Elderly rat

Question
QUESTION: Hello there,
I have a question about my pet rat, Sunshine.  Sunshine is almost three years old and is my last surviving rat.  He has been healthy most of his life, but over the last few months has been having some health problems.  First, around Christmas I noticed his range of motion in his back legs was lessening.  It got slowly until now, where he seems to be getting very close to losing his use of them completely.  My vet told me there was not much that we could do other then make his cage a lot more appropriate for him.
He was also treated for a respiratory tract infection and mites about 2 months ago.  I gave him Baytril twice a day for two weeks.  After 2 weeks his breathing was less laboured but he is still breathing pretty heavily (his body moves very noticeably as he breathes in and out quickly).  Unfortunately around this time I was rushed to the Emergency Room and have been in and out of the hospital since then almost daily.  I was moving back and forth between the hospital, my grandmothers and my home town 3 hours away constantly.  Originally Sunshine was with me back and forth, but this was obviously stressing him out, so I was forced to leave him with my roommates for about a month.  My roommates wouldn't take him to the vet, and they took bad care of him and he lost some weight.  He was 573g when he was at the vet, and I'd say he might have lost up to 1/4 of his weight.  I think this was because they were not feeding him everyday (and obviously I was VERY angry about this!).  
I know you could not know for sure, but do you think these symptoms, the heavy breathing, is caused by a respiratory tract infection?  Could it be his old age, or some other condition?  Right now, my biggest issue is that my hometown (where I am staying until I get better) veterinarian does not take rats, and my usual vet is three hours away.  Because of my current health problems I cannot get him there myself, and no one seems willing to help me, so do you have any advice on what to do in the meantime?  I'm trying to get him back to the city to see a vet ASAP, but if there's anything that can help in the meantime, please let me know.
Sorry about the really long email!  Let me know if there's any other information you need.
Marie

ANSWER: Hi Marie

Congrats on having the honor of owning a true senior rat. I too have the honor of being the owner of a grand old man, Sir Bo, who is 3 years and 10 months old as of the 2nd of April.  He is chubby and has lots of gray hair mixed in with his once jet black fur and he also is suffering from the loss of the use of his hind legs, which is hind leg paralysis caused by degenerative changes in the spine. As rats age, their skeletal system is not made to hold up past 2 years of age, which is why we witness so many changes with our rats when they get older. Nerve root compression causes them to gradually lose control of their hind legs. However, some things CAN be done to make the rat comfortable so your vet was not 100% accurate. Steroids can help with inflammation so the rat can be more comfortable.   Some vets steer away from steroids and will use metacam, but are not keeping in mind that NSAIDS are very taxing on the rats kidneys and older rats are very prone to kidney disease. I prefer prednisone with an antibiotic as a back up given every other day, usually something like amoxil, which will prevent possible infection since steroids MAY compromise the immune system with long term use. Since we are dealing with older rats, who is to say exactly what "long term" is.  Every day that they are here with us is a blessing so its one day at a time rule that applies here rather than looking too deep into the future.  We want to make our senior rats as comfy and happy as possible. After all, they deserve it, they are the ones that fought hard to be here for as long as they have!!
He should be kept in a nice single story cage with room to roam. Remove all litter from the cage bottom and if its plastic, you may be able to leave it bare so he can propel around faster since he will not be making his legs work very well.  You can take a shoe box, cut one side out and put litter in it, set it in the corner and I promise your senior rat will use it best he can for his bathroom needs.  Keep things low, food dishes, lower the nipple to the water bottle, dont have anything he may be tempted to climb.

As for his health issues, I am not convinced this is respiratory related.  At his age it could be both lung disease and heart disease too. Being on steroids and antibiotics should help if its lungs due to possible scarring from previous respiratory infection.  If it is heart related, he would benefit from enalapril to be used first as a diagnositc tool.  What that means is, enalapril, which is a safe benign drug, can be used for possible heart disease. If after a week he seems to improve, its pretty sure he has heart disease. The medication should slow his heart rate down a bit and help ease his fast and heavy breathing.  Take note if his feet turn blue or purple at any time.  Also check his muzzle and even his tail and the tips of his ears too.   
I would feed him baby food, from veggies to fruits, letting him lick from a flat dish that is heavy enough that it wont move all around when he licks. You can buy a heavy dish at a petstore in the reptile section.  Lizards and other critters use heavy stone type flat dishes or heavy plastic, so they cant move or tip. This would be ideal for your senior boy so the dish wont move all over as he licks the baby food.  You want to keep his protein low as usual, but raise his iron level up a tad by giving him a scrambled egg at least once a week. No fats of course.  

