# Caring for your rat after a stroke...??



## ManaExAi (Jun 10, 2014)

Hi everyone, meet Kyosie!









Kyo is our big fat bub, we've had her for about a year and 4 months now. We found her all alone in a pet store when she was around 6 months old, she was just the friendliest little (big) girl, we couldn't just leave her there! She took to us instantly and has always been super friendly and affectionate, our cuddly, Cosy Kyosie. She's always been a bit lazy and much preferred being wrapped up in a blanky than running about, unless it came to food that is! She certainly had a bit of a weight problem, she was always big but the fact she insisted on stealing any bit of food she could find didn't help. Her weight rose to 480g and that's when, by vet instruction, we started measuring out her food strictly each day and the weight started coming off her nicely. Just a bit of background on her 

Then about 3 weeks ago she took a bad turn overnight, hadn't touched her food or water, really lethargic, lots of porphyrin, looking generally very unwell, so we got her to the vet who told us she had a bladder infection and a very high temperature which had caused her to become dehydrated as well as having a large weight drop. She was prescribed 0.08ml Baytril daily for a week, and we gave her water via syringe several times a day and she seemed to be recovering nicely, then, again, overnight she took another bad turn. Again she hadn't touched her food or water and was looking very lethargic, but this time she was leaning quite seriously to one side, head tilted, and would fall over when she tried to clean herself or walk. We got her straight to the vet and her bladder infection was still there and another large weight drop, but that was no longer the worst of it. The vet suspected that Kyo had suffered a stroke, she was being gentle with us but made it quite clear that "she may never recover from this" and that we "may lose her" but the vet gave us the option to put her on another course of antibiotics for a week and we took it.
So Kyo was put on 0.4ml Septrin and 0.14ml Metacam daily for another week and then we took her back to the vet at the end of that week. Luckily there have been some big improvements, her infection has cleared up and her reflexes have gotten better, though still fairly slow and some more weight loss though not as large a drop this time. The vet was now happy to let us take her home and keep her on the Metacam for another week, with the option of keeping her on it longer if needs be. 

So here's where Kyo is at now~
*We realized quite quickly that she does still have an appetite, we saw her pick up one of her food nuggets and try to eat it, but she could only have a nibble or two, she struggled to hold it, with her right hand being weak, and seemingly struggled to chew/swallow it, probably due to weakening of her facial muscles. So we've switched her to softer food alternatives now. We've been alternating between Baby food, Rat Ground Diet (Mixed with water), Strawberry Shortcake Egg Biscuit Mix (Mixed with skimmed milk), fresh, mashed up Bananas or boiled, mashed up Peas and Carrots. With another food bowl for treats - Carrot Cake Bars, Creamy Center Treats, or Nibblots Treats, all of which are broken up into small, soft pieces for her. She's been willingly and happily eating this stuff up of her own will, even asking me to put more in her bowls in the morning, as well as taking it from us willingly when we spoon-feed her over the course of the day, but I'm still not satisfied that she's eating enough and she's still losing weight, I'm really not sure what else I should/could be giving her?
*She is also not drinking from her water bottle. I've seen her take a few sips, and there have been mornings I've seen her water bottle has gone down by about 5ml, though that has only happened once or twice. I refill her bottle with fresh water every day, and monitor the amounts to see if she's been drinking, I've even tried diluting her water with a few ml of pineapple juice to try and tempt her into drinking it. We've been syringe feeding her water and pineapple juice a few times a day, which she used to enjoy, willingly lapping up whatever tasty drink we had to offer, but now she just fights us on it. I'm not sure if she's not drinking from her water bottle because she can't or she's not thirsty, since there is quite a bit of water content in her soft foods now? The pinch test says that she's hydrated and she's not showing any signs of dehydration so I'm not sure...
*She's able to walk about, in fact she can still be super fast when she wants to be, we're letting her have time out on the couch and the bed as often as she wants (bit of physical theray for her) though she seems to much prefer to snuggle up to us, under a cover for a cosy rat nap. But she's still having balance problems, mostly when trying to clean herself, she will fall backwards, or to the side and just roll over like a big ball. She seems to be adjusting though, she no longer seems to be too bothered by this and just gets on with it, and I've noticed her propping herself up against things to keep her balance as well (Isn't she clever!) We've moved her into a one-story cage now so there's no risk of her falling and hurting herself, and have padded out with Carefresh Bedding, a Cuddly Bed (With an outer rim to help her from falling over), lined with Veterinary Bedding (to keep her dry, now she can't always make it over to her 'potty corner') with a Fleece baby blanket which she loves to wrap round her at bedtime. The only other things in her house now are her food bowls, so she has minimal things she can fall and hurt herself on. We also make sure to clean out any soiled bedding as soon as we see it and replace her blanket with a brand new one whenever needed. 
*Her main problem with cleanliness now is that she is no longer doing a great job at grooming herself, and with her putting her hands and face in bowls of wet food, she's getting it everywhere! We've been cleaning up any gunky fur and keeping her fingernails tidy with cotton wool pads and warm water whenever she needs us too (about twice a day) which she doesn't like very much, but is much better than having a proper bath, though we've got small animal shampoo to mix into her warm water for if she gets especially icky.

