Hello I am new to the forum and it seems a shame to start my posts with this >.<
Early this morning we woke to find our 7 month old male Apollo had lost movement in his hind legs. He had a lot of fluid coming from his eyes and was unable to move properly. He was happy to eat and took apple and water soaked bread when offered. He was a little cold so we wrapped him in a towel and placed him on top of a hot water bottle. We took him to the vets who confirmed what we had already assumed He had had a stroke. He had not fallen and the vet could feel no trauma areas in his body. He had partial feeling in his back legs and full feeling in his front. The vet has given him a dose of strong steroids and told us to watch him at home for the next 2 days.
We were told to move him often to ensure he didn't get sore. The two things we were told to look out for to ensure his quality of life were him being able to feed himself and moving away from toileting to keep himself clean. He has made a good recovery considering only 24 hours has passed. He can move himself around the cage and except for massaging his back legs we are finding we do not need to move him at all. He drags himself to his food and drink and has even started propping himself up on the corners of his cage to clean him.
Apollo shares the cage with his brother Starbuck who has helped out by cleaning Apollo and is generally being very supportive. The vet has said if he improves he will continue to live a happy but different lifestyle. If there is no improvement by Monday it will be best to put him down but as I said we have already seen a huge improvement.

Apollo has to be limited to single storey from now on and we hope above all else that he can fight through this. I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this? How did you make the cage both interesting and accessible on a single storey? Any idea how we can make things more comfortable for him?

Hmmm...personally it does not sound like a classic stroke at all...can you smell his urine and see if it smells foul? A UTI can sometimes cause this paralysis of the hind quarters in males. Not very often but it happens. If your rat had had a stroke strong enough to disable him like this, he wouldn't have been able to eat. Did the vet give you antibiotics to go along with the steroid? It sounds like he just gave him an injection of dex and that's all?

No there is no smell. The vet was pretty sure it was stroke that has formed in the rats heart and then like in dogs not in humans traveled down his back and has hit his hind legs. He was perfectly healthy yesterday and has lost no weight and shows no other external signs of illness so I am pretty sure its not an infection that has weakened him over time. He holds his front left paw in a fist at times and does have some drooping on his left side.

But that's the thing...it doesn't. I had a boy in foster and she called me and said he was paralyzed! I have pics of his big bright eyes and him dragging his legs behind him. I added an anti-inflammatory (I take in rescues and keep a lot on hand), and an antibiotic and he got better over a period of days. I have pics and video if you want to see Malcolm? I also have pics of rats who have had a stroke.

He seems to be responding well to the steroid though and has no signs of a UTI . I have had several hamsters that have suffered strokes. One survived and had had a mild enough stroke that he could eat. If he wasn't improving with the clotting medicine and steroids I would be more worried.

But as for a one-level cage, just put things down low for him, food and water, make sure he has a house and see if you can make or have someone make a doubledecker hammock. These are fantastic for older/compromised ratties, they literally walk into it and lie down...

Double decker is on bottom right under the shelf

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/Hansel/dec4LilithIssaandHanselsFN.jpg

and here is Hansel (RIP) showing how wonderful they are for boys who don't have much use in their hind legs (age, and HED)

See you can have support while you clean your toes
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/Hansel/nov26Hanselinhishammock3.jpg

and your belly
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/rattiluv/Hansel/nov26Hanselinhishammock1.jpg

Also when we first found him he has massive amounts of bleeding from the eye, not porphyrin but blood.

Also when we first found him he has massive amounts of bleeding from the eye, not porphyrin but blood.

Ahh that is more indicative of a stroke then. Does he have weakness on one side more than the other?

Yeah he favours his left side his right drags. I think he is dragging both back legs because his stomach etc is on the floor. He propels himself forward by pushing on the left back foot.