Hello Community,

I was just preparing to go to sleep when one of my rats, Kyo, begged for my attention.

He is my oldest male rat (about 1y9m), he is fat, has some breathing related issues and a small tumor on his tail that can't be removed since he was deemed unfit for surgery (too old for injection based narcotics, and his breathing causes concern for inhalation based narcotics) but he is otherwise a healthy and, as far as I can tell, happy rat.

Anyways, he begged for food and run up onto my shoulder and I took him downstairs to get him a snack. When I brought him back and saw him running into the cage I noticed something on his left hind foot and took him out, adter protests, to take a closer look. At first it looked like he stepped on something and that got stuck on his foot but then I noticed that what I was looking at was actually part of his foot. His whole heel looks like if a big, completely red, circular or oval shaped object is attached to it. It's swolen and doesn't look good. Despite that he's been running around all day and while writing this, he was running around on my bed, even jumping on and off me and was behaving normally, even though he is stepping on his heel with every step he takes.

I also found some ret stuff on my bed, after I had 3 rats on it today, though I can't say for sure if it's Kyos blood. Could be stress related secretion or blood from Kobold too, since he has a small wound that he tends to scratch open.

Any idea what this is he has and what caused it? If my description is not enough I can try to take a photo even though it's tough since he doesn't like to be lifted and doesn't hold still. If you know what is it, any suggestion on what I should do?

Greetings
Maly

http://ratguide.com/health/integumentary_skin/ulcerative_pododermatitis.php

sound right? :)

A photo would be helpful too but check out the link jaguar gave :)

It looks somewhat similiar to the pictures shown in Figure 1, although bigger. I will visit a specialised vet as soon as possible.

In the meantime, I would purchase some blue kote (it is sold for horses at stores like tractor supply center and tack shops). If it is bumblefoot, while nothing cures it, it can help. If it is not bumblefoot, it will not hurt it.

Where are you located? You said that your vet uses narcotic injectables for anesthesia? That has been proven dangerous for rats and they now use gas inhalant anesthesia like isoflurane for surgeries and restraint during small procedures. Injectables killed a lot of rats but the gas is easily reversable and the rats tolerate it so much better.

Sounds like severe bumblefoot. It's caused be age, obesity and genetics. Rats with bumblefoot should be changed to soft beddings like paper based or fleece. The shelves and ramps should be kept as clean as possible. If there's any infection you will need antibiotics, but after that blu-kote should help shrink the "bumbles".

blumble foot is an infection. If there was a small cut on his foot bacteria(it's a specific kind) may have gotten into the wound and hence caused bumblefoot.

No, you misunderstood. The vet uses inhalation-based narcotics on rats, I had him neuter 2 rats already. Thing is, Kyo has breathing issues and the vet said, that inhalation-based narcotics can be dangerous in that case. On a younger rat he'd use injection based narcotics but Kyo is too old for that. If I decide to have his tumor removed he'd go with the inhalation one's but he can't assure the rats safety.

I will visit the vet on saturday and I'll also try to find blu-kote, though that might prove difficult since I'm from Germany and I have yet to see a shop for horse related wares. But this is Berlin, I'll probably find something.

I visited the vet today. He gave me an antibiotic (Baptil 10%) for permanent treatment (once a day) and an anti-inflammatory (Metacam) for the start. He also both googled blu-kote and looked it up in a medicament database but it seems it isn't sold in germany. He also looked at his tumor and it turned out to be either warts or skin tags, so no concern there. Otherwise he had the same advice: soft bedding, clean cage.

You seem very fluent in english but I wonder if perhaps something is being lost in translation, as narcotics are for pain, not for anesthesizing, and I've never heard of inhalation narcotics.

It's a shame blue kote isn't offered in Germany :( Granulex spray can be used too, perhaps you have that in germany?

Glad it is just skin tags, not uncommon in old rats!

Yes, it seems to be a case of different words having the same roots (probably in latin or ancient greece) but being used differently. The the term for being put under a medication that causes a medically induced unconsciousness to prepare you for surgery in german is "Vollnarkose" while in english it's "general anaesthesia". Wikipedia even says: "The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties." The german term "Anaesthesie" is similiar to the english "anaesthesia" but is less commonly used outside of medical circles.

Sadly, no Granulex is being sold here too. I've asked the german community if they know an alternative.