Help please.

Question
My Rat Hoodini is a medium sized hooded rat who had been carlesly bred with a fancy rat before i took her into my care. a few days ago she had the babies and none have survived either due to another female killing them or there is something wrong with them but Hoodini has rapidly deteriorated after she had the babies. she cannot move her back legs,is bleeding out of her nose, and has lost all appitite and all interest in water. but what I cant understand is the day after she gave birth she was fine, healthy when it came to her apetite and movement. I dearly love this little girl... can you tell me whats wrong and if i can help her?

Answer
I'm so sorry to hear she isn't doing well. :(

The inability to move her back legs indicates either some sort of trauma to her spine externally or something internally impinging (like a tumor, usually). Did she recently get into an argument with another rat, or fall from any distance? I'd imagine it's probably fairly painful and that threw her off her feed to begin with. After a rat quits eating, a number of things happen. First, her body starts feeding off herself in order to survive and that only causes more muscle deterioration (and even more trouble functioning). After that, her vital systems begin failing due to lack of nutrition. The red substance coming out of her nose may not actually be blood, but instead it may be porphyin, which is rat snot - and it's red. This is very common with ill or stressed rats.

If at all possible, you really should try to get her into the vet and have her checked out -- to see if there's anything at all they can do. In some cases they're able to find the cause of the paralysis and treat it. In other cases, they can give you medications to make her more comfortable (usually pain killers and antibiotics to kill any underlying infection - if applicable). What you can do in the meantime is encourage her to eat, using small, soft foods (canned cat food/dog food, jarred baby foot, oatmeal and rice cereals, etc.) and high calorie additions (like NutriCal or FerretVite). Try to encourage her to drink by offering her water off the end of a syringe - often they won't drink from their water bottle but they will from YOU, their human. Give it a try and see if you can get her to drink some for you.

I really wish there was more I could tell you, but I hope I at least gave you some food for thought. Good luck, and I wish Hoodini the best!