Paralysis

Question
About a week ago, I noticed one of my rats was wheezing and another had a runny nose.  I took all 4 in, and the two sick ones were put on meds.  The following day, I ended up putting one of the others on meds as well.  The next day, the boy with the runny nose died.  The day after that, we let the boys out to play.  The wheezy boy (who was no longer wheezing) went under the bed and didn't come back out.  I went under there, and his back legs were suddenly paralyzed.  He also seemed really, really out of it.  I called the vet, and they said I would need to take him to this other vet that is about 40 miles away.  I didn't think he would even make the trip to the car.  I decided to keep him home, and at least he would probably die where he was most comfortable.  I was giving him water through a syringe and feeding him mushy bananas.  I also added Boost a couple of days later.  Now, he seems awesome, but he is still paralyzed.  Is there some sort of treatment (maybe an anti-inflammatory or heat) that I could try at home.  Now that I think he is going to make it, the vet will be calling me back tomorrow.  All our vets in town do not seem to know a lot about pet rats.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Without knowing the cause of the paralysis with test results or what not, I can't advise you on the best medical treatment. Generally if it's caused by an injury, steroids should be started immediately to reduce the swelling and inflammation. Of course, you don't mention any known trauma, so it may have been an infection, in which case antibiotics should be started and a full round completed. I'm not aware of any anti-inflammatory that would be of any help here unless you feel he's in pain, but if you feel he is pain, you can offer him children's aspirin - but there's some risk in aspirin. It is an NSAID, and just as with people it can cause severe GI bleeds. That being said, ratguide.com says dosing instructions are:

45 mg/lb to 205 mg/lb dose lasting 48hrs

Personally, I wouldn't go that route, I don't like home dosing, it's very iffy.

good luck!