classic. Antibiotics would've cured that.

As for the mammary tumour unfortunately shelters euthanize these "unadoptables" if a Rescue doesn't take them :( I've taken in my share of these rats when the shelter is about to euth.
 
I am very sorry that she was killed.
I hope that she was killed humanely because most vets do not know how to humanely kill small animals like rats. The vet at the shelter seems to know little about rats.

1. As Lilspaz68 stated, revolution is only given once a month and one treatment is usually all that is needed. If the other girl is being treated do not allow her to be treated with revolution more then once a month http://ratguide.com/meds/anti-infectives/selamectin_revolution.php

2. Proper antibiotics would have solved the inner ear infection.

3. Since the tumor was just noticed, I assume it was small - mammary tumours are easily removed if the vet has the knowledge and experience safely operate on rats.

With the proper medical care she could have had a long happy life. I am very sorry that the shelter killed her.
I hope her sister will be ok
and I hope you have access to a good vet with the knowledge and experience to treat rats and a willingness to learn

I am very sorry for your loss.
She looks like a wonderful little girl
 
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I can’t speak to all of the criticism because I myself am not a vet, but the triple treatment has to do with the life cycle of lice. After one treatment there aren’t live lice, but there are eggs still cemented on fur follicles that will continue the life cycle.

Honestly I agreed with the vets that her quality of life was only going to deteriorate. The shelter didn’t just kill her for the hell of it, euthanasia decisions aren’t made lightly. Those decisions are made after all of the shelter staff, vets and managers meet and discuss it.
 
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