follow up - sick rat

Question
I sent you a message a couple months ago about some problems one of my pet rats is having. At the time I sent the last message her symptoms were fairly mild, (dry skin/fur, stiffness, weight gain), and you said in your reply, most likely due to old age. Now she's gotten much worse. She has tiny scabs around her eyes from scratching so much. Her fur is sparse and you can see her skin through it. I tried giving her olive oil as you suggested but she doesn't like it, and won't eat anything with olive oil on it. I tried giving her more fruits and vegetables but that didn't help either. Nothing I do seems to help her dryness. She also seems extremely stiff and she doesn't get around very well. When she tries to climb the sides of her cage or is coming down from the upper level, she sometimes falls. Sometimes she wanders slowly around like she's confused or something. Despite all of this she still seems pretty happy and has a good appetite... but she's just slowly getting worse and I can't seem to do anything to help her. So my question is when do you know it's time to have a rat put down? Would that be the most humane thing at this point? I really don't know.

Answer
Hi Sarah

Sounds like she is getting arthritis, which is common in older rats. You can make her more comfortable by having her put on something for inflammation like metacam from the vets or even childrens liquid ibuprofen once or twice a day will help.  Offer her baby food too. All rats love baby food. Stage 2 is good as stage 1 is watery. Perhaps you can put some oil in the baby food and try it that way?
You can also rub cortisone on the scabs or dry spots. Even rubbing it with olive oil wont hurt, although messy.  

Please read my webpage on care of elderly rats. There is no need to even consider putting her down. She isnt sick. She is getting older now and just needs some changes made to her lifestyle like a single story cage so she cant climb and get hurt. I never suggest putting a rat down until they are miserable and they will let you know they are because they pretty much shut down. They refuse food and water, become very lethargic almost like a rag doll and just stop living. They dont groom themselves and do not respond to their owner and do not want to be touched or held. If they have infection that is causing them to be this way, of course, treat it with medications, but when the rat has something terminal and is no longer happy, thats when its time.

It sounds like she wants to be happy, she just needs some help to accommodate her needs.  You already said it, she seems happy and still wants to eat, so thats all a good sign she is still planning on sticking around for a while!

Here is the URL to my site and the page on elderly rats:

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/careoftheelderlyrat.htm