hind leg degeneration? UPDATED.. TriedToGetAPictureOfHerFoot

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When they have that sucked in greyhound look but they haven't been suffering serious respiratory issues or a gradual wasting where you can feel their bones, then I always think of pain (an owwie stretch).

This is Goliath showing us an extreme owwie stretch after his neuter. I gave him metacam and he was just fine.

goli-owwiestretchapr11.jpg


Its possible your girl fell, causing the sudden stiffness/immobility. The steroid injection is also an anti-inflammatory and will relieve the swelling and pain she was feeling. if she continues with a steroid then she will need an antibiotic since steroids depress the immune system and the rat isn't able to fight off any germs they normally could fight off.

Keep feeding her, watch her poops (make sure they are normal shaped, etc), make sure her bottle is low or she has a shallow dish to drink from.

Can you post pics at all?
 
i took a few pictures of her tonight durring play time. my two girls were out for 2 hours and 15 minutes, and she almost seemed herself to the fullest... i'm wondering if maybe she did fall and hurt herself and it was a temporary thing? i don't know, but the vet said 2days or 3 max that the shot should last. well it's wednesday now, and she got it friday afternoon.

lilspaz i did take a few pictures of her tonight, but they're from my phone. so they're not too great.

molly climbing out from cuddeling under the covers with me.
CIMG0005.jpg


she was boggeling in this picture, and fighting to fall asleep.
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this pictures shows a little bit how her sides were like ) ( it was worse... but seems to be getting back to her normal body shape
CIMG0009.jpg


molly laying in my arm. don't mind her left eye, it's a little barbered from her sister.
mollll.jpg
 
Sometimes they only need the 1 injection just to get the swelling down/the pain diminished and then the body takes over and heals whatever is ailing them. I would just keep an eye on her.
 
so i wish i would have snapped a shot, but i don't even want to take her out of her cage again. tonight when i took molly out to play with her, her back left leg is swollen about twice the size her normal foot is. i called the vet asap and the emergency vet told me to bring her in at 9 am tomorrow morning. they're not even open tomorrow, but she told me to take her then...

i have no idea what could have caused this? the vet said a possible infection from the cortizone shot (from her immune system being affected from the shot) or possibly tumor blocking the blood flow. BUT she has no bumbs, has never had a tumor, and i don't know how her leg could have swollen like that over night.

ever since her cortizone shot she has been the same ol' molly i've always known. i've been playing with her almost 3 times a day for at least an hour at a time to keep a close eye on her. i've been making sure to hand feed and water her just incase of anything going on... and then i didn't play with her at all earlier. i did play with her twice yesterday and she was out for around 3 hours combined. the last time she was out was around 9 pm. andddd now her leg is swollen. i just instantly started crying and freaking out and didn't know what to do. i thought we were getting better and she was having a check up on monday with the vet...

idk what it could be. :cry3: i'm scared the vet is going to tell me to put her down. she is my first rat and i love her so much. i don't want anything to happen to her.
 
This COULD be completely unrelated, she could have injured herself. Or, maybe an unseen issue from before has gotten now that the injection has worn off.

Don't freak out, in the morning the swelling may be down quite a bit.
 
Rats often injure their legs and feet and have quite a bit of swelling.
Just keep an eye on the swelling, if it looks like it is cutting off the flow of blood you will want to try to bring the swelling down.
Let us know how it goes tomorrow.
:hugs:
 
i'm sad to say that it looks like the swelling is getting way worse... i tried to take a picture, but i had to hold her while my little brother took the picture from my phone... so it's hard to see, but you can tell it's swollen. i have no idea what to do to bring the swelling down. i''m going to try and do a little researching on here to see what i can find...

i took her out to try and spend a little time with her, and also to make sure she's getting water and food.

as soon as i put her in the play area, she went to where she made a little bed and laid down... so i fed her some baby food, some of her mush, and gave her some water...
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my 9 year old brother and i trying to show her foot... it's the one on the left
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:cry3: :sad3: :cry3: :sad3:
 
The same thing happened to Lizzie when she lost her balance and got her foot caught in the cage bars. I found her hanging upside down :cry3: and took her to the vet right away. He was worried that she would be paralyzed because we didn't know how long the blood flow had been restricted, but a couple of days later she was able to bear weight on it and walk like before. We didn't know this until a couple of days later but in addition to fighting off pneumonia she also had a PT. She lived the rest of her life on the bottom level of the cage, with food, water and a dark comfy sleeping area until she started having seizures and my husband and I decided she was not enjoying life anymore.

When you go to the vet tomorrow, ask why they are giving her the cortisone shots (do they suspect PT/HED?) Also ask about putting Molly on an antibiotic - I'm pretty sure cortisone is a steroid, which would suppress her immune system and its ability to fight off infection. Ask them about PT, HED and all the other research you've done. He should at least be giving you an idea of what he suspects.

