What on earth happened?!!

[Siwain]

I had just awakened this morning when i heard a lot of noise coming from the cage. So i went to it and Boris was jumping all over the cage in a frenzy! I assume he was hitting his head all over the place in the process because it wasn't even possible to see him clearly, he was just a blur! lunging himself between the walls and the ceiling of the cage!!!

So i started calling his name and he went completely still, like he had had some kind of stroke. He was just lying there, his eyes wide open and his breathing very fast. Without moving. I picked him up and he was almost limp, and i laid him on top of my chest and covered him with a blanket.

He would "regain movement" little by little again and after some 7 minutes he got up and walked away from me, hiding himself between a blanket.

So i put him back in his cage, as he seemed stressed/scared.

He was sterilized some days ago, almost a week. He has been fine until now, he seems normally happy, active and he eats well!

Do anyone recognize this behaviour? I'm calling the vet in a while, the clinic isn't even open yet. But much sincerely, i doubt it that she knows anything about this, she has very little experience with rats.

 

[jorats]

I had one rat that would take huge panic attacks in his cage like that. Each time I would pull him out and he'd go limp in my hands, each time I thought he had died. I could never explain why he did this.
But... since your little guy was just neutered, I don't know if that might be related? We've had lots and lots of rats neutered but never had that reaction. I would call the vet as well, just to get his take on it.
It really is scary when that happens.

 

[lilspaz68]

Now that he has stopped, is he back to normal? Or does he seem weaker on one side, not using his front paws as well, maybe a bit of a head tilt, still confused?

Or is he right as rain now?

 

[Siwain]

He's absolutely normal. Is it possible that he may have had a bad dream?

 

[jorats]

I'm not sure about a bad dream but something spooked the heck out of him. Any loud noise or fast movement at the time?
I would think it's quite possible that they have bad dreams. I remember once my dog was dreaming, he was making all kinds of noise and movements and when my husband touched him, he growled showed his teeth and was about to attack him. I quickly yelled his name and he "woke" up and felt really bad that he was about to attack his daddy.