Basically I'm looking for some general advice on care and nursing, how am I doing so far and what else can I be doing for my baby?
Are there any other foods/products I can be getting for her?
Is there anyone else who has had experience caring for a rattie post-stroke before and if so how did he/she do??
Any support or advice would be greatly appreciated it!

She still seems happy, she may be adjusting to these big changes but she seems to be managing okay, she's still Kyo and still acting that way, bopping about, asking to come out and play and giving us the most gorgeous kisses and cuddles! <3 She's showing us so much love and I want her to stick around as long as possible so we can show as much love back to her so I need to make sure I'm doing absolutely whatever I can to make sure she's as happy and comfortable as possible~

Thanks for reading, from both me and Kyo


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Sorry to hear about Kyo. You're doing pretty well. I would try to make sure she drinks at least 2mL (two tsp) of water, and can get the rest from her watery foods. You could try lowering the water bottle or providing a water bowl to make drinking easier.

I would get some infant soy formula/ensure and soak lab blocks in them for her. You can also use the soy formula with brown sugar/maple oatmeal for a good meal. If you can, get some Nutri-Cal for puppies/kittens, give her a good drop in her oatmeal/baby food. It is very dense in nutrients. Another good meal can be made with scrambled egg and coconut oil.

http://ratguide.com/health/neurological/stroke.php


I would try steroids to see if there is any improvement with her coordination. They mayy alleviate swelling; or if there is a brain tumor causing it.


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## ManaExAi (Jun 10, 2014)

Thanks so much for the advice!
We've been getting 2-3ml of water in her daily with the syringes, so that's good, but I'll definitely try lowering the water bottle, see if that helps.
I'll give them all a try! Oatmeal certainly seems like the kind of food Kyo would love~

Is Metacam not a steroid?? Or is there another one you would recommend, I can drop in the vets and make a request then


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Metacam is nonsteroidal. There is Prednisone or Dexamethasone.


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## ManaExAi (Jun 10, 2014)

Thanks so much, I'll be sure to bring them up with her vet~


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

First off whilst it’s a bit late I would get her on a steroid if you can, I would probably ask for pred at this stage as Dex is more of an instant improvement and pred works better for the long haul. I would also as the vet about vivitonin, this is a medicine which helps prevent repeat strokes, Unfortunately once rats have one they are often prone to follow ups, I’ve lost more than one rat to a follow up stroke when they were well on the road to recovery.

