Pet rat not drinking water but still eating

Question
QUESTION: I have a white male pet rat (Mr. Jingles) who is two and a half years old, a few months ago i noticed that he was starting to loose fur on his back, this then progressed to the stomach and the legs.
I did realise that this may be due to my rats age as he was not seemingly stressed out about anything, i did not notice any fleas and the skin did not look sore so i just gave him extra baths and kept an eye on it, it did not seem to be getting any worse so i assumed what i first thought that it was down to age.

Now around 2 weeks ago i noticed that he was falling over sideways sometimes and dragging his feet. The vet said this was likely to be a neurological problem and there really was nothing to be done about this, is this true?

Then a few days ago a much worse thing happened, i took him out of his cage and i noticed there was something severely wrong with his right eye. There was a lump on it which looked like some sort of abcess directly on the eyeball. I took him to the vet who tried to clean the eye but the lump wouldn't come off, he thought that he had either somehow ruptured his eye OR that he had an infection in the eye.
By this point Mr. Jingles was eating food but not drinking ANY water.I had tried to directly put the water bottle in his mouth and get him to drink, but any water i squeeze in he just lets it drip out of his mouth. I absolutely could not get him to drink anything but i was feeding him food high in water to try and combat this, he was also being given fluids by the vet (which really stressed him out, it was terrible) and he had some Baytril given to him by the vet.

While the vet injected him, the eye actually starting bleeding it was awful it looked like it had just popped.
I asked the vet about sugery to remove the eye and he thought this was a complete no go due to the fact that he would probably not come out of the anasthetic.

So nothing really was done about the eye apart from the antibiotics and the vet did not give him any fluids yesterday as he said the first day had stressed him out too much and the vetinary nurse said that he was getting 100% of the water he needs just from his food, is this true?

I just feel that the vet did not give me any real options with Mr. Jingles.

I him home from the vets yesterday and gave him some food which he did not really eat and now he is not touching any food, his legs have got much worse and he just lies there making little noises.

I dont know what to do, i have thought about getting him put to sleep but are there any other options?


Santana   ANSWER: Hi

First of all, I had a Mr. Jingles!! He was a white rat too, and he was awesome! Second, I have a rat right now with just one eye due to infection and he had to have it removed.  He did wonderfully and came out of the anesthesia just fine.  It appears your vet has no clue how to treat your rat because he has more complicated things going on than the norm and he was more than likely not trained to go beyond the basic case of the sniffles and thats about it.  First of all, a real exotic vet knows that giving an injection to a rat is pretty bad to do. They often develop terrible burns from baytril because baytril is very caustic and coagulates under the skin causing a big ulcer.  Please watch for this to develop.  You can find more info on this on my website and even a photo of the ugly ulcer.  Also, rats have little body mass and injections just are not good to do unless its subcutaneous and most medications need to be in the muscle.

You need a new vet because there are MANY options available to Mr. Jingles.  Please dont give up on him.  He is not that old! I have a boy here that is 3 years, 10 months old!  

Your rat is dragging his back feet for a few reasons but without an exam its difficult to say.  Many males over the age of 2 develop degenerative arthritis that causes pressure on the nerve roots and this in turn can cause the rat to lose the use of his hind legs. Also, heart disease can cause a rat to lose the use of their back legs (one of my boys is suffering from this now) and it is due to little blood clots that form.  Dizziness can be caused by irregular heartbeats too.  Weight loss is also a sign of heart disease. The fur falling out (if no parasites are involved) can simply be due to dry skin or even hormone issues.

Now about the fact that nothing can be done.....again, your vet is totally wrong.  The little guy can be put on steroids for inflammation that could help any type of skeletal problems or even metacam for mild to moderate discomfort and inflammation.
As for the nurse telling you your rat doesnt need water and gets it from his food, are you feeding him WET food?  Baby food with a bit of water added to it is one way to help get fluid in him and also watermelon is another good way.  You can also give him water with a bit of koolaid added for flavor, and dont worry about the bit of sugar in it. Its more important he get fluids rather than worry about a dab of sugar.  

Anyhow, please please read over my website, starting with CARE OF THE ELDERLY RAT  and please let me know your location.