I remember when Lizzie hurt her leg I couldn't get to the vet fast enough. If the swelling gets really bad (I have seen much worse than Molly... check out lilspaz's girl viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15387&p=221524#p221524) you can try putting ice on it (she won't enjoy it), but otherwise the best thing you can do is make her comfortable and make sure she is in a safe environment. :hugs:
 
well it gives me hope. i mean i guess it's just because it's the first time i'm going through anything like this... her foot looks like lilspaz's rat. except it's on her back leg. i wish i could get a better picture of it, but it's like 3 times the size of the rest...

..and i asked him about HED/PT and the vet said that he wanted to try out the cortizone shot to see if it helps. he really didn't give me any idea. i have a feeling i'm seeing a different vet tomorrow. when i called the emergency vet tonight it was a woman i was talking to, and she said to bring her in, in the morning (even though they aren't open.) so she could take a look at her. so i'll be talking to a different vet i guess.

and you're right about the cortizone shot suppressing her immune system which was one of her concerns. she said that maybe it was an infection from having it suppressed, or maybe had something to do with a tumor. i'm just really not sure... she was back to herself after she got the shot... and a week and a day later this happens. as SQ said it might not even have anything to do with what was going on before...

but i did block her off from the top half of my girls cage and took out the ramp. i also made the food and water right by her, with a place to sleep, and also with a hammock low to the ground... which is where i mostly find her. i did just buy a brand new 100$ 4 level cage though, so that will have to be going back so i can find something better to suit molly's needs.

and i'm so sorry to hear about Lizzy. :sad3: but it does give me some hope that i can have molly with me for a few more months. i don't want to have to put her to sleep or anything unless her quality of life is being affected. hopefully the vet can figure out what is wrong with her...

only 7 more hours.
 
Hope you keep Molly with her friends ... she needs them. She likely isn't moving around much because of the pain she is in.

If she is unable to climb the side of the cage, you could just remove the ladder limiting her to the bottom while the others can access the entire cage.
If it is just her leg and the other symptoms have not returned, she should be ok in the cage if you arrange things for her safety.
If you need to put her in a separate cage, please keep at least one of her friends with her.
 
okay so i just wanted to post a quick update...

i took her to the vet this morning and was relieved it was the woman vet who knows what she's talking about. :joy: i'm not going to be going to the one i used to anymore, strickly this new vet. the vet i took her to before basically was telling me that putting her to sleep was my only option...

anyways she was scared that it was possibly a tumor on the phone, but said it looks like some sort of an injury. she checked pretty extensively for a tumor and said she couldn't feel or see anything. she also said that she was in good health besides the foot issue.. which she said probably had nothing to do with what was happened before... but she said it looks like some sort of injury, which i'm not sure how it happened... but she gave her another cortizone shot. i asked her about the prednisone before hand, and she said she'd rather give her the shot. so she gave her the shot, and also gave me some antibiotics since the cortizone shot is suppressing her immune system. i asked her what i should do since the shots are supressing her immune system, and that's when she said she was going to give me the medicine and she also told me to feed her lots of green veggies and strawberries to help. which she gets veggies every day to every other day... and i gave her some strawberry yogart (what i mixed her medicine into.) she took all of the medicine which i'm supposed to give twice a day for the next week... i'm supposed to give her .3ml twice a day, and it says on the bottle it's called ciprofloxacin...

but after letting her rest a few hours after the vet i went to check on her and the swelling had gone down quite a bit. and then when i went to check on her again she was sitting ontop of a kleenex box using her foot! so i took her out with her sister and molly was actually using her foot, even to groom herself. her foot was still a little discolored, but the swelling was almost all the way down. i was very surprised that it went down so fast. but very relieved. :joy: but i was very happy with how active she was... hopefully things will continue to get better.

i took some pictures but for some reason my phone isn't letting me upload them to photobucket :wallbang: so i'm going to have to find out what's going on with that and try to post pictures later...
 
Ciprifoxacin is an antibiotic isn't it? . I sure hope that Molly continues to do well after the cortizone shot wears off, I believe they are just temporary. Hopefully her problem is just a temporary injury too. Fingers & whiskers crossed.
 
Ciprofloxacin is a drug used to treat bacterial infections.
Glad to hear she is feeling better already. I hope she continues to do well. :heart:
 
It can be amazing how much metacam or a steroid injection can bring down swelling like that :) Sounds like a scary but typical injury. At least you found Your Vet through this experience :thumbup:

Now send some of that healing vibe to Hoochy, since her foot will not heal. I am pretty sure its a fracture now :( Being an older girl things are taking even longer to heal. But she's very happy living on my bed and demanding breakfast every morning.
 

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