# Rat Losing Weight



## rattikins (Jun 12, 2007)

I'm concerned about one of my girls. She has recently begun to look rather thin around her haunches / hip area. I noticed last week, and as compared to her sister who is the exact same age (roughly 1 1/2 years old) she looks much more gaunt in her back end. 

I tried to include a photo, but it says that the max filesize for all attachments is reached - does this mean for ME or for the whole site? 

Does this weight loss sound alarming to anyone else or am I over reacting about this apparent loss? 

I've seen her eat on occasion, but don't have the time to constantly monitor her to see if she is eating as much as the other one. 

Also, she is breathing a little heavy today. Perhaps it is un-related, but thought I'd mention it. 

Any comments would be greatly appreciated, as many of you have much more experience with ratties.

Thank you!


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## Stace87 (Jun 24, 2008)

This is how you post pics:

http://www.ratforum.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=11485.html


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## rattikins (Jun 12, 2007)

I thought we used to be able to upload pics to this site - coppermine or something. How are there pics in the gallery?


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## kilas_rattery (Jul 25, 2008)

rattikins said:


> I'm concerned about one of my girls. She has recently begun to look rather thin around her haunches / hip area. I noticed last week, and as compared to her sister who is the exact same age (roughly 1 1/2 years old) she looks much more gaunt in her back end.
> 
> I tried to include a photo, but it says that the max filesize for all attachments is reached - does this mean for ME or for the whole site?
> 
> ...


Judging by her age, losing weight, and her breathing... sounds like heart disease. You should start feeding her soft foods so she can eat fast and keep her airways to her lungs open so she can get oxygen. You should take her to the vet if you can as soon as possible, they might be able to prescribe some meds to help make her feel better. 

I have had a lot of ratties go out like this and it is hard watching them when they get into the last stages of heart disease. It becomes hard to breathe for them and they are very lethargic and don't want to do anything. Sometimes they'll also get a bit nippy when they don't want to be bothered but who could blame them. The only thing I could for them was just make them comfortable. I have had to put a few down because it got so bad and it was obvious they were suffering a great load. 

I could be wrong about your rattie having heart disease but it sounds like the first stages of it to me. I hope she gets better.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

It could also be lung abscesses or a low-grade URI as well. Has she ever been medicated? Laboured breathing takes up a lot of energy. Your vet should be able to listen to her heart to see if CHF (congestive heart failure) is a possibility. Then they could give you something like enalapril or fortekor to use as a diagnostic treatment. Most CHF rats have cooler extremities as the blood is being pumped well into those tails, feet and ears. They might have a bluish cast to their feet (or nail beds), they are often lethargic and sometimes will have the laboured breathing.

URI rats can have similar symptoms but they will not respond to the heart meds which helps the heart to function better. They usually have terrible respiratory sounds although pneumonia can not have these present unil later. These rats you can try regular antibiotics on which will not help the CHF rat.

On the other hand, is she alert, interested, eating and drinking fairly normally with just a few changes like a bit of weight loss, etc? 18 months is when a rat starts to age, some age a lot faster than others, and others won't show their age until much much later. 18 months can bring pituitary tumour, mammary tumours, internal masses, CHF, pulmonary abscesses, URI's etc. 18 months is approximatelty the time that a rat's immune system stops working quite as well.


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