Little guy seems to be doing better :)

[NicodemusRattus]

Well, I've had my hands full the last 2 months with 2 litters of babies. Zuki's litter is now around 8 weeks, and Aurora's are about 7. I removed the males from both of the litters when they hit 5 weeks, and put them together into the "boys only" cage. All of the babies have been growing up fine and healthy. Then a few days ago I noticed that one of Zuki's baby boys has been acting strange. He's suddenly started losing weight, and is acting lethargic. He isn't eating a whole lot, although earlier I did catch him nibbling on a little bit of food. He's still drinking, since I also remember him sitting at the water bottle earlier. He has no discharge that I can see, he is a light colored rat and there don't seem to be any signs of poryphrin(spelled wrong probably). I picked him up, and his eyes don't appear runny or cloudy or any of that stuff. The only symptoms that anything's wrong is the weight loss and acting lethargic. All the rest of the babies and their mothers are fine, so I don't think it's anything contagious. Their mothers are sisters, so even though I recently introduced him to Aurora's boys, their mothers were cagemates so basically they're all familiar and it's unlikely any new bacteria or anything's been introduced. So I don't want to remove him from the cage unless it's absolutely necessary, but the rest of the babies are all acting normal. I don't know what could have brought it on, in mommy's cage he was on aspen and now he's on carefresh-type bedding, but it's less dusty than regular carefresh. The weather fluctuates a lot here, and it was cold for a few days and now it's back up near the 90s, there's an air conditioner running now but I've situated the ratty cages to the best of my ability, so that they're not getting blown on by the air conditioner. I'm not sure if he's sick or if he's just having trouble adjusting to something.

 

[hopefloats]

You have had them over 3 weeks so it is unlikely it is a virus. I would check for poos and peeing. Feel his belly to see if it hurts and so on. You can also check his teeth. Give him plenty extra to eat and drink you can give them ensure to add a bit extra to his diet. I would probably listen to make sure there isnt any lung sounds. a vet may be a good idea as well.

 

[NicodemusRattus]

Well as of today, his appetite is starting to pick back up. I just gave the boys an extra feeding today for his sake, and he's sitting there chowing down with the rest of them. He is still a little sluggish, but his is more active today than he was for the last few days. It seems like he's starting to perk up, but I'm not getting ahead of myself. He seems to be the runt boy of Zuki's litter, I wonder if that has anything to do with it? the weather is also starting to stabilize, it's the beginning of June so it's starting to be consistently warm, instead of this up in the 90s then down to the 40s nonsense that was going on when he started acting strange. I think he was just having trouble adjusting to the temperature change or something? I haven't heard any wheezing or anything from any of the babies. They all seem pretty healthy. I'm going to keep an eye on him, but for now he's at least doing a little better.

 

[jorats]

What are you feeding them? Maybe it's diet related because at 8 weeks, rats don't usually get sick unless it's respiratory or genetic.

 

[SQ]

did you check for dehydration?
Pull up on the skin on the back of the neck, if it doesn;t snap back into place, the rattie may be dehydrated

Try to give a lot of fluids orally ... see reference section
See how to give sub-Q fluids in the reference section

 

[NicodemusRattus]

I'm not really sure what the issue was, but today he's acting normal again. I seriously wonder if it was that drastic weather change we had around the time this all started? it's the only thing I can think of. It was getting steadily warmer all through the month of May, it got all the way up in the 90s, then suddenly it was really cold for a few days, then back up near the 90s again. And it's supposed to be summer here... Gotta love northern weather. His diet's been the same since they all started eating solid food, he eats the same food that the rest of my ratties have been eating and they're all fine with it. But the weather's leveled out now, and he seems ok. he is the runt of Zuki's litter so I'm also wondering if that has something to do with it. I'll probably be taking him to the vet anyway to get checked out, but I'm glad that he's putting weight back on and been wrestling with the other boys again.

 

[temblabamomo]

Glad to hear he's getting back to normal. Hope he stays that way.

 

[Ace8670]

Yay! I'm so happy for you. Its so relieving when rats are doing better instead of doing worse

 

[mamarat]

That is great news!