hind leg paralysis

Question
QUESTION: Hi,

Been looking through the questions regarding paralysis of the hind legs, found a few questions but I dont feel the situation is the same as with my rat.

A week ago he fell from about 1,5 meter height. He is around 2 years old and quite overweight for being a rat.  

After the fall he have not been able to use his back legs to walk he is dragging himself forward with his front legs. As described by others, one leg seem worse and he is kinda laying on the side over this leg and the foot is curled up. When I inspect the legs he dont show signs of pain in the leg itself, I am suspecting it can be something with the spine or hip. When I lift him to wash him he sometimes shakes his backlegs in a weird way.

I am now wondering first of all if there is a chance for him to recover at all, cause what concerns me most is that he cannot move well so he kinda lays in his urine all day and I have to take him out to wash him off a few times a day. I dont think its best for him to move right now but I cant let him lay there and get burns from the urine etc.

Worse is that I just got unemployed so I have no way of doing xrays etc at a vet. I am wondering if there is a chance of recovery, if I can do more than I already described at home?

I dont want to loose him but I feel egoistic keeping him suffering like this.

Many thanks for your time!
Kind regards,
Erika

ANSWER: If he has a minor injury to his back,  believe it or not, he can recover. I have seen it before, and was stunned, but now convinced they do recover.  Rats heal fast as well.

He could still have hind leg paralysis and the fall just set things into motion.


Let me ask you......does he eat? Does  he still groom parts of his body? Does he still enjoy cuddling and does he brux for you still?

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

QUESTION: Wow big thanks for the big reply!

To answer your questions,
He does eat and drink, he still have a big apetite and he urinates a lot, seems to be more than before the accident.
He seem to be only able to groom his head and front body.

I am also concerned I might give him some kind of fungus if he is always moist but I guess rather moisty by water than urine

And he is still extremely cuddly he likes to be very near and when I cuddly him around the head he starts making those cute clicking noises as usual, he also seem quite responsive and active. So that is a good sign I assume :)

Again many thanks for your fast response!


Answer
If he is doing all of those things, esp eating, he is not suffering at all and thats good.

Keep him in an area that he has to remain pretty immobile, not alot of room to walk around. Make sure the surface is smooth and he has easy access to food and water. Let him lick baby foods and soy milk to help replace any vitamins his body needs to heal.  Also, you can give him childrens liquid motrin or ibuprofen (same thing) it should  be ONLY CHILDRENS strength. Is he a bigger boy or a smaller boy? Do you have any idea of his weight? This will help inflammation alot.

Also,keep him on absorbent paper towels. If he is getting wet, this will absorb the urine etc...and keep him drier. Wipe him off a few times a day in that area using either unscented baby wipes or simply a warm wash rag and a dab of soap, going over again with a clean rag with no soap to rinse. Keep him dry. He wont get a fungus but could get a rash from being too wet on his skin so keep him on the paper towels in his bed where he sleeps. What kind of litter/bedding do you use?  It may be a good idea to lay down nothing but fleece or tee shirt material, but nothing that shreds like towels or his nails may be stuck in the threads. Put just a handful of litter in a corner where he may drag himself to use the bathroom. This will keep him drier too, but do change out any wet soiled materials daily if not several times a day.  Again he should be avoiding ladders and ramps and in a single story cage for now till he heals.  As long as he eats and bruxes (the grinding of the teeth he does when content and happy) and he seems to be happy, he is probably not hurting.  THe ibuprofen is for inflammation.

Check out my web page on caring for elderly and injured rats here:

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/careoftheelderlyrat.htm

If you need names of a good vet let me know. I can find vets that treat exotics from the US, the UK, Canada and other parts of the world too!