my rats sick!!

Question
I have had my rat for abuot 6-8 months [albino from pet store] and he was always very healthy, but now he is very sick and i dont know what happened. He has horrible balance and can not walk correctly, he falls over to his left side. He is bleeding from the nose and from the eyes[i am not 100% sure t is blood]. He stopped eating so i feed him warm milk with an eyedropper and a white shell has been coming out of his penis and i dont know what it is or what i shold do. Please help.  -Victoria.

Answer
Hi there, it sounds like your rat has a head tilt, due to a really bad ear infection and maybe a respiratory infection as well The "blood" you see is porphyrin which is a mucous rats secrete when stressed or ill. It sounds like hes not able to clean himself and the white shell you see is a penis plug. You will have to help him clean himself and get him to a vet for antibiotics asap otherwise he might not survive this. Unfortunately if the damage is severe he may always have the head tilt even after the infection is gone but most rats can adapt to this. Your rat will need really strong antibiotics and feeding with baby foood, complan, nutrical or something to stop him losing weight in order to try and get him through this. Please get him to a vet right away. I hope he makes it, good luck