Female Pet Rat

Question
QUESTION: Hi Sandra! Aidan Patrick again- I took her to a small animal pet hospital please read below:

Hello, I have no idea if this forum is still active, but I will write to see. I have a female rat, almost one year old. I noticed a change in her behavior drastically last Tuesday. She was walking back in forth in the same path in her cage, rolling back on her tail, loosing balance, and acting not herself [usually she is very active/hyper jumps on cage walls, nips at fingers, grabs food from hands]. All this changed during just a week. I took her to the vet, and he said she suffered from trauma on the back of the head resulting in neurological disorder, and he gave her a anti-inflammatory injection to reduce swelling. It's the Tuesday after the Tuesday I observed this odd and bizarre behavior. She did, however, improved about a day after returning from the vets office. Now, she is going downhill. She is hardly drinking any water, but when I give her banana's and raisins she eats them. She hangs her head over the dish and dries to bite the dish. She sometimes goes to the water dispenser but doesn't drink anything. She has bloody paws which the vet said wasn't infected and didn't need any treatment. He also said she may be biting herself due to stress? Now she just seems dumbfounded, and she is rolling back on her tail and she can't jump up on top of her igloo. I hope you all can help me; I will be posting on other forums and I am taking her back to the vet probably tomorrow. Thank you all. - Aidan Patrick

ANSWER:

PLEASE DO NOT GO TO THE SAME VET!  The title small animal hospital simply means they see small animals, DOGS AND CATS!

THis vet is so far off it makes me angry. She is just making up stuff as she goes along! TRAUMA to the back of her head.  THis vet has no clue about rat care and if they say they do, go private, tell me the vets name and I will prove it to you this person is not an exotic vet and if they said he or she is, they can go to jail for false presentation of a professional title.


That said, we need to get this rat the proper help fast!!!!!!!

Is your rat using her front paws to hold and grab food?

SHe has one of two things, either an inner ear infection which will cause her to roll, walk in circles, tilt to the side etc...and she needs antibiotics and also something for inflammation. She is dizzy from pressure on the 8th cranial nerve in her brain.  THe reason she felt better from the injection is beacause it helped the inflammation but she needs medication every day  for this, not just once.


READ HERE:

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


The part about the red paws makes me SO SICK that the vet has no clue what is going on.  Please dont go there again.  Your rat has porphyrin discharge from the eyes and nose which is the red secretions that they make while stressed.  READ HERE:

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


When the animal touches this porphyrin, it gets on her paws for pete sake, and it stains her paws reddish color which may get on their fur, too because it SMEARS!  She is NOT biting herself and has no infection of her paws.  You have a QUACK for a VET that has no clue about rat care and if you do NOT find another vet this one is going to KILL YOUR RAT and I dont care if you tell them I said so.  

PLEASE let me give you some names of vets that know about rat care before this vet kills your rat.


If you want to read about ear infections to see what I say is true, go HERE:

http://ratguide.com/health/auricle_ear/otitis_media_otitis_interna_labyrinthitis

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

QUESTION: Hi Sandra, thank you for your prompt reply. The vet is trained to treat small animals [eg. rats, guinea pigs, hamsters]. The paws are crusted red, and looks as if it is blood. However, there is no crust around her eyes or on her nose. So, this makes me think it is blood from her paws. The vet is Atchison Veterinary Hospital, and I will be completely honest with you, I do not like them one bit... but they were the first to see my pet the other vet in Oakdale was in surgery all day when I called. She doesn't seem to be using her paws to eat her food... it lays on the towels in her cage and she just eats it like that. She does show some weakness in her front paws, which makes me think it's a brain tumor, and sometimes favors her  right paw. When I put her in her clear carrier last night when I cleaned her cage, she was standing on her fingers on her paw. My mother can't afford to get her examined by a vet...  but I will talk to her. I also her a squeak from her cage the other night... and I thought she bit her paw... but who knows.. I think I should clean her front paws off just to see if there is any open wound or not. Just to be sure. I am also going to contact the other vet... now that vet who is trained for exotic animals is a graduate from UC Davis.. so he should actually be a good vet. Thank you for your help! I will print this information out and tell them about it.

