stroke, tumors and old age of rats

Question
my mom has a rat who is now over 5years old. He was a wild rat who came into her house after the hurricanes we had back in 93'. After several months of living under her kitchen cabinets we finally caught "Willie". He has been a member of her family since then. She has never taken Willie to a vet and he has been very healthy up until now. She thinks he had a stroke because she saw his back legs quivering and then he did't move. Two days later he looks like he has developed a tumor on the left side of his head right above his eye, which looks very large in size. My question is do you think he is suffering and how long does he have to live?

Answer
5 is.. amazing. Plain and simple. By all accounts, he should be dead now. (Sorry to be frank; but its true!)

I'd say he probably has some sort of tumor on his spine causing paralysis, and the thing about his eye may either be a tumor or an abcess. He could have months, or weeks, or days. I can't tell you for sure - I'd seen some amazing things when I suspected only a few days of life.

Suffering.. that part is up to you. Does he look like he is? I'd imagine the answer is yes, but really only his loved ones can see his demeanor change. Is he still cheerful, happy to see you, eating, drinking? If not, I'd say its time to let go.