Question
Reva's tail
Hello!
I wrote you before about my 2 pet rats Reva and Tore as Reva was very ill and it looked like pituitary tumor or inner ear infection.
Some days after she got better I let them both out of the cage to run around house as the cage is quite small (I moved them to smaller 1-floor cage as it could be hard for Reva to climb the wires). Then I made a bad move - opened the door of room but didn't notice that the ill rat was just behind the door. Her tail got under the door, she was crying a little out of pain, but stopped in a while and just winced every 5th second or so. A while after that she seemed to be out of pain. A day after that Reva was still ok, but got worse afterward. She could not eat again and looked even worse than previous time. I took her to vet, fed her and in 4 days she was ok again. My good girl :)
About 3 weeks has passed since then, Reva is very god. She is just a bit unstable on her feet as you said it could be, but is running around and even jumping over computer wire if she needs to. Just she is doing it all a bit slower than her healthy sister.
The problem is - I just took her in hands and noticed a red part of tail, about 2cm long and with much less hair than the rest tail. And what made me worried was the tip of the tail, which seems dry, just like dry leaf of some plant. I have taken Reva in hands yesterday and before and didn't notice that. When she walks, the tail is bent, though well before that part.
I have heard of tail gangrene and that rats die from it. Is it the case and is it something I can do to cure it?
AnswerHi
Well there is some good news, it looks like it was an infection of the inner ear rather than a pituitary tumor, which is awesome!! Its just a slow process, which I do warn people about so they dont get discouraged.
Now about that tail....what has occurred is that the injury is deep enough that it has cut off circulation to the bottom of the tail. The part that is not getting any circulation has turned necrotic and died. It will probably dry up and fall off. However, she needs antibiotics and really needs the tail looked at. Some vets may even suggesting amputation at the point of injury, but I am thinking with oral antibiotics, cream to help infection etc....it will fall off at the dry end and heal. Again though, she needs the vet to help.
As for gangrene of the tail, I have been working on a professional basis with rats for a long time and never have I seen nor heard of that. Some people make up names for things that they know nothing about. They probably think the dry end is gangrene but its necrotic, which means dead. Gangrene is a nasty infection.
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