# Licking genitals and squeaking?



## Cyrix (May 2, 2014)

Today I observed Jesse grooming his genitals, and making the little squeak yelps he makes when something hurts him or touches him when he doesn't want to be touched. I've never even seen him groom his privates before but he was literally doing it every thee to five minutes and squeaking every time, sometimes even jumping slightly. Could this indicate a urinary tract infection or other genital illness? I pulled back the skin around his penis to see if there was anything obviously wrong with it but there was nothing I could spot.


----------



## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

http://ratguide.com/health/reproductive/paraphimosis.php

First thing that pops to mind.


----------



## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

My rats occasionally squeak a bit when they clean themselves 'downstairs'. No redness or irritation. They are all quite vocal, especially about grooming each other so I've never thought much of it.


----------



## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Does it look sore or smell funny? Also have you checked for penis plugs and is he urinating normally. There are a few things out could be


----------



## Cyrix (May 2, 2014)

Hoo boy, I don't have enough experience with rat anatomy to evaluate these things well. As far as I can tell from comparing to Google image search, he doesn't have Paraphimosis. I have no idea if he's urinating normally, I almost never notice them urinate but they certainly do it. A couple of weeks ago he did pee all over Nibbles, and the urine was extremely viscous, sticky, and neon yellow. I had trouble cleaning it off of their fur. However, that was the only time I've noticed urine like that.

I didn't notice any odor or a plug, but wasn't looking for either. I'll check today. So far today I haven't seen him doing what he was yesterday.



> My rats occasionally squeak a bit when they clean themselves 'downstairs'. No redness or irritation. They are all quite vocal, especially about grooming each other so I've never thought much of it.


I've never seen him groom his privates before, much less every few minutes. This was unusual behavior for him.


----------



## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

I wonder - if it ends up you can't find a physical problem, could he be going through a hormonal phase? One of my rats went through a few weeks of being quite hormonal, and when he wasn't trying to hump his brothers, he was also cleaning himself a lot more than usual, and being very squeaky about it too.


----------



## Cyrix (May 2, 2014)

Hmm... he's always extremely hormonal - very aggressive towards Nibbles and constantly covered in thick buck grease. Maybe it's related, although I haven't noticed any changes in his temperament or behavior other than the grooming yesterday.

He still has lots of energy and is eating and drinking. I haven't gotten a chance to give him another inspection yet.


----------



## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

they can obsessively clean there genetils after they've mounted another rat, he could well have just humped his brother. Saying that thick sticky urine is not great. Honestly i would take him along to the vet, or if you've got some human urine dipsticks in the house (ones that check for blood in the urine) test that. If he's that wound up and grumpy it might be hesa actually got a uti which is hurting him and making him worse, or he could just be a hormonal grump, in which case if he doesnt settle down i would probably get him neutered as its not pleasent for them to live like that long term.


----------



## Cyrix (May 2, 2014)

Jesse seemed better and wasn't thrilled when I tried to give him inspections so I let it go. But today he peed on my hand and when I flipped him over to have a look I noticed he had some pee collected around his penis. I figured I'd try to give it a closer look and as soon as I started he started freaking out, thrashing about and squealing. Jesse is pretty fussy but he made an even bigger fit than usual; I don't know if that's because it was hurting or because it's scary to have a giant forcibly unsheath your penis.

The first time I had looked at it he mad a bit of a fuss but it was extremely easy to unsheath and look at. This time I had a lot more difficulty pulling the skin back and did sort of get the impression it was tangled in there. Once I had him unsheathed I looked him over but couldn't tell for sure if anything was wrong. He did seem to possibly have a ring of bruising around the darker purply part but for all I know that's normal. The purple part did seem... thicker?... than last time. 

I got some completely useless photos he was wriggling way too much. I also attached a drawing from memory. The grey part represents his outer skin/fur, hopefully the rest is recognizable to a rat expert. I wish there were more pictures on the web to get a better idea of how they're supposed to look.

I know I probably need to get him to a vet but the vet is going to have at least as hard a time examining him and I'm sure he'd have to be sedated to do _any _kind of treatment. How the heck do people get their rats to sit still like this? http://s61.photobucket.com/user/rat...raphimosis/Paraphimosis-Goliathapr17.jpg.html I guess we really suck at raising rats.


----------



## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

The sheath around it looks a bit swollen though is hard to tell. i would get some vasalene / lubricant / fragrance free emollient type moisturiser and try and massage a bit in. This should help it be more flexible if it's a bit stiff or dry from an injury or the swelling. If you've got any i would pop him on some metacam or kids ibuprofen suspension to. See how it is tomorrow with that. If it's still sore or he stops peeing then get him to the vets quickly. If it seems blocked in any way that's also an urgent thing. a rat
rats bladder can go from empty to failed (which kills them) in a couple of days if it's blocked. i lost a rat to this. He actually had prostrate cancer which wrapped around his urethra inside essentially strangling it and passed away a few days Street showing Fiat symptoms deals me rushing him to the vets as soon as i found it and ye vet draining his bladder and giving him meds. His brother got the same bit displayed it much slower taking a few weeks of oddness before he got bad enough to try surgery and when it was found the owner Let him go. Hopefully it's not that, there are other options like an injury, infection bladder stones etc which are much more treatable


----------



## Cyrix (May 2, 2014)

As an update, I was horribly busy last week but we got some Vaseline and are applying that until we can get him to the vet on Tuesday. The red ring of bruising I showed in the diagram has definitely gotten worse and I again got the impression he might have been a bit tangled when I unsheathed him to put the Vaseline on. He is taking it very badly and has scratched the **** out of my hand and even nibbled at me, which is something he's never done before. I'm guessing the area is very sore for him in addition to his usual fussiness about personal boundaries.

I thought I noticed a ball of gunk that looked like plug-gunk, but it was between the sheath and the base of the penis, not at the tip. I am not totally sure if I saw that because he was writhing around so much.

Anyway - how much and how often should we apply Vaseline? How soon would improvement show if that was helping?


----------



## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

poor thing it sounds like the sheath is to tight and causing pain. i would get him to the vets ASAP as it could cause the penis to get stuck out if he gets worse and that can get nasty. I'd be doing the vasalene twice a day but don't push the penis out for now as it might be irritating things. If also put him on an anti inflammatory


----------



## Cyrix (May 2, 2014)

OK thanks. Forgot to add that rather than having difficulty peeing, he seems to have difficulty holding it in; he seems to pee a small amount every few minutes, and almost always pees on us when picked up.


----------

