Skinny old rat

[ryelle]

Sid isn't exactly skinny.. he still weighs over 600g and has a belly on him. He is 30months old and doesn't use his back feet anymore.

He has gone reaaally boney lately though. You can feel every vertabrae bump on his spine, his hips stick out and the skin sinks in, if you stroke him on the head you just feel bone directly under the skin and you can feel the shape of his skull. He has become more fussy in what he eats, and ive had to start feeding him two meals at once - one soft and one hard because he changes his mind too often about what he wants to eat that day. He doesn't want to come out anymore. Sometimes we won't 'see' him for days (obviously i go feed and water him, and stroke him and talk to him, but he won't come out of his nest or hammock) and then the next day he will be stood, peering over his 'wall' waiting for someone to walk by and see him to pick him up. If you get him out when he doesn't want to come out he just finds somewhere dark under something soft and lies there, but if he wants to then he wanders around for 10minutes and then just finds somewhere dark to groom. He is also always cleaning his face and his ears. every time i see him he is trying to clean his ears.

I hate that he is so boney and i don't think there is anything i can do for him, and it might just be old age, but is there anything i can supplement him with or anything special i can do for him to make him feel better?

 

[jorats]

He's at the point where his body is using up muscle mass. It is part of old age. You could try giving him a high fat diet. (the good fat) it may help kick start his metabolism and start burning fat instead of muscle.

 

[Fidget]

He's not close to done yet and just needs some special care.
Best thing is to buy him High Calorie Ensure, or a substitute like London Drugs High Calorie version and give him some as many times a day as you can. (they use small amounts and it only keeps a few days in the fridge but you can freeze it in icecube trays) And use baby pablum (or porridge mix) mixed with it sometimes. And high calorie foods like bananas & avocado, peanut butter on bread & unsalted nuts (high in protein but that's not so important when an old kid needs fattening up), mashed potatoes & yams (good time of year for them).

Also, if his legs don't work well he may not be able to clean the wax out of his ears himself and it might be building up bothering him, and might need you to use q-tips to help him.

 

[ryelle]

wierdly, i bought a jar of peanut butter for myself on the weekend - i haven't bought a jar of it for years but i fancied it this weekend... also some banana's lol. I have been mashing up some banana with his Complan and baby cereal. I dont think the Complan i have is high calorie though, i am going to have to look on the internet and see if there is a different one, or check the health stores for something.

I seriously thought his days were numbered a few weeks ago when we started to feel his spine, and he had a few 'off' days, but he is still there and not ready to go yet.

its a bad picture but you can see his hips :? and his belly (he is a really crap rex, so ignore his patchy fur)

he looks and feels like ive starved him for months