Pet rat favoring right hind leg

Question
Hello, I have a male hairless rat who is about 1 1/2 years old. Last night i
noticed that he was limping and holding his right hind leg completely off of
the ground. When i examined him it didnt look swollen and he didnt protest  
too much (no squeaking or excessive squirming). When i woke up this
morning he is still favoring it but he puts it down a little bit; not putting his
full weight on the leg. He has been eating and drinking just fine and trying to
do his normal thing but he is not that great at hopping around with one leg! I
took the ladders and different levels out of his cage so he is restricted to the
ground floor unless he climbs the bars. Could this be a sprain or a break?
and what are some signs that he definitely needs to go to the vet. I am more
than happy to take him to a vet but i also want to avoid an unnecessary trip.
Thanks for your help!

Answer
Hi Jamila

Check to be sure its not a broken toe nail..(which I doubt or you would have seen lots of blood since the nail bed is very vascular)and if not, the rest of this message applies to your question:

The vet will probably tell you what I am about to tell you and to be honest at this point I dont feel a vet is needed unless you think you will feel better going of course I would never say NOT to go, either. If you dont see any swelling or bone protruding and he isnt screaming in pain, he just sprained or twisted it.

You would know if it were broken, trust me. It would be swollen beyond belief, bone may be protruding and he would scream at the thought of you even touching him. The only real way to treat a fracture is to isolate once its splinted but even splinting is tough since the rat eats through the materials so the vet usually operates and inserts a pin in the leg once the bone has been set in proper alignment again.  I am almost sure this isnt the case though.

Keep doing what your doing. Keep him in a small area where he cant move around much nor climb etc...just like your doing. You may want to increase his iron by giving him a bit of scrambled egg and also offering some soy milk or soy formula.  Do not give any ibuprofen or tylenol as this can slow down the healing process. Usually in severe cases, narcotic pain meds are used but its actually best that they do feel a bit of discomfort when they put weight on it so they dont use it, like he is doing now. I can pretty much bet that within 24 hours he will be back to normal.
Hope this helps!

Sandra