Here is the URL to my site. I think you will find tons of info here that your looking for!
http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/careoftheelderlyrat.htm

You need a new vet fast so you can see how many more options there are for your boy.  He needs and deserves to have much better Vet care than he is getting.  I am positive your vet is far from an board certified exotic specialist or your rat would be on a much better treatment plan, and this eye would be removed or scheduled to be removed by now.  Here is a photo of my boy with one eye to prove that indeed rats can have their eye remove and come out of it just fine!

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

QUESTION: Thanks for the reply, btw made an error on the title last time he was eating but not drinking any water not the other way round sorry.

I did have a bad feeling about the vet, i did not know that injections could be bad for them, i thought that when he injected the fluids the needle was far too large and far too painful for Jingles but i had no idea about the ulcers that can be caused. Mr Jingles had been extremely healthy nearly all his life and i did not really know which vet to take him to.


As for your question about what food i was feeding him, i was giving him lettuce, carrots and broccolli. I was giving him the lettuce because of the high water content and carrot because that was his favourite. I had no idea that you could feed rats baby food etc.


Basically i fed him a dry cereal mix, with some fresh vegetables and some fresh fruit.

Unfortunatly Mr. Jingles died last night, i went to check on him just a little while after i wrote you my first message and he had died.

I am obviously extremely upset about this, but i think because he had deteriorated so much yesterday there was nothing that could have been done.

As for my location i am in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

I have taken a look at your website its really interesting, and all your old rat pictures are soso cute.
I cant believe you have a rat who is 3 years and 10 months old!

Anyway now i want to get another rat obviously because of the great companions they are but i feel that because i got so attached to Jingles would it be stupid to put myself through this again?  

Answer

I am so sorry you lost him. Your right, he declined so rapidly it would really have taken the most aggressive treatment to save him.

As for not getting more rats.....I felt that way too, and sometimes ask myself why I have put myself through 42 losses and always come up with the same answer.  I have loved, and lost, at least 42 rats over the years, and have three old men rats that I will lose eventually, too...and its hard every single time one passes away.  On the other hand, I have had the joy of loving these rats and cant imagine not knowing them over the years.  From my own Mister Jingles to my  little wild rat, Holly, all the way to my one eyed boy Santana and my brave little blind and partially paralyzed boy, Smudge, even my very old man, Bo, the one that is pushing 4 years old....they  all have their own special ways, and they are an inspiration to me in many ways too. So brave, so strong and they enjoy their life, as short as it is.
I would rather have the joy of loving my rats than not loving them any more, if that makes sense.  We, as rat owners, must accept the fact they have short lives. Some more fragile than others.  In order to make their lives last a little longer, knowing as much about their health care as possible seems to be the only intelligent answer. We must understand how delicate their lungs are so we are sure to never use sprays, powders, cigarette smoke, dusty bedding and even dirty high ammonia litter in order to avoid irritating their lungs and to keep them from respiratory infections. We must remember how fragile their kidneys are so we make sure we dont feed them high protein diets, and how they can suffer from heart disease or liver problems should they get too much fat in their diet.  We must also be sure we are able to take them to the vet when needed and most important, find a vet that knows how to care for them properly.  If we have females, we need to spay them young, around 3 to 5 months of age to avoid the growth of mammary tumors later in life.  I can go on and on...but this is the part about owning rats that is important in order to ensure that our rats live as long as possible. Even keeping them in cages rather than tanks is important to their health and the health of their lungs.  That said, I cant tell you what to do, but the fact you loved Mister Jingles so much means you have love enough to give to another rat, or two actually, but its your heart that has to be able to understand the life span of the rat and be prepared to just accept the time they have with us and cherish it, no matter how short it may be.

So far this is all I have and she is about 2 hours or a bit more from you.  If she is the only hope for your rats (future rats) such as removing tumors etc...its worth the drive.  However, I wont stop looking for you.  After the Easter holiday has passed and the traditional spring break that so many people in the United States reward themes

Bairbre O'Malley -Veterinary Surgeon
Veterinary Clinic,
Kilmantain Place,Bray Co.
Wicklow,Ireland
Website:
http://www.veterinary./about.htm