ratt has hurt tail

Question
QUESTION: My ratt seems to be getting better from her hurt tail but shes is loosing hair near her tail. And she has 1 bald spot on her back.  So what dose this mean? And what do i do for my rat to make sure it heals up perfect.  She has no welt, bruise, or redness but occasional squeaks when it is touched.  So what dose the hair loss thing mean and what can i do to make her tail get all better?

ANSWER: I cant tell what the hair loss means without checking her over for mites and if that is negative, her hormone levels should be checked if there is no visible signs of obvious skin problems, even something easy like dry skin.  Is she itching alot?

What does her diet consist of?

Do you have a vet?

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

QUESTION: I don't see her itching it very much but she probly dose when im not looking.  Its a spot thats dry with a some flakey skin and its a little bit purple. We have a vet near us but we haven't taken her to there before. And her diet is water veges and just hard food we find. Hard food meaning like crackers, cookies, chips, stuff like that.

Answer

Now that I see what her diet is it makes the diagnosis more accurate than first thought. Poor diet has alot to do with skin disorders and allergies to high proteins among other things will cause the problems your describing to me.

Your rat needs a much better diet. The diet she is on is very poor quality. She should not have crackers, cookies, chips, stuff like that. I am not sure about you saying she eats hard food you find, but that tells me she isnt being fed a diet made for rats specifically. Rats require a low fat and low protein diet, or else they go into kidney   failure as they age. Pet stores push seed mixes which make experts laugh because for starters, rats are not birds, why give them bird seed, which most rat mixes contain rather than nutritious grains and nuts. Even so, too many nuts are bad for rats because of high protein and must be fed in moderation.

Your rat should be fed a nutritious rat kibble or rat block/rodent block and also you can find ideas on making a homemade diet and other ideas on feeding your rat on my website. So many rat owners are unaware of what is good and not good for rats mainly because we assume that, hey what the heck, they are rats and rats in the wild eat from peoples trash cans so they should be able to eat most anything. I thought that way many years ago to be honest. Live and learn. Truth is, rats in the wild live to be 6 months if they are lucky, with a year being a miracle!

Anyhow, changing her diet and rubbing the bald area with cortisone cream is a start. Also, I would like you to use olive oil and put a few drops on a piece of salt free cracker and if you dont have a salt free cracker, wipe the salt off the top best you can since high sodium is also taxing on the rats kidneys too.  Anyhow, use the olive oil several times a day, just a few drops, which over the course of the day would measure out to be about half a teaspoon total but of course you cant give her that much at once or her poop would be a mighty mess!

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


Here is the URL to my website so please check it out about diets.
The sooner she is on a better diet the faster you will see her fur grow back in.
Please let me know how it goes!  Good luck!