# Broken foot



## Afwife83 (Mar 28, 2012)

My poor serenity. I woke up this morning and heard a squeak from the cage, and went over to investigate. I noticed serenity walking oddly, so I looked closer and saw her back foot was dragging. So I picked her up, and she squeaked again, and I examined her foot, and yep, broken.  There's nothing to be done except a vet exam and pain management until it heals I know. She only seems to squeak when she forgets and uses it to step on. Otherwise she's getting around amazingly on three legs, even climbing the ladder. She's eating and drinking normally, even balancing to eat with both front paws, and grooming. Once I picked her up and was done examining her, she snuggled into my chest and bruxed. Sweet girl. She's got a vet appointment today, the soonest they could get her in, was this afternoon, I called the other vet that does small/exotic animals and they can't see her at all. I have infant motrin, so they said to give her a drop of that to stave off pain until her appointment.


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## Afwife83 (Mar 28, 2012)

Turns out Serenity has a broken leg! My husband said he found her outside of the cage this morning and put her back in, and didn't notice if something was wrong with her leg or not. Looks like I need to go get hardware cloth!! They gave her Metcam (I think that's the right spelling), 1 dose a day for 10 days, and she needs to be kept by herself for a week. My poor baby. Her leg is a bit swollen and bruised for sure. We have no idea what happened, but I assume she got caught somewhere and broke her leg trying to get free.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Sounds more like a sprain....a break will have terrible bruising and be scary swollen...rats are prone to sprains, very very prone to them, and it doens't sound really bad if she's using it sometimes. Continue with the metacam until any swelling is down but don't separate her from her family...it stresses them and her out, and usually is NOT necessary.
Really bad sprain









2 days later after using metacam










Tonka healed up in a week. 

This is a broken leg...poor Poppy had to be put to sleep, she was 3 years old and this was the last straw for my sweet girl. She caught her leg in an FN ramp (mine all are covered now)


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## Afwife83 (Mar 28, 2012)

I realized I said broken, but it's actually fractured, so not a complete break. And I don't think she's using it, she just seems to either forget or lose her balance and step on it, which makes her squeak in pain. She holds it up most of the time, and the foot is curled in, I think from pain. Or she drags it. She's getting around well on two feet. I think you're right about seperation, they all were agitated last night. I just put her back in after I read your reply, and watched them to see what happened. All 9 of them rushed to her to check her out, and sniff her everywhere. Scarlett and Lily, are each walking along side of her, one on each side, and now they're curled up with her asleep. They won't leave her except to eat or drink. Rats are so amazing. Her leg doesn't look like the sprain picture, her foots not swollen, just curled in. I looked at her leg, and it's all purple now from bruising, and swollen, but the ankle and foot are fine it seems, just curled in. Poor baby. I feel so bad for her!


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