Pain and swelling in my rats arm

Question
QUESTION: My rat Selfi, a dumbo rat I bought from a petstore who is nearly 2 years old, started holding one of her front legs (i'd call it her arm) up and won't walk on it. Her hand seems to be ok, as she eats and grooms with it still, but when I try and touch her arm she squeaks and pulls away. She also seems to have some slight swelling on it. She hasn't had any major health problem in the past, but she might be a little overweight (i've heard dumbos tend to get bigger than other rats in older age).

Do you have any suggestions as to what might be causing this arm problem? If it doesnt go away soon I want to take her to the vet. Thank you.

ANSWER: She probably twisted it or stubbed it.I have a feeling she will be ok in another day. But of course if not, by all means, see a vet that is qualified to treat exotics. Usually the treatment is to keep them isolated where she has nothing to climb up on and just kind of lays around a chills for a while, but this usually is for a back leg injury. Rats know when it hurts so they withdraw the limb and try not to use it which promotes healing on its own.  You can always give her childrens liquid ibuprofen, if you know her weight I can give you the dose. As for dumbos being heavier in adult years, this is not really true. So many rumors about dumbos and standard eared rats, from the fact that they are friendlier, have shorter life spans, are prone to this or prone to that...none of it has anything to do with ear placement. A rat becomes overweight not because he or she ate to much, but it is WHAT he or she ate that put on weight.  Low protein and low fat diets are warranted for all rats, dumbo or standard eared, double rex or standard fur, it doesnt matter.  Rats dont over eat even if self feeders which they should be anyhow, but again, its the diet and on top of the fact if they are active or not.  If your rat is taking in more fats and not burning them off as much, esp due to age, this will put on weight.

My buck was weighed the other day at 700 grams and there isnt an ounce of fat on him, he is just one big giant boy, so again, it all depends on how their body is built, large or small frame, etc...  How much does your little darling weigh?

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

QUESTION: thank you for your quick and knowledgeable response!! I took Selfi to the vet today and she weighed in at 507.2 grams. She's a little under average size for a female rat I think, and the vet agreed that she was a bit overweight.

The swelling seems to be going down, and the vet agreed that it was hopefully just a sprain. He said there was a swollen area slightly behind the swollen arm that he wasn't sure what it was, but hopefully again nothing serious. He gave me some anti-inflammatory called medicam. I was wondering if it would still be safe to give her some childrens advil alongside the anti-inflammatory?

I'm also not sure how to restrict her diet more - she lives with 2 other normal sized girls so I wouldn't want to starve them. Shes what I guess you could call a "food hog"- she eats a majority of the food I give them. I feed them the Suebee's mix that I found online (mostly puffed wheat, rice, total cereal flax seed, whole wheat pastas, dried fruit) and their staple vegetarian lab blocks, plus one or so servings of a variety of fruit or veggies every day.

Answer
Good that he agrees its just a sprain.  As for using the advil, no do not use it now.  Metacam is really just a glorified advil anyhow but a bit stronger and has a better pain relief property so its better to give just the metacam rather than the advil and she cannot have both.

As for her weight, I still dont see her being over weight but I would not want her to get much bigger. As they age, their appetite waxes and wanes a bit and she will slow down being a little piggy rather than a little rat.  Her diet is fine, I would not change a thing. Perhaps reserve some extra time for her to be physically active, letting her have a place to play longer, things to climb while out of the cage etc....if she gets an hour  play time, give her an extra 30 mins.