PLEASE READ! My Toby keeps losing weight!

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T

Tou_

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2008
Messages
24
Location
Hamilton, ON
So about a week ago I made a post explaining that it seemed like my one little baby had a stroke (viewtopic.php?f=20&t=9270) Since then shes been very weak, it seems like she was recovering then all of a sudden i got a call tonight from my mom saying she wasnt moving much and all she wanted to do was cuddle and sleep (which for her, is quite strange) I rushed home to find my baby curled up in my dads arms. When I pick her up I can feel her muscles arent pushing back and staying stiff the same way they normally do.


I was just kind of still looking for answers to what might be happening to her, I plan on making the trip of taking her to a vet out in Kitchener (which is almost an hour drive away from my house) to a vet that specalizes in small animals.


I know when I was younger my dad was diagnosed with some disease or something that prevented him from gaining weight, whatever it was no matter what he did, like eat lots or exercize lots, he just kept losing weight and got really skinny, I'm wondering if theres some type of disease like this that affects rats? Shes still eating but shes just very very weak.


=(
 
Sleeping a lot, i believe, is a sign off an animal being in pain. Have you tried to feed her anything to try get some more energy in to her?
 
You might try her with ensure, or soy baby formula, baby cereal, etc.

I don't know what is wrong ... a knowlegable vet asap is an excellent idea.
 
I would keep her hydrated until you can get to the vets. Syringe ensure into her mouth or even a rehydration formula

Homemade rehydrating formula: 10 oz warm water, 1 tsp sugar, 1/3 tsp salt. Mix well, refrigerate extra, warm up to feed.

How old is Toby?
 
I dont really know how old she is, I adopted her christmas 2007, and I first saw her and her sister at the SPCA in November of that year.

Niether of them were fully grown when I adopted them but they sure werent babies, my guess is she was born sometime in late summer of '07.
 
from http://www.alpharubicon.com/med/oralrehykp.htm

ORS (oral rehydration solution) is composed of Water, Salt and Sugar. For those who are more particular: Water, Sodium Chloride, and Sucrose.

The reasons for this composition are as follows:

Sodium is rapidly absorbed from the gut. The sodium in the solution quickly enters the cells of the gut, because there is a lower concentration of Sodium in the cells.

Glucose (which is what Sucrose is broken down to) is linked to Sodium absorption. When the sodium flows across into the cell, it pulls the glucose molecules with it.

This means that having the glucose in solution with the sodium will result in the glucose being pulled faster into the cells than it would if there was just plain glucose. The glucose in the cells is osmotically active and likes to have water around it. As a result it pulls the water into the cell far more rapidly than it would enter by itself.

This is why ORS is superior to Sugar-water or plain old water for rehydration. The salt speeds up the absorption of glucose, and the glucose speeds up the absorption of the water. This puts a lot more water into the body quickly.
 
The salt with help with electrolytes.

I would feed her Ensure and baby cereal with olive oil added to it. Also, I'd get her on Baytril, in case she's fighting and internal infection.
 
If she's not feeling well, she may just not be eating as much, and it doesn't take a long time for our ratties to lose a lot of weight quickly.
 

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