Rat Blindness

Question
QUESTION: My Blue Rat is 1.5 years old and is very active. he plays and eat (a lot) and is an all around happy rat. the other day i realized some strange behavior. i went to pet him when he was looking right at me and he bit me (hard) and freaked out like he was having a heart attack. he has never bitten before so i got worried and took him to my bed and played with him a bit and it seemed like he was extra causious about where he was stepping and was using his nose a lot more to get around. i tryed waving one of his treats in front of him and he didnt react. could he be blind? Is it common at his age and is there anything i can do? he seems to be getting along just fine though. a little diferent but my other rat is helping him it seems like. please help me. i dont know what to do for him.

thank you.

ANSWER: Hi Kayla

Sometimes rats will do this if something in the background upset him or maybe something upset him right before you came in and he was just stunned by your presence.  Rats have terrible vision naturally and in fact if they were human they would be legally blind.  On my website there is a link that will show you exactly how it would be to see things if you were a rat.  Red or pink eyed rats are worse than dark eyed rats, but all in all, everything is a blurry mess!!  
Anyhow, you cannot test a rat for vision loss by waving an object in front of them. They use their whiskers to sense an object more than they depend on their eyes. He knew you were waving something in front of him by the vibrations his whiskers gave off just from your movement.
Rats fortunately, do NOT depend on their vision as a means of getting around.  Instead, they use their whiskers.  They can tell if they can fit through something just by using their whiskers and they can sense objects around them using them as well.
I have a rat that is blind in both eyes and he used to see, but he had a stroke over the winter and lost his vision in both eyes.  What he does is he holds his head straight up, nose toward the ceiling, and he walks like that, with his nose to the ceiling, head tipped back...he looks like he is part seal like that and you can balance a ball on his nose!!
If he hears a noise, he turns around in circles with his nose still pointed toward the ceiling.  Its so strange, but he gets around like that.  He also rocks his head frantically back and fourth like he is trying feel his way around.  Rats normally sway their heads back and forth in a swaying motion and they do this in order to judge depth and distance since they have lousy perception of the depth of something. They have to try to focus this way. Red or pink eyed rats do the head sway more than a dark eyed rat, but dark eyed rats still can be seen doing  the head sway tool. Its kind of cute actually and nothing to worry about.

What you can do is take a flash light and quickly flash it into the rats eye and see if his pupils  change or not.
If he is blind, this is not common to occur and there would be an underlying cause for it .  Has he had any discharge from his eyes lately , including porphyin, which is the reddish discharge they get around the eyes and nose when stressed due to illness or anxiety for whatever reason he is stressed which could be from illness or he could be stressed from a new cage or even from loss of a cagemate or addition of a new one.
Has he been ill recently?
Just to make you feel better, you asked what to do to help him if he is blind and the first thing is we need to know why he would be blind. To simply "turn blind" out of the blue just is not something that occurs with rats. However, if he is blind, there is not really anything to do other than if he was sick and it caused it, treatment to possible reverse the blindness could be warranted, say for example, if he has some type of eye infection that causes temporary blindness and after treatment he may regain his sight. Again though, not sure if this is the case since I don't know if he was sick at  all recently.

Anyhow if for sure we find he is blind and he can still get around the cage without bumping into things or falling, this is ok, just don't change anything so he   doesn't have to try to get used to where things are again.  If he is for sure blind, I would make sure he is in a safely secured play area at all times and I would use a playpen gate for him during time out to play although I suggest that anyhow to all rat owners for safety reasons.  I would not put him on top of anything high or leave her loose in unfamiliar areas.

Also, do you have a vet that is educated in rat care? If not, let me know and I can locate one in your area just in case there is a time he needs to be seen by one. This way, you will have one to see instead of trying like mad to find one which sometimes is not an easy task.

good luck

Sandra

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

QUESTION: my rat has had mites many times and we havent been able to get them to go away completely. he actually chewed a hole in his tummy because of them. he seems to be ok now but we have noticed a dry red residue around his nose though. i just dont want him to have a tumor.

Answer

Mites can be successfully treated with revolution.  The vet carries it and you can buy one vial (kitten strength) and I will tell you how to dose him properly according to weight. Having mites for long periods can  cause anemia due to blood loss since mites are anaplura (blood suckers) plus they of course make the rats itch and the excessive itching turns to sores and can become infected.  Anyhow, I would call the vet and buy a vial, runs about $12 for one.


Also, if your worried you little man has a brain tumor that is causing loss of vision, don't worry...he isn't showing any signs of neurological problems such as walking in circles, head tilt, dragging his back legs or losing the use of any limbs at all, seizures, bulging eyes, unable to chew or swallow, etc... so I am comfortable enough to say he probably does not have a tumor in his brain that may be disturbing vision.

He has the porphryin around his nose because he is stressed. Again, if you need a vet to check him, I can find one for you that is geared toward treating rats. All I need is your zip code!

Hope this helps!