In terms of palliative care I would try and get her living with other rats, if she’s not already. Whilst she may struggle to keep up with them rats do a lot better in company and its possible to make her a low level area for her to live whilst her friends use the rest of the cage. When you’re talking recovery positive mental attitude is extremely important and friends really help. I would either add a nice calm friend or two to her cage, or see how the group responds to her, if they aren’t rough with her then she will do better with them than not.

Food wise I would make sure she has the option of dried food around to encourage her to give it a go but keep up with the wet foods. Try alternating flavours regularly to keep her interested. I would also offer a tasty liquid such as dilute apple juice or milk (soy milk is a good one but you can use regular milk too, most rats like most humans aren’t lactose intolerant). She may not be confident in drinking from a bottle at the moment so some in a low bowl may work (you’ll have to change it regularly), but offering her some of the special stuff in a v low mouse bottle will help too. Most rats will make an effort to drink tasty stuff even when feeling rubbish, but you can use the wet diet and syringe as a back up until your confident shes started to drink, then gradually water it down until shes drinking water again.

Its going to sound mean but I would also try and encourage her to move around, when recovering from a stroke they get more movement back if they try, so maybe get her out a few times a day and try and get her to move around a bit, if shes weak on one side still you could even move those joints around a bit and keep them supple. I’d also offer some shallow ramps to try and get her to start climbing again, increasing the angle as she improves. Its all about challenging her but not beyond her ability.


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## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

So sorry to hear about your rat. My rat also had a stroke (last Friday). We ended up having to euthanize him, he was unable to move or climb well and was frequently going in circles, etc. I was unaware that this was such an issue in rats, but just since my rat had his stroke, I've been browsing online and have seen 3 other cases in rats about the same age as yours and mine. Most seem to be about 1.5 years old and otherwise healthy. 

Good luck with your rat and I hope she improves.


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## ManaExAi (Jun 10, 2014)

nanashi7 said:


> You could try lowering the water bottle or providing a water bowl to make drinking easier.
> You can also use the soy formula with brown sugar/maple oatmeal for a good meal.


Thanks so much for this advice! I lowered her water bottle and swapped it out for a smaller mouse/travel bottle and she's been drinking from it, only a small amount still, but a big improvement! 
And I picked her up some Oatmeal and Soy Formula today, she went mad for the oatmeal! It was like having my old, greedy Kyo back again <3



Isamurat said:


> First off...


Thanks for the suggestion of the Vivitonin, I can now go to her vet tomorrow with specific requests and hopefully get her on some good medication.
I've given her some playtime out with our other two rats but they're very young and hyper compared to Kyo and get too over-excited and rough, jumping and leaping on her and 'power-grooming'. They end up really stressing her out, quite quickly and she becomes a real cry baby  But their houses are next to each other and I do see her go over to 'have conversations' with the other two, through the bars, fairly often, it's really difficult to know if keeping them separate is the right thing or not, but at the moment especially it seems like a bit too much stress for her and she doesn't need any more stress >.<
Thanks for all the great advice, we're giving it all a try and have stocked up on all these yummy new foods and drinks for her (she now has more food in than we do lol)
And she's doing well with the physical exercise! She just spent the last half hour running all over the living room exploring, we could barely keep up with her! So she doesn't seem to be struggling with weakness too much, which is a relief.



artgecko said:


> So sorry to hear about your rat. My rat also had a stroke (last Friday). We ended up having to euthanize him, he was unable to move or climb well and was frequently going in circles, etc. I was unaware that this was such an issue in rats, but just since my rat had his stroke, I've been browsing online and have seen 3 other cases in rats about the same age as yours and mine. Most seem to be about 1.5 years old and otherwise healthy.
> 
> Good luck with your rat and I hope she improves.


Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry to hear that, your poor baby  My prayers are with you both~
It does appear to be fairly common unfortunately, but it's such a horrible thing to have happen to them, and such a horrible thing to see. One minute they're fine and healthy and the next everything is completely different. It breaks my heart knowing she went through something like that </3 But luckily she's doing a lot better and seems to be managing okay. Thanks so much for your kind words.


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