Aidan Patrick

Answer
http://www.aemv.org/vetlist.cfm



The vet, David Faria, is absolutely NOT an exotic vet, but he sees exotics. He did not complete his internship in exotic medicine but he did read a book or two on small mammals. This is far from  being an exotic vet. In fact, its a Huge difference. These vets such as Dr.Faria, are not specialist, did not take extended courses in exotics and take the state boards for avian and exotic medicine, but they have what is called a "special interest" in exotics. The buck stops there, however, and their knowledge is limited. These vets cannot accommodate the exotic vet and the small animal at the same time unless they have a million dollar establishment. Its super long to explain and unless you tell me you want to know more, I wont go on and on.  However, I am guessing your location would be near Atchison vet hospital so I am giving you a few names of REAL exotic vets if you want to see them. However, with you telling me that she is not using her front paws to grasp, she probably does have a pituitary tumor. If this is the case, it is NOT from some trauma on the back of her head, but instead, it is from a tumor on the base of her brain that is usually seen after menopuase, around 18 months of age. High estrogen levels often contribute to their growth and spaying the rat at a young age *around 3 to 5 months) is the best way to prevent their growth.  anyhow, I hate to sound like a know it all but there is nothing in this world that irks me more than a vet trying to title his or her self something that they did not earn.  AN exotic vet is a regular DVM that once becoming a DVM, they continue on to special education courses which often take a few more years. They work very hard to earn this title and also take a grueling test afterwards that can be stretched over a course of 2 days.  There are only a few hundred certified exotic vets in the entire world (yes believe it or not) with some states only having just 1 or 2 that have a practice there and other states have NONE, forcing people to have to drive sometimes several hours.  Last week I got a disturbing letter from someone that had a vet who claimed to be an exotic vet wanting to put her rat through all of this surgery *removing the rats back leg without even doing a biopsy etc) turns out the vet was not an exotics specialist, just a vet that has learned a few extra things about small mammals, and his specialty was of all things, orthopedic surgery, so it figures he would want to experiment on her rat. She lived in the same state as me, but way down by the coast at least 3 hours away. They wanted the best for their rat so they actually drove 3 hours toward my neck of the woods where we had not 1 but several real exotic vets that her rat could see, with two of these vets being in Charlotte NC and the others were in Raleigh. She took her rat to my vet actually, who, unfortunately, found a tumor on the rats pelvis that was inoperable and things just did not work out for her little friend. However she was glad that they took the drive to go to a real exotic vet rather than someone that was trying to practice his surgical skills on a small animal and possibly cause more suffering for the poor little guy. We see alot of so called "imposters" such as the regular DVM that says he is an exotics vet,  that is like a nurses aide saying she is a registered nurse.The nurses aid may know some things, but not half as much as the RN...same as the regular DVM and the exotic certified vet. Not sure if that makes sense.


Anyhow, here are some names of REAL exotic vets in your area and in California alone:  Unfortunately, none of them are in your area, with them being at least 90 minutes out or more :( This is the problem...there just are not enough exotic vets around and people that own rats are desperate for the right vet and so soon as one says "I see rats, bring them in" or it says in their ads that they see small animals, people assume that means RATS or other small animals, but this means simply dogs and cats, not horses and cows.  If they are a real exotic place the ad would say they see exotics and small companion MAMMALS.  Its confusing but so important for people to understand this since vets that are not up to par on rat care cause more harm than good in so many ways I lost count. I have alot more heartbreaking stories of where a rat was put to sleep because the vet said the rat had a brain tumor and it was simply an inner ear infection (a necropsy was done and they took the vet to court over it) and another vet allowed a rat to die over heart disease saying nothing could be done and truth is, the rat can take many human grade heart drugs and live a happy life just like humans.  I can go on..but my fingers are getting tired.   lol !

Here are some names....maybe someone will talk to you......

Dr. Lynne Lankes
Central Marin Cat and Exotic Hospital    
4144-A Redwood Highway
San Rafael CA 94903
Phone:    415-479-2287
Website: www.catsandexotics.com



Dr. Shachar Malka
Sacramento Animal Medical Group    
4990 Manzanita Av.
Carmichael CA 95608
Phone:    916-331 7430
Website: www.vcasamg.com




I know this is far (90 mins) but I had to include it because its such a good place!

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/small_animal/services/cape/default.html

Dr. Michelle Hawkins
Companion Avian and Exotic Pet Service  
2108 Tupper Hall University of CA Davis
Davis CA 95616