Very Lethargic Considerable weight Loss in one Day

Question
QUESTION: My daughter's little rattie Lily who is everyday very active and friendly and loves her cheerios up until today.  This morning she is lethargice, week and wobley.  Seen no signs of injury at first.  Began to give her water and tried feeding.  She would take and try but would kind of drift off or just stop right in the middle of eating with her mouth still on the food, but seemingly unaware.  Then later I notice blood spots on her forearms.  There seems to be little tiny sores.  One on each arm in about the same location on each side.  Then later my daughter noticed bleeding from the vaginal area.  She is housed with another female that is acting normal.  No swelling.  We have antibiotics that we gave her this morning that were from the last little rattie that died before she could take the antibiotics.  Could you tell me anything about this?  Thank you.

ANSWER: SOunds like what you see on her paws is from porphyrin discharge possibly from her eyes or nose.  The red discharge stains their paws when they groom, making it look like the paws have sores on them.


Also, is the blood in her urine or is it really vaginal?  If she is swollen, she could have a serious infection in her uterus.  She needs a vet right away.  There are emergency vets open on weekends, many see exotics.  If you need help finding one please let me know.

What type of antibiotics do you have there now?  Check the date, sometimes they are only good for a few weeks.

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

QUESTION: I just wanted to follow-up.  Lily died last night.  It is a mystery to me.  She was healthy and happy Friday.  Eyes bright clean coat.  Running around on my bed before work as usual.  Then Saturday morning when my daughter went to get her out of her cage when she noticed.
Normally all you would have to do is say Lily, and she would be all over the front of the cage as if to say I am here.  Let me out to play.  
We got Lily in in August of 2008.  So she was not very old.  She wasn't fully grown when we got her, but she didn't take long to get full size.  So she wasn't very young either. She liked us from the beginning.
I just wanted to tell you I didn't think it was porphyrin as our little baby rattie Lizzy we bought shortly a few months later died from the respiratory infection.  
Lily never had any discharge from her eyes or nose.  This was literally a one day turn around in health.  Just little sores on her forearms with little blood.  Then later in the day the blood from the vagina.
When I read some information on the vaginal bleeding I felt like it must be a tumor in her uterus as I read about.  But I can't believe that it took her so quickly.
The antibiotics that I had saved that were never used on Lizzy (because she died 6 hours after we brought her home from the vet after she stayed at the vet for 2 1/2 days).  But there is no name on the prescription.  It only says expiration 11/21/2011, Keep Refrigerated, 25 mg, Cipro Suspension per ounce. And to Shake Well.  That's it.
Well my daughter is still sleeping she stayed up with Lily but doesn't know she died yet.  Altough Lily quit breathing literally several hours before she died.  Then I would stroke her along her jaw, we were crying, thinking she was gone.  Then she started breathing again.  She only lived a few hours after.  It is going to be a sad day today =(
Thank you for your help.

Answer
I am very sorry for your loss.  Its so hard to lose these rats.


I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest one or two things that could have claimed her life.  With the uterine bleeding, it could have been a prolapse and this would cause internal bleeding that would claim her life.  If she had an infection, be it a nasty pyometra or from a tumor that was not known about *internal* that may have abscessed, sending toxins into her blood stream, this would cause sepsis, which is fatal as well.  This would also cause bleeding. As I said above, she had porphyrin discharge you noticed on her paws that looked like blood. She probably got it from her nose and it smeared to her front paws making it look like sores or blood. You can see example of this on my site, critter city.

The only way to have saved her would have been an emergency spay and if the condition was to far ahead, even a spay may not have helped.  We usually spay when they have infection as well as tumors.

My suggestion to you and of course everyone that knows me will know how I feel about this, but for all female rat owners, prevention of this type of problem is from spaying while the rat is young, around 3 to 5 months of age.  Spaying young prevents later development of mammary tumors that usually appear after ovulation stops around 18 months of age. However, spaying of course removes the uterus *the vet should do a complete spay*   so all reproductive contents are removed.  This prevents of course any complication from having female reproductive organs like uterine tumors and uterine infection such as dangerous pyometra  

If you want to know what really happened, you can preserve the remains in the refrigerator (never freezer) and your vet can perform a gross necropsy for you to give you the answers you may want.  It wont bring her back but it can teach us even more about what can happen to our rats and help vets in many ways. I always donate my rats remains when possible for necropsy and study.  I feel they would want this and it helps us understand domestic rat health better.  It may seem sad and all, but they are no longer in that body anymore anyhow and instead they are the little rattie angel you feel sitting on your shoulder softly bruxing telling you she is ok and not to cry....much.  

big big hugs to you.  I know how you feel. I have loved and lost over 42 rats over the years and its never ever easy.  With each one I lose I always cry and sob and shout out that they were my favorite, they were the best rat ever, my heart rat, the ultimate rat ever.....no matter how many I have lost, they hurt the same each time, its never easy....ever.