Elderly male rat weight loss

Question
QUESTION: I adopted Simon when his previous owner became allergic to him, so I don't really know how old he is as he seemed fullgrown when I got him. He's always been a very large buck rat, but now he seems to have "become old" very quickly and has lost a large amount of weight very rapidly.

He does have a certain amount of paralysis in his hind legs, so I have set him up on a single level cage surface with carefresh bedding, with food and water bowls set on the flat, and he has my younger buck Vass in with him for company.

What I wanted to ask is, can I do anything extra to help him regain any weight, or is this a usual symptom of age in rats? He does still take his treats like banana chips and vegetables.

ANSWER:
Is there any other sign of illness he may display? Hind leg paralysis is common in older rats, my boy who is almost 4 has it now. He just started to shuffle and doesnt lift his tail and its only a matter of time before he propels around on his belly. Steroids or metacam can help, I prefer steroids myself at first and metacam after. Sometimes old rats, when they lose the use of their hind legs, become very boney in their back area as they lose muscle mass from not using their hind legs. This can make him appear thin and....bring on that older rat look that you are seeing. What color is his fur? look for a dark furred rat to actually develop gray fur. My once all black dumbo boy is salt and pepper. He is a handsome older rat for sure.

Weight loss is not a normal part of aging esp if other signs of illness are showing.  Kidney disease is one of them that borders around weight loss.  have you noticed anything differet about his drinking and urinating habits? What has his basic diet been since you firt got him and also what is he eating now?

Heart disease is another ailment responsible for weight loss but you made no mention of anything that may link the two  unless there are things that are overlooked such as tiring easily?   Let me know these few things and perhaps we can get him to feeling a bit better and help him add some weight back on.  Meantime, you can feed him baby foods, scrambled eggs and also ensure which is a vitamin drink used to help provide calories and vitamins to people but we are using it on rats too.  Just a few spoonfuls a day to drink up, any flavor, even the chocolate is fine.



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

QUESTION: Thankyou Sandra
Simon is brown and white and he does look most boney around the spine and back. His fur colour seems pretty much the same but it is more "woolly" now he's older!

He's eaten the same stuff since I got him, generic "rat pellets" with some meat protein in and a cereals/grains/vegetable museli mix. He also likes fresh carrot, broccoli, parsnip and banana chips.

He does have a vitamin supplement in the water already. He seems to drink a little less than normal and does get tired pretty quickly. What he likes to do most these days is sleep in his nest! He still seems quite happy in himself, and I checked him for tumours (he doesn't have any) but everything has just really slowed down for him since he started losing weight.

Answer
He sounds like a nice senior male.  My oldest boy is just 6 weeks shy of turning 4 years old and is now the oldest rat I have ever had, beating the record of my wild rat I rescued as a baby years back, who lived to be 2 months shy of turning 4.  

Older rats do feel lazier for sure and would prefer to eat, go to the bathroom, sleep and perhaps tolerate you to pet him and hold him for a while but they do tend to even get a bit grumpy depending on their individual personality.  Bo Bo lets me hold him for a few mintues, bruxing and even boggling his eyes for me for a few minutes and he finally tires of it, pushes me away, squirms out of my hands and wobbles, or rather, shuffles to his cage.  He knows he cant climb the steep ramp I made for him when he was younger to get into the cage, so he waits for me to give him a lift.  

Also, do you notice if he breathes harder than he used to? Does he breathe faster?

Has he always had the vitamins in his water or is this something new you have done due to his weight loss and the hopes you would help replace lost nutrients?

At this age its a good idea to lower his protein some, perhaps stick with the quality animal protein but check to see how high the protein level is in his blocs and let me know the percentage.  The key is to get him on foods low in proteins but still have what he needs to be healthy.  

Here is a link to my webpage and this page is about heart and kidney disease.  

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