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15 Posts
Hi Everyone!
A little over a month ago I posted about my female rat, Annabelle. She started acting erratically and doing a head tilt, plus in new places she would circle. At the time, I was just hoping for an ear infection. I took her to the vet and her ears are fine. Without the funds to excessively look into what the problem was (CT scan, x-rays that may not even provide any answers, blood work), the vet suggested we try antibiotics and an anti inflammatory and see if those helped. She was prescribed those meds for just over 6 weeks, twice a day. There has been no change, at all. She still head tilts, has erratic behavior, is difficult to wake out of a sleep, has poor balance (we can't perch her on our shoulders when we have her out, have to hold her with two hands and watch her carefully), and she does what the vet said is "star gazing". She always tilts her head to the left, and circles to the left if she is removed from her cage. A friend of mine that has a lot of rat experience suggested that she may have possibly suffered a stroke. Has anyone experienced this before?
We have two female rats, both we've had since tiny babies. They are less than a year old. Annabelle is still eating and drinking fine, and this hasn't really affected her relationship with her ratty sister. She gets to where she wants to go, she just seems to need to put more effort into getting there. She still eats and drinks fine. Her weight hasn't changed. Has a decent coat. My biggest concern and problem, is that she seems to have no control (or desire) over her bathroom tendencies. My other rat is litter trained and always pees in the same spot. Annabelle goes wherever she wants, in her bed, food dish, anywhere. They have a massive multi-leveled cage and it gets so ridiculously gross after 2-3 days, because pee splashes everywhere (outside of the cage too!). I've run out of ways to try and scrub this thing, and as a busy mom of two boys and a business owner, I don't have the time to scrub a massive rat cage 5 times a week. I've been trying different bedding for the bottom tray, but I gave up using nice soft blanket scraps on all the levels because I was throwing them out every week. Any ideas or advice would be super welcome!
A little over a month ago I posted about my female rat, Annabelle. She started acting erratically and doing a head tilt, plus in new places she would circle. At the time, I was just hoping for an ear infection. I took her to the vet and her ears are fine. Without the funds to excessively look into what the problem was (CT scan, x-rays that may not even provide any answers, blood work), the vet suggested we try antibiotics and an anti inflammatory and see if those helped. She was prescribed those meds for just over 6 weeks, twice a day. There has been no change, at all. She still head tilts, has erratic behavior, is difficult to wake out of a sleep, has poor balance (we can't perch her on our shoulders when we have her out, have to hold her with two hands and watch her carefully), and she does what the vet said is "star gazing". She always tilts her head to the left, and circles to the left if she is removed from her cage. A friend of mine that has a lot of rat experience suggested that she may have possibly suffered a stroke. Has anyone experienced this before?
We have two female rats, both we've had since tiny babies. They are less than a year old. Annabelle is still eating and drinking fine, and this hasn't really affected her relationship with her ratty sister. She gets to where she wants to go, she just seems to need to put more effort into getting there. She still eats and drinks fine. Her weight hasn't changed. Has a decent coat. My biggest concern and problem, is that she seems to have no control (or desire) over her bathroom tendencies. My other rat is litter trained and always pees in the same spot. Annabelle goes wherever she wants, in her bed, food dish, anywhere. They have a massive multi-leveled cage and it gets so ridiculously gross after 2-3 days, because pee splashes everywhere (outside of the cage too!). I've run out of ways to try and scrub this thing, and as a busy mom of two boys and a business owner, I don't have the time to scrub a massive rat cage 5 times a week. I've been trying different bedding for the bottom tray, but I gave up using nice soft blanket scraps on all the levels because I was throwing them out every week. Any ideas or advice would be super welcome!
