Losing weight before showing symptoms?

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Pepper_rat

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 8, 2020
Messages
135
Location
New York
I read somewhere (I can find the link if you want) that lab rats lost weight prior to showing any other symptoms of illness. I just connected the dots that my sweet girl, Berry, passed form a severe and sudden respiratory illness after losing around 20 grams suddenly. She was also slightly overweight so I passed it off as her finally losing some weight but after reading this maybe there’s a connection? This would be helpful as a way to prevent symptoms and predict the onset of disease as in a lot of my rats they hide the symptoms until it’s too late to help much. Anyone know anything about this or have any more experience like this? Thanks!
 
When I brought my boy, Murtagh, to the vet yesterday (Wednesday), he indicated that Murtagh was underweight and had likely been losing weight for some time before his sudden onset of lethargy on Monday. Had I been less lazy about weighing my rats, I would've caught the weight loss before he started showing symptoms on Monday.

Until Monday, I hadn't felt any change in his body condition, so I wasn't aware that he was losing weight.
 
Rats being prey animals will hide symptoms of illness as long as they can. Losing weight is just an early symptom something is wrong.
Ok that makes sense. The only annoying part is many vets won’t consider it important if they've lost weight when I feel it’s a precursor to much worse symptoms.
 
Most vets won't actually listen to a rat owner's concerns (something doesn't feel right can often be something serious like pituitary tumour) but to a vet he may not think that is much of anything. Usually I watch for more than one symptom (unless its very overt) before considering illness/treatment.
 
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