tail amputation?

Question
My Norbert (6 month's old) recently had a fall and damaged the nerve's in the base of his tail, the vet has told me that he may need it amputated if it doe's not repair itself. I was wondering if you could tell me what this may entail and if a rats balance may be affected by this?

Answer
I've never seen an adult rat lose his ENTIRE tail so I can't tell you exactly how it'll effect him, but usually they learn to compensate very well. Mainly, the tail is for balance and also a way to regulate heat. You'll need to keep him in a lower, easy to navigate cage until he gets used to being tailless and once he's healed, I doubt he'll have much of an issue at all. Just watch out in the summer that he doesn't get too hot, lacking that extra heat outlet.