# Dementia In Rats



## buzzwizz619 (May 31, 2015)

Does anyone know if its possible for rats to actually develop dementia?

One of my boys is about 18 months old now and ive had him since he was about 4 months, hes never particularly liked me but he learnt to tolerate me and be ok with me picking him up and like the others has always taken himself back to the cage at the end of free range at the sound of the food.

The last few weeks hes been acting like a right fruitloop! hes doesnt go back to the cage like normal and he will them spend ages hiding like hes terrified, if i try to catch him he completly freaks out but then he was start wandering around the living room as cool as a cucumber. When i finallu get hold of him youd think i was trying to kill him he totally freaks out, like he has no idea who i am, tries with all his mite to escape form my grasp and starts squealing........then tonight he just let me pick him up without a peep!

I genuinely think he has some form of ratty dementia but everything i can find online is only medically induced dementia for research 

opinions?


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## Shadow <3 (Jan 25, 2017)

Have you heard of pituary tumors in rats? These tumors occurs in the brain, and they cause the affected rat's behavior to change drastically. You can test if he has a PT by handing him a cheerio, and watchin how he eats it. If he seems to have trouble holding it, or if he props himself up on his elbows to eat it, those are signs of a PT. Unfortunantly, while some people have some success slowing the growth of PT's, they're ultimately fatal.

If he doesn't have a PT, it's possible he does have something akin to dementia. After all, rats can get Alzheimer's, so dementia doesn't seem a far stretch.

At any rate, I'd take him to the vet to rule out treatable illnesses.


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## Coffeebean (Jan 6, 2017)

I just did some searching and I also could only find medically induced dementia. So I broadened the search to just pets in general. According to these articles from national geographic, azheimers.net and vetwest, pets live longer than their wild counterparts, long enough to develop "cognitive dysfunction syndrome" or CDS described as "like dementia in humans, a syndrome associated with brain aging."



> The signs of Cognitive dysfunction can be remembered by the acronym DISHA.
> *D*isorientation - such as being confused or getting lost in familiar environments.
> *I*nteractions with humans and other pets have changed - such as changes in affection or irritability
> *S*leep-wake cycle changes such as increased sleep during the day or waking during the night
> ...


So rats can be medically induced with dementia, and animals in general experience similar problems from brain aging that we do. On top of that, I used to work with animals and had to deal with many, err, "senile" old dogs and cats who would act very odd, would scream, yell, flail and just act very difficult and odd. Some of them definitely seemed like they had some kind of a "dementia" or something very wrong. So it's unknown whether or not they can naturally develop dementia as found in humans but it seems to be accepted that animals can still suffer from the same sort of symptoms.


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