And no, I don't mean washing your rat's face.
I'd say a decent proportion of my boys have presented this symptom weeks-days before dying and I need to understand it.
I'm sure you've seen it after giving medicine. The rat squints his eyes closed and pushes his face/mouth along whatever surface is handy, "wiping" his face/mouth along the ground.Usually accompanied by pushing down and out with the hands.
I can understand this behavior if a rat has just been forced to take some nasty-gross med and is trying to get the taste out of his mouth.
But why WHY do my sickly old ones do this with EVERYTHING. I am nursing an oldie through pneumonia and he is on Oxbow+water mush and he is wiping his face after a single lick of something he's had his whole life. He is face-wiping after drinking WATER.
And he's not the first... I'd say 50% present with this in their final weeks-days.
I just want to help but I don't know how.
I'd say a decent proportion of my boys have presented this symptom weeks-days before dying and I need to understand it.
I'm sure you've seen it after giving medicine. The rat squints his eyes closed and pushes his face/mouth along whatever surface is handy, "wiping" his face/mouth along the ground.Usually accompanied by pushing down and out with the hands.
I can understand this behavior if a rat has just been forced to take some nasty-gross med and is trying to get the taste out of his mouth.
But why WHY do my sickly old ones do this with EVERYTHING. I am nursing an oldie through pneumonia and he is on Oxbow+water mush and he is wiping his face after a single lick of something he's had his whole life. He is face-wiping after drinking WATER.
And he's not the first... I'd say 50% present with this in their final weeks-days.
I just want to help but I don't know how.