# sudden back leg paralysis and twitching - advice please



## Andrea57 (Oct 6, 2012)

I was in the kitchen and heard a crash, and found one of our rats (F, 21 months) had fallen off one of the shelves in her cage and into the litter tray (a distance of about 8 inches). I picked her up and she was acting really oddly, twitching and apparently unable to use her back legs. I held her for a bit then put her in the rat carrier, where she just lay on her side, looking extremely unwell.

Later I took her out and she seems to have regained use of her legs but is quite wobbly, but when I put her down she walks a few steps then just lies there, looking utterly miserable. She also seems to have a respiratory infection of some sort (runny nose) and is breathing very noisily. To be honest, she looks as if she's close to death, but maybe that's just a rat thing? (they're our first rats so we haven't experienced sick rats before)

I've put her in a small cage with no shelves overnight and am going to take her to the vet in the morning (along with her sister who has a really nasty eye injury which I posted about a couple of days ago) - assuming she hasn't decided to give up the ghost in the night.

Anyone have any idea what this is? Until today she was absolutely fine, no sign of any problem with legs or back or respiratory system or anything else, then it came on, literally, in minutes.


----------



## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

For that many things to happen all at the same time, it sounds almost like the rat ingested some type of toxin.


----------



## Andrea57 (Oct 6, 2012)

No, I'm sure she didn't ingest any toxin. Just had the same old food she's been having for nearly 2 years, nothing different at all. Also hasn't been out and about anywhere she might have nibbled something without me noticing.


----------



## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

it could've been the fall injuring her spine or wrenching something, it could've been a stroke or a seizure causing the fall. She needs your vet asap. Does your vet treat rats? most cat/dog vets won't and don't know enough to treat them. She will need pain meds/anti-inflammatory (my guess), which should be oral metacam. If you get metacam to give to her, let us know and we'll double check the dosage for you. The URI could have been brought on by stress, and you will probably get baytril for that. Good luck today! Offer her soft foods from your fingers or water from a syringe (needleless obviously) if she needs help.


----------



## Andrea57 (Oct 6, 2012)

Sadly, Ratty died yesterday. Don't know what it was; she went from being absolutely fine, to dying, in the space of less than 2 days. Vet suggested some kind of respiratory problem and gave her antibiotics, but that didn't explain her leg problems and twitching. Vet didn't know much about rats so referred us to another one who knew more, but ratty died before the appointment. Now our other rat, Silky, is also looking very poorly; funny breathing, twitchy, so it looks as if she may be going the same way (she also has antibiotics but they don't appear to be doing much). Very hard on my daughter (age 8), who hadn't expected her beloved rat to die; don't know how she'll cope if the other one dies too, although it may be for the best given her condition. Is 21 months fairly typical life span? (they're dumbo rats, if that makes a difference) We thought they'd live longer and I wasn't anticipating the death of a pet trauma just yet.


----------



## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

I'm so sorry

Honestly to me it sounds like a Pituatory tumor (PT). Though it would be odd for Silky to have it, but not impossible. Unfortuantly PT's are very deadly (they are a tumor in the brain) and always kill quickly once signs appear. (you posted this twice actually, I replied in the second one you posted, so sorry if you didn't read it sooner)

21 months I would say is fairly good for rats. my rat Charles died at 20 months to a PT, he showed signs for 4 days (a very stressful 4 days at that for me). My youngest death was Einstein (first rat death) who died at 10 months due to Peunomia (he died in less then 14 hours of showing signs of it sadly)


----------



## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

At least the rat didn't suffer long. Sad news indeed.


----------



## Andrea57 (Oct 6, 2012)

Silky died too, this morning. I don't think it was a pituitary tumour that ratty had; it would be too much of a coincidence for them both to develop the exact same symptoms within a day of each other. I think it must have been something infectious. I guess the good thing is that they weren't sick for long, but I would like to know what it was - I suppose we'll never know now. At least silky was spared the trauma of having an operation on her injured eye, which I wasn't confident she would have survived in any case.

My daughter would like to get more rats, although I think she needs a while to process the deaths of these ones. My concern is that if it was something infectious, how to make sure the cage is absolutely clean for the next ones. I've disinfected it, and will do so again, but is there anything else I can do to make sure it's as clean as it possibly can be? Is bleach better than disinfectant (obviously very well rinsed off)? Any advice?
thanks


----------



## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

You are right, for them both to have succumbed together like that, it was an infection, or a poison. If it was an infection, then you have already covered that problem by bleaching out the cage.


----------

