# Rat is Lethargic and Not Eating, Only Drinking



## morgpie1 (Jun 29, 2017)

I have two wonderful ratties, Bert and Ernie. Bert and Ernie are both playful but Bert tends to cuddle more and Ernie tends to be the mischievous one, always running around and he has so much energy. Today, something struck me odd about Ernie. He was sleeping a lot and I figured maybe he'll be up more in the evening. At around 11pm, I went to check on him and he looked very lethargic. his eyes were sort of squinted, he looked perhaps a bit skinnier. his hair was kind of ruffled. and he just kind of layed there. he was shaky when trying to grab food out of his bowl and took maybe a bite before dropping it which is not like him at all. he usually eats a lot and runs to the cage doors because he is so excited about food. he was just kind of scrunched up and so i got nervous, it had been maybe 4 days since i had cleaned their cage fully, i always do spot cleanings. but i have an extremely good air purifier so i thought it would be fine. well i cleaned the cage around him and turned my air purifier on again to allow it to suck any dust or oder out of there. then i dumped their food from earlier today and refilled it with new food and filled up his water bottle. he wouldn't really eat the food but i took a dropper full of water and gave it to him and he licked it up. he seemed eager for water so i rinsed and refilled their water bottle and then put an extra dish full of water in there just in case. he wouldn't really eat so i put applesauce in a little teaspoon and he licked out of it for a bit and finished about two scoopfulls before he was done. he won't really move and i even brought out his favorite treat, puffs, and i tried to give him one and he wasn't interested. i'm wondering if anyone has any advice as to what i should do or what this could be. from looking online, i came up with three options, one being dehydration, (he always has water but it's possible he just stopped drinking it because it is in the bottom portion of the cage and he likes the top) the other being some kind of a tumor, a common one is a PT. and then the other being some sort of respiratory issue. but i can't seem to figure out which one fits the symptoms the most. i just made sure everything was good before turning off the lights but the poor boy is barely opening his eyes unless i drop little drops of water on his nose. but i'm very worried. if anyone will give me suggestions, i will greatly appreciate them. he was fine just the other day and now my boy, Ernie, just isn't acting like himself. the other boy is bright eyed and excited and he's just not. let me know please! thank you!


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## HobieFinchArthur (Jun 18, 2016)

I had a boy with a suspected PT who had the exact same symptoms. And it happened almost overnight, no movement attempt to drink or anything. Really horrible to watch, so so sorry he's going through this.

Try and get him to a vet if you can asap. they might be able to give him a steroid injection which might help him improve for a bit (both if it's a PT or a serious resp infection), and maybe some pain killers/anti-inflammatories. I'd assume if it was a resp issue he'd be wheezing and have quite a lot of porphyrin, but I might be wrong.

If you cant take him to the vet, I'd say just keep doing what you're doing, give him fluids through a syringe if he can't get to the bottle and try more soft foods, baby foods, yoghurt, porridge etc, anything tasty and carby that won't be too hard to eat. 

Does he feel cold at all? Can you see if his lips are pale? I'm not an expert but it might be something to do with his heart as that sometimes leaves them very lethargic. If he does feel cold try to keep him warm, if his brother isn't snuggling with him, you can fill an old sock with rice, stick it in the microwave and use that as a heat pad, make sure it's not too warm though because as much as you don't want his temp to drop you don't want him overheating either. 

I'm so sorry. If it is a PT theres no real cure I know of, in the end after a few more days of no improvement we had to put Hobie to sleep because he was in so much pain. Sorry this isn't very promising, I wish you all the best xx


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## Miss_Rattie (Jul 5, 2016)

I had a girl with a PT that came on very suddenly too. She did have head tilt and also walked in circles, so maybe you could put your boy in an open space and check his movements if you can get him to walk a little. Also, with a PT pressure does build up inside the skull, so the rat will headbutt against your finger if you touch their head. My girl did this also. The vet did give me steroids, but they didn't really help unfortunately and I just fed her baby food and tried to keep her as comfortable as possible. She didn't seem to be in pain, but seemed confused and her coordination had all gone.

If you do have amoxicillin/clavamox to hand then I would give your boy a dose if you have some. It can also be combined with baytril and doxy. It should really help if it is a secondary infection, and may be a good idea until you can get a vet diagnosis. I would try and listen to his chest and see if you can hear any rattling - secondary infections in my experience also develop very quickly and so this could be a definite possibility also.

Best of luck with your boy.


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## Fu-Inle (Jan 22, 2015)

I would also keep an eye on the colour of his skin too. If the bottom of his feet, tail or lips start turning blue its not a good sign. Try and get him to the vet as soon as possible.


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## Ratatouilleratties (Jan 7, 2021)

morgpie1 said:


> I have two wonderful ratties, Bert and Ernie. Bert and Ernie are both playful but Bert tends to cuddle more and Ernie tends to be the mischievous one, always running around and he has so much energy. Today, something struck me odd about Ernie. He was sleeping a lot and I figured maybe he'll be up more in the evening. At around 11pm, I went to check on him and he looked very lethargic. his eyes were sort of squinted, he looked perhaps a bit skinnier. his hair was kind of ruffled. and he just kind of layed there. he was shaky when trying to grab food out of his bowl and took maybe a bite before dropping it which is not like him at all. he usually eats a lot and runs to the cage doors because he is so excited about food. he was just kind of scrunched up and so i got nervous, it had been maybe 4 days since i had cleaned their cage fully, i always do spot cleanings. but i have an extremely good air purifier so i thought it would be fine. well i cleaned the cage around him and turned my air purifier on again to allow it to suck any dust or oder out of there. then i dumped their food from earlier today and refilled it with new food and filled up his water bottle. he wouldn't really eat the food but i took a dropper full of water and gave it to him and he licked it up. he seemed eager for water so i rinsed and refilled their water bottle and then put an extra dish full of water in there just in case. he wouldn't really eat so i put applesauce in a little teaspoon and he licked out of it for a bit and finished about two scoopfulls before he was done. he won't really move and i even brought out his favorite treat, puffs, and i tried to give him one and he wasn't interested. i'm wondering if anyone has any advice as to what i should do or what this could be. from looking online, i came up with three options, one being dehydration, (he always has water but it's possible he just stopped drinking it because it is in the bottom portion of the cage and he likes the top) the other being some kind of a tumor, a common one is a PT. and then the other being some sort of respiratory issue. but i can't seem to figure out which one fits the symptoms the most. i just made sure everything was good before turning off the lights but the poor boy is barely opening his eyes unless i drop little drops of water on his nose. but i'm very worried. if anyone will give me suggestions, i will greatly appreciate them. he was fine just the other day and now my boy, Ernie, just isn't acting like himself. the other boy is bright eyed and excited and he's just not. let me know please! thank you!


Hi there, my boy is just now showing the same symptoms could you tell me if you found out what it was and what you did? Thank you :/


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