male rat clenches fist when i touch his ear?

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lystelle

Active Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2020
Messages
33
Location
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hi, just wondering if anyone could help with this. it's been going on for a while, but my boy mochi has recently (the last 5 months or so) begun to clench his fist when i touch either ear. i'm assuming this either hurts him or tickles, but it's still a strange behavior. he doesn't have any head tilt, circling, or other normal ear infection behavior. there's no visible polyps or bleeding inside the ear. nothing at all. the ears themselves are pretty normal. if i touch his left ear, he clenches his left fist and starts licking me. if i touch his right ear, same thing, but with his right paw. generally it's only if i hold his ear between my thumb and forefinger to push it back so i can check inside sometimes.

i thought maybe it was a weird behavior associated with a PT, but this has been going on unaccompanied by any other major symptoms for many months now, besides some over-grooming and itching he normally does, he is very obsessed with cleaning himself. just curious as to what might be causing it?
 
ohhh he's got a super itchy ear. Try rubbing with your finger inside his ear and he may lean and even grind his ear on your finger, make facial grimaces, lick the air etc. He's not able to scratch his ear by himself right now so you need to help :)

The cleaning over his face then curl to the side with PT seems to be a mannerism that happens with PT rats. I've seen rats wake up, groom weakly over their face, then stop breathing and pass quietly. How far along in his symptoms is he?
 
ohhh he's got a super itchy ear. Try rubbing with your finger inside his ear and he may lean and even grind his ear on your finger, make facial grimaces, lick the air etc. He's not able to scratch his ear by himself right now so you need to help :)

The cleaning over his face then curl to the side with PT seems to be a mannerism that happens with PT rats. I've seen rats wake up, groom weakly over their face, then stop breathing and pass quietly. How far along in his symptoms is he?
i do! i try to help a lot but when i do, he just does the little fist thing. i did this earlier and it only seemed to bother him, but when he scratches deep inside his ear on his own, he seems less bothered, and again this has been going on for almost 6 months now with no other symptoms so idk how it would be PT. nothing seems to be getting "worse" or more severe. he seems fairly healthy. all he does is when i touch his ear, he takes his paw and clenches it into a fist, then licks at my hand.
 
use your finger and put it in his ear, then gently start moving it, start slow and see if he likes (leans in or stays still and makes faces) or pulls or jerks away...they will tell you. If he likes it, increase the pressure a bit. The heat of your finger actually melts the itchy wax in his ear and it will stick to your finger. Just wipe it off and try again :)
 
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