Tummy swollen with gas

[atotic]

Our 1yr old rat, Shadow, just came back from the vet. She has a swollen tummy, and has not been very cheerful recently. The vet took x-rays, and saw a lot of gas in her tummy, no poop. She could not tell much else (is there a tumor, etc). She did not have any ideas on what to do.

Shadow had a swollen tummy 3 weeks ago. We kept her warm, massaged it, and then there was an explosive poop, and then she looked better. A week later, her tummy started getting bigger again. Any ideas on what we can do to help her?

Backstory: we just got Shadow and Pretzel as new friends for Peanut, after her sister died. OMG! Shadow and Pretzel were the cutest rats ever. We've never met friendlier rats: they never bit, would jump into our hands, climb on our shoulders. The ones were had before were always a bit suspicious of humans. We'd love to have Pretzel around for a bit longer if possible.

 

[lilspaz68]

Can you post a full body pic of your girl?

 

[atotic]

This is Shadow. Her tummy is big:

This is her happy sister Pretzel.

 

[atotic]

While massaging her tummy tonight, her stomach is lumpy.

 

[Dena]

Could she possibly be pregnant?? How long have you had her?

 

[atotic]

We've had her for 4 weeks, no contact with the boys. I'd think the vet would notice if she was pregnant. If she is, I'd be so happy

 

[atotic]

I am currently thinking about giving her an enema. She is not doing well today, and this is the only thing I can think of that might help. Just masaging her tummy really helped 3 weeks ago, with an explosive poop afterwards.

Does anyone think I should not do this?

The vet said that they could not see anything on the x-ray, and that there is nothing they can do.

 

[lilspaz68]

Poor girly. It's unlikely to be megacolon as she has no high white markings so something internal is blocking her digestive system. I would give her pain relief if you can. Infant liquid ibuprofen, try a very warm sitz bath in a sink to help her sore tummy. Is she passing any poop? Is she eating and drinking at all?

 

[atotic]

She is eating and drinking. We just took a bath together, she laid down quietly on my tummy and I gave her bottom a gentle massage. It was really sweet, after a while she just relaxed, like she knows we are trying to help

Her guts seem to be full of air. We are still planning on an enema, but finding just the right syringe with the blunt curved tip has been tricky on weekend. One arriving Tuesday, hope Shadow makes it till then. I heard dentist offices have them, but with the virus, it is hard to get in contact with them.

 

[lilspaz68]

An enema is used with constipation to help breakdown the dry stuck feces. Gas is a while different ballgame. There are products you can give gassy babies (at drugstores) you could try though.
What does her poop look like? Dry, small, misshapen? Or does she have diarrhea?

 

[Dena]

Simethicone drops for babies.

 

[atotic]

Thank you for suggestions. We've been giving her anti-gas meds for weeks now, but the tummy was not getting any less swollen.

Whoa, this stuff is intense. We've had 2 days of treatment, the nursing team was wife and I, got the instructions off the ratguide. The hardest part was finding the curved tip syringe.

On the first day, we gave her a 1cc mineral oil, then 2cc water+soap enemas. And 3 little misshapen poops came out, picture attached.
She looked better afterwards, her tummy was less bloated. We were super excited, this might work!

On the 2nd day, same treatment, but only 1 medium size poop came out. She might have pooped some more in the cage, can't tell which ones are hers.

But, she is not getting any worse. Ups and downs....

I wish I had a diagnosis. It is not the mega-colon. It is something that came on suddenly, and caused her stomach to really bloat up with gas. and caused her to have very hard poops.

 

[Poe and Friends]

Could she have an allergy to something? I know I get bloated when I eat too much Ice Cream. A lot of rats are lactose intolerent and can even have peanut allergies.

 

[lilspaz68]

If you want to test if its diet-related, stop feeding her anything but the BRAT diet (good for human and rat), its the easiest on the tum and often resolves things.
Banana
Rice
Applesauce
Toast

If she's still having trouble, try offering her processed baby food (no fibre) and see if that helps.

It's a slow process as you have to try the diet for a bit to see if things resolve, but there's no harm trying

 

[atotic]

Little girl has stabilized. We are not sure if she'll fully recover. She might have a tumor, or it was just some bad stomach thing that she will get over. We are happy that she feels well enough to spend an hour eating on our counter every night. She is not getting worse, her tummy is not as big, she is pooping, and we just give her an enema every night. Now that we have a hang of it, it only takes 5 minutes.

Pretzel, Peanut, and Tata continue to entertain us. I had no idea that having rats can take hours every day...

Thanks for everyone's suggestions.