# Very skinny rat help plez!



## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

Hi my little man andy has gotten veru skinny i just had him to the vet and they cut his teeth but hes getting skinnier i dont think he can eat the hard block food that my girl and two mice eat....hes one and will be two in feb....is there anything that i can give him to fatten him up?? Something soft?
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## Snikida (Sep 28, 2013)

Try canned dog food. 


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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

Well im giving him a hard boiled egg right now and hes munchn on it nicely

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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

Any other kinds of food are welcome

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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

egg is good. Many rats also like avocado (no skin or seeds as those are toxic though). Try any baby food, but go mostly for the savory kinds not so much the sweet. My rats like the turkey and sweet potato and any of the veggie ones. You can soak his normal lab blocks in whole fat Soy milk (don't use cow milk) or you can soak it in whole fat goat milk. You can also go to any pet store and buy Nutri-Cal which I always recommend. It's really great and rats usually love it and get very excited for it and it supposedly increases appetite so he will start eating more of his regular food too. Try giving him a thumb nail sized glob 3 times a day until he starts to put on a little weight, and then decrease the frequency to twice a day and then once a day when he gets to a good weight. Nutri-Cal is cheaper to buy online like from a site like Dr. Foster's and Smith's, but is only a couple bucks more from a petstore.


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

Oh, you can also try canned tuna!  They usually like that too. Also cooked spaghetti noodles will be good. Maybe some bread soaked with olive oil too.


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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

Thank you....he didnt eat all the egg thou what he started doing was taking it out of the bowl nibbling then dropping it....ill try the tuna if i have some and the bread....ill have to hold off on the nutra-cal til thursday thou

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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

He loved the bread and it filled him up so im happy bout that. I have a question i saw a similar forum and everyone was suggesting olive oil. What does that do for them?

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## Xerneas (Aug 6, 2013)

Andypan said:


> He loved the bread and it filled him up so im happy bout that. I have a question i saw a similar forum and everyone was suggesting olive oil. What does that do for them?
> 
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It's full of very healthy fats and also good for their skin/coat. You can put it on the bread too.


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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

Thats what i did he loved it. Any other suggestions?

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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

This is him 

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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

Butter! Just not too much since it is dairy and usually has salt. But you could butter a piece of bread and give it to him. It will be fatty and tasty and give him some extra calories too


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

Carbs are a good source of energy and can help put on weight, so bread and noodles are good. A ripe avocado is good for similar reasons to olive oil, it has high calorie and is healthy fats but could also help him fatten up a bit. One of my past rats, Poppy, would go crazy for avo! Soaking his normal food in whole fat soy milk would be good too, my two boys have gotten quite chubby since I usually use soymilk to mix my MC babie's food with. They love it though!


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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

I just found a large lump on the right side of his jaw....im taking him to the vet in a half an hour...im freaking out...its hard and if i pinch it it wont move..... 

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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

Oh that could be why he's not eating if he has a tooth infection or an abcess. Poor boy! luckily those are usually treatable so don't freak out too much! He will probably need it drained and then some antibiotics unfortunately. He will definitely need to be on soft foods then if it's a tooth issue. Let us know what the vet says! I hope it's something easy to fix.


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## smopey (Feb 3, 2012)

Soy baby formula and baby food. That's all my rat ate/drank when she couldn't do it on her own anymore.


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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

He wasn't happy with what he saw...poor andy started to bleed out of his nose when we got in the car and he was very tired didnt fight the vet at all when he weighed him. He lost another fifty grams. And i only had him there on the second.  He gave me a seven day antibiotic and a script for half a baby aspirin a half hour before he eats....
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## Gannyaan (Dec 7, 2012)

Bread is a common thing for ratties to choke on....


Oatmeal with olive oil is good,... Egg with oil..... Canned dog food...for him, maybe soy formula or even something like ensure.....


Avocado is also soft.... 
I hope he's feeling better!!!


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

Aw poor boy.. Did the vet have any idea what it could be? An abcess on the jaw, or an abcess near his teeth in his mouth? Maybe a tooth infection? At least he has medicine now and he should be feeling better soon hopefully, but it may take a few days before it starts to work. I would think maybe he would need more than only 7 days though. Try to find that nutrical if you can. It's just an oily paste so it will be easy for him to eat and will help him put on weight quickly. I hope he feels better and can eat again really soon!!


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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

Well last nyt i came home and the bump seemed to have grown. And this morning it looks as if his eyes goin to come out of his skull.....it defiantly is an abscess. Im just scared that it will and **** loose it....he always gets worse before he gets better...he had bumble foot only two months ago and that.had me worried but that wasnt as bad as this....

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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

My rat had a face abscess. The vet can drain it for you.


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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

The vet didnt say anything about that he was thinking the worst....i would say i need a new vet but im not sure of any of the other ones around here and he is the closest one to were i live

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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

I'd check http://www.ratfanclub.org/vetref.html


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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

Non of them are by me
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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

Poor boy! Just google as many vets in your driving range as you can and call around and ask if any have experience with rats and maybe tell them about the abcess and see if they can see you soon. That should be drained very soon since it looks so big already. Jeez I hate vets that don't try to help rats in the same way that they would a dog or a cat.. The vet that I get my prescription medicine for my MC babies has always been sort of hinting that he thinks they should just be put down instead of giving treatments. And up until just recently, all the treatments I've been using have been doing great and the medicine had helped a lot. They've lived 5 months as almost normal rats who are happy and active and only one rat now is having some issues and might have to be pts soon.. But it just irritated me so much that people want to think the worst for rats because presumably, they're so small. Rats can fight for their life and happiness almost as strongly as any other pet and shouldn't be shrugged off because they're "just a rat". I hope you find a GOOD vet soon that can help you! 

Have you tried putting warm compresses on his face to see if would come to a head? If he holds still long enough to do it that is. You can get a hot water soaked rag and just put it against his face, and if it comes to a head like a zit, you can try to (carefully) drain it yourself. I'd suggest reading up about how to do it safely online first. It's a common thing for rats, so I'm sure there's lots of information on it. It's great that your'e doing so much to try to take care of your baby. I hate when ratties get sick or hurt, but it's so good to see that their owners are trying everything they can to help them out.


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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

Well i called the vet again....it seems to be going down on its own....but told them about his eye n they wana c him if it doesnt go back he cant blink....they wana run tests n xrays.....n they said he mite have to be......pts....

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## lyndsay (Dec 11, 2013)

My vet had suggested adding fish oil to food...any softer foods would work, and just use a drop or two a day.


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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

I bought the baby food but he wont eat it....hes not really eating

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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

The swellings down but his eye looks worse he wont eat....hes moving but hes twitching....
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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

That looks very very bad! Can you run him to the emergency vet? He must be in extraordinary pain and even pts is better than suffering. I'm so sorry. 


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

The eye might need removed. Steroids should help, and can be injected for immediate relief. He needs pain meds and his teeth checked. I worry about a pt despite being rare in males. At the least, something is causing pressure. Poor baby. You're both in my thoughts. 


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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

Hes on asprin....i dont have a way to the vet....if i found one they want to see him tomrw....i gave him some eggs...and the abscess is what caused it

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## smopey (Feