We have a couple of pet rats and one seems a bit poorly. Before we head to a vet, I wondered if anyone has had vermin with similar health problems and can offer advice.

One of his eyes has crusted over, we thought it could be sawdust from his bedding infecting a tearduct but after changing to dust-free bedding and regularly cleansing the eye it hasn’t improved.

Since this started he’s also been off his food. He is/was a big lad, but has lost a serious amount of weight in the last week.

MrsV thinks he’s grinding his teeth (seems more like a cow chewing the cud to me). Apparently the eye problem can be caused by stress, she thinks he could have a mouth problem (tumor,abcess,etc) causing him to not eat and grind/chomp.

Any advice/comments (other than ‘are you seriously thinking of taking a rat to a vet’) appreciated…

I have a Dr J Russell who’d be happy to give him the once over.

Weight loss is a classic sign of something wrong – how old is he, and whats his actual bodyweight – any idea on %age weight loss?

drinking OK?
reddish greasy tears at all? (Chromodacryorrhea)
constant squinting?
teeth chattering?,
head tilt?
high stepping gait?
piloerection?
grooming normal?
orange/wet/greasy stain on tummy?
normal faeces?
greasy tail?

Teeth normal length? not overgrown? has he got hard chewing material?

Tempted from description to think an abscess is very possible.

He’ll have to join the queue behind Dr’s Tabby and Tortoiseshell J Cat…

From your list I’d say…

– Drinking is OK, I think.
– No red tears exactly, but the crustiness around his eye is red. And the other eye is sometimes squinting.
– I guess the teeth grinding/cud chewing could be described as chattering…
– If piloerection means hair standing on end, then yes.

Everything else you list seems normal.

I’m not sure on his weight, but he’s lost a very noticeable amount, he’s always been about 1/3rd bigger than his brother, but I’d say there’s not a lot between them at the moment! Age-wise, he’s about 9months.

MrsV would know about the teeth but is inconsideratly sleeping. She hasn’t mentioned them specifically though so I guess she hasn’t noticed anything obvious.

Know anybody who keeps snakes?

its always a hard judgement call to make, even harder without seeing – and without having the joys of comparison and experience.

If you want to avoid going to vet at this point, then Weigh and monitor day to day – more than 10% bodyweight loss in a week, and I’d be concerned, 20% I’d be thinking about humane endings

they can get over stuff quite magically though.

piloerection is a classic stress sign – if the stuff around the eyes is red and crusty, then that could be the ‘red tears’ and another classic stress sign.

if you got into constant head tilt, staggering, cessation of grooming leading to yellow/greasy belly and/or head then I would be more concerned and consider humane endings

this is a pretty good video to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDeOV9qPEbk

(for reference, not a vet, but a former licencee and care and welfare officer in a rodent lab, so day in day out observing condition of rats and making these calls all the time)

So, how would you ‘humanely end’ a rat (without the assistance of Dr J Russell)?

Short answer: break its neck

long answer: http://content.www.rspca.org.uk/cmsprd/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobnocache=false&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1233000475443&ssbinary=true

Take it to the vet. There’s obviously something wrong from your description . Why let him suffer when it could be something that anti biotics would clear up.
One of the kids Guinea pigs had similar symptoms . Took it to the vets who gave us antibiotics to put in the water.
It got better, then died a few days later though

Thanks for the comments.

With the cats, I’d take them to the vets straight away, but I’m reluctant to spend ‘lots’ on the rats. I know it’s a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question, but any idea what I can expect a vet to charge to treat a rat?

Cheaper than you may think *

Guinea pig was £8 for consultation and another £10 per meds.
Worked out at £9 per day until its demise

* Torquay prices

Looks like £13 for a consultation at our vet (Ipswich).

People who makes jokes about killing/eating other people’s pets are not funny.

Grow up.

We had a little white mouse called Stavros . Quite a character .
Our first rodent. He was quite ill and was clearly going to die so my wife took him into vets at 10pm out of hours to be put to sleep. Good job she worked there or she would of been looking at a £90 bill !

“Nibbles” went to the vets today. No obvious tumours/abscesses. Diagnosed with a probable neurological infection…

She gave him some anti-inflammatory meds while we were there and gave us something (can’t remember what it is, possibly a steroid or antibiotic) to give him each day for a week.

Hoping it sorts him out, although I’m currently not convinced it will.

Thanks for the advice/help/gallows-humour.

RIP Nibbles.

Whatever the vet gave him brought a bit of a spark back for a day or two, but he soon regressed again.

Ho-hum.

On another note, our cat joined in with the gallows humour… I’d just finished burying him this morning and turned around to find her sat there with a mouse in her mouth.