weight loss and undescended testicle

Question
QUESTION: Hi Sandra,

I have a question about an older rat and one about a young one.

Older Rat:
He is 18 months old.  He recently put on weight because his cage mate was sick and not eating.  I was giving weight gaining foods to the sick one -- ignorantly letting the healthy one lick up the rest of it (having no idea how quickly he could become overweight).  He now has bumble foot.  My question is -- what do you think of those exercise balls to help him to lose weight?  They are about the size of a bowling ball and the rat roams around the room inside.  I don't like wheels because his cage mate became trapped under a supposedly safe one and would have died had we not seen what had happened.

Young Rat:
He is 7.5 weeks old.  We got him a week ago and 1.5 hours after the transfer, his previously descended testicle "went back up."  The breeder said they descended at 4 weeks.  He now has one up and one down. The vet said it could've been the stress of the transfer & if it doesn't come down by 10 weeks, he should be neutered.  Do you agree with this?  Can only one go up from stress?  Could it be an injury acquired in the car-ride instead?  I'm not finding good info on-line and my vet had to look it up herself, so she has no real experience with this.

Thanks, Susan

ANSWER: For starters, do NOT use those balls.  You will scare your rat. Dont you have a safe place for your rats to play and exercise?  Please refer to my site, sandyscrittercity.com and go to the page GETTING STARTED.  There you will find instructions on how to make a play pen out of cardboard and what toys to add to it etc...so your rat will have a place to play safely. No rats or any small animal should be put in those terrible balls. Rats need to interact with their owners and have conact with things to explore and have fun.  The balls are great places to build nests, though!  LOL

As for the younger rat..you need to find a new vet, esp if she had to look things up. Surely she wont be the one to neuter him should he need it at least I hope she wouldnt attempt it. You need a vet that knows more about rat care. Vets that are not qualified to treat rats are responsible for their deaths every day from not treating them properly.  Let me know your location and I will give you names of Vets that know about rat care.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: This vet has experience with rats, she has just never seen a rat's testicles descend & then have one go back up.  This would not be congenital cryptorchidism, since they did initially descend at 4 weeks.  Neither has the breeder or the rat rescue owner I checked with.  We have been happy with this vet thus far as she was spot on with the baytril/doxy script (prescribed it for 6 weeks for my rat with respiratory issues) & knew to treat lice at the same time to take the stress off of his immune system.  I'm not sure that I should keep the baby rat (the breeder offered to trade him for his brother), so I don't want to start incurring additional vet bills.  Can you tell me what it means if a baby's testicles drop at 4 weeks and then one goes back up at the time of transfer to a new owner?  Does that sound like stress?  Could he have been injured in the car ride instead? Does he need to be neutered to prevent cancer?

Answer

The baby very well could be a unilateral cryptorchid, with the second testicle not being full descended, only appearing to have both testicles down. But yes, he could easily withdraw just one due to stress. It could also be a medical problem, and without my seeing him I could not tell you and its too important of a situation  to just guess.  

Should the rat end up being a unilateral cyptorchid (which in all fairness should not be carved in stone till he reaches puberty) he would need neutered to prevent anything from testicular cancer to testicular torsion.