Rat losing a LOT of weight but still eats? UPDATE: It's back

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TafDaiJelVio

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2013
Messages
47
Location
Ohio, USA
My little Taffy rat is suddenly losing tons of weight!

She is very active and playful and eats just fine and still grinds her teeth on the bars, but she is so thin I can feel her spine and ribs! This has been happening over a period of 2-3 days and earlier I got her out and handed her a little treat while I was cleaning my room and she started choking! She was coughing and craning her head, then she stopped and went right back to eating.

The only thing I can find wrong with her besides her obvious weight loss is that she has a cut on her lip and her teeth look badly worn (surely from the fact that she chews on her cage no matter what I do for her), but a little cut has never hurt her before.

I'm calling the vet tomorrow morning in hopes that she can get me in on Monday. I will be home Sunday night and can't get to a vet up here right now, so Monday is the earliest I can help her.

What's wrong with my baby and what do I do? :(
 
Are you seeing her eat her hard food? Its possible she fell and banged her teeth or she has misaligned teeth instead and they often can stop eating because of it.
 
Yes! I've offered her a piece of a food pellet (which she gobbled up immediately) and a piece of a hard-treat which she gobbled up and partially choked on. She's also fighting my other rats for their treats! She acts like shes never eaten in her entire life, but she's always been that way. Since she's my top-rat, I feel like her food probably isn't getting bullied away from her either.
 
You should check her incisors to make sure they line up just in case. Even if you've seen her eat hard food. She may not be able to eat enough to maintain her weight.

How old is she? What do you feed her? Has their water consumption increased recently?
 
She is 23 months old. I feed her Kaytee Rat Mouse and Hamster (Not the best diet, I know, I'm saving up to start buying them OxBow) as well as fresh fruits and vegetables every other day and the occasional treat. Treats are basically either yogies, animal lovens small animal cookies (cranberry-orange flavor) or anything I happen to be eating that isn't high in salt or fat (veggies, fruits, chicken, etc etc). She drinks A LOT of water but she's been that way since I've adopted her. She will drink for 30 seconds to a minute straight, but I haven't noticed a significant increase.
 
Kaytee is very high in protein, she could be suffering from renal failure. It was once a common issue that isn't anymore now that there are lower protein diets available.
 
Wouldn't she be more symptomatic with renal failure? I've never had a rat have that problem before and Kaytee and Mazuri Rodent is what I always fed my other rats.

Is renal failure treatable? I'm one pay check off of being able to afford the Oxbow for my entire next semester :(
 
Drastic weight loss is a symptom. It sounds like you think she may be drinking more than normal as well, another symptom.

Like in humans, not all rats will experience renal failure with high protein diets. It's possible you had other rats with lesser forms of kidney disease that went undetected.

Renal failure can be managed with diet and sub-q fluids but it's a lot easier and cheaper to just feed a low protein diet from the start. HT 2014 is cheaper than Oxbow and a much better block than the Purina ones.
 
She may also be aging much faster than most, at 23 months she's definitely on the cusp. The renal failure is often a process an aging rat goes through, but it is best to get them on a lower protein diet when they are starting to have issues.

No lung sounds at all?

And yes check those teeth and make sure "worn down" isn't really misaligned.
 
No lung sounds at all. And we'll definitely be switching diets. I have no idea what percent protein they were on at their their previous home. I got them at 18 months. So I'll figure that out when i next have a chance and suggest lower protein to them too.
 
So, Taffy suddenly gained all of her weight back by Sunday night. She went to the vet Monday and had dropped from 250g to 213g, and she had lost her fat pad. Vet says it's diabetes. I cut her sugar intake and I'm in the process of transferring everyone over to Oxbow, the vet reccommended more protein in the form of Kale and Chicken DAILY, very little fruit.

She was fine for several days, gaining, and healthy. I was recording her weight and water intake and she was back to 230g as of yesterday. Today I asked my mother to feed her since I had to stay over night somewhere, but she forgot to. When I came back, I fed and weighed her -- she is suddenly back down to 198g and cold, fluffed up fur and slower, but still eating and the more she eats the more active she becomes. Was that a big drop in blood sugar from missing her normal breakfast time? Or does anyone have any other ideas? :(
 
I'm not familiar with rats and diabetes. But I don't think I would feed her more protein. I would give her extra "good" fats instead like olive oil. Protein is a huge burden on the kidneys.
I would add water to your oxbow and poor a bit of olive oil over them, see if that gets her eating more.
 

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