As for a vet, if you want, I can check out in my database a vet near you that takes rats and at least you will have someone closer to you.  You will be surprised to find there are more vets around than you think that have a special interest in exotics but they dont really advertise it and are simply a general practice.  Please let me know your city and state or simply your area code (if your in the United States)  I can also find vets in Canada and the UK and other countries as well, although there are few to speak of, esp in parts of Asia.

Hang in there and take care of yourself too and again, please allow me to help locate a vet so you can have his heart checked out rather than wait till you can go to the vet that is so far from you.

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

QUESTION: Thank you Sandra!
It is pretty lovely to have a senior rat, despite the health concerns and the worrying.  My other friends who have rats are jealous of how affectionate he has become.  He loves nothing more now then cuddling and dolling out kisses!
His feet and ears are fine, but I will keep checking them daily for any changes.  
As far as his food goes, it is getting much harder to feed him.  I do find that he tends to eat considerably more if I hand feed him while he's out of his cage.  Also, he does ocassionally eat baby food, but the only foods that I can get him to eat larger amounts of are Ensure (Plus Calories) and baby food mixed with olive oil and soy milk.  I know that there is probably a lot of sugars in these, but it's the only thing I've found that he'll eat a good amount of, and I've been working very hard to keep his fat on him!  But I often wonder, is this bad for him?
Finding a vet would be great.  Currently I am in my home town.  It is located in Antigonish Nova Scotia, Canada, Postal code: B2G 2H7.  My regular vet is in Halifax, but like I said I can't find a drive up for him.  I'm crossing my fingers that I'll need to get some medical tests done in Halifax soon, and someone will be forced to drive me!
Anyway, thanks again.  I'm certainly crossing my fingers that there will be a somewhat local vet.
Marie

ANSWER: His diet sounds fine....whatever works at this point, and of course ensure is good for him as well as the soy milk and olive oil too. Baby food is a good idea, and I feed my boys baby food too, more as a treat though, but they love it, esp the strained sweet potatoes!!

The vet in Halifax, is it this vet:

Fairview Animal Hospital     
7071 Bayers Road Unit 214
Halifax Nova Scotia B3L 2C2
Phone:    902-443-9385

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

QUESTION: Hello again Sandra,
I had a follow up question because I've had some problems with Sunshine.
I had to rush Sunshine to the vet today because I found a large wound on his groin, right beside his penis.  I usually give him a good check over every few days, and he's out at least once a day with me, but I didn't see anything prior to this happening.  I had noticed a thin yellowish substance on the tissue in his nest that had a foul smell.  I assumed he had just gone to the washroom or something and didn't think anything about it because he looked normal.  This was about 2-3 says ago.
Anyways, I called my local vet which usually does not take rats.  However, there was a vet there who knew a bit about rats and helped me.  She said she thought it must have been a popped abscess and gave me some baytril to give him twice a day.  She also listened to his heart for me and said that his heart was fine and that she thought that he was simply old.  I'll still get another opinion once I can get to my Halifax vet.
Anyways, my question was I've read some advice on cleaning the wound.  So far today I've cleaned it twice with a saline solution I bought at a pharmacy.  I will continue to do this at least twice a day until it heals.  However, I also read that I should also be adding some antibiotic ointment to his wound.  The wound is quite wide and deep (about the size of a nickle) and I don't know how I could possibly put some of it on without causing him a lot of pain.  Am I supposed to wait for the wound to close over a bit before doing this?  It's not a bubble of skin that has a small hole, but just a hole.
Also, I should have asked the vet this, but should I be concerned that the wound is near his penis?  Simply because it would be near his urine as he pees and I worry that it might get infected.  He goes to a certian area of the cage to pee and then goes back to his bed, so he would not be laying in it, but I am still concerned.  The vet didn't mention it so I assume it's not particularly dangerous?  Of course I will be constantly keeping an eye on him anyway.
Anyways, thanks again for your help.  It's been a crazy day!

Answer
As I read this I said out loud, "abscess" and here, that is waht the vet said.  Your doing everything right, and yes,use the antibiotic ointment too.  Keep him busy so he doesnt lick it off right away but its ok if he does.  He should heal over just fine. The oral antibiotics will make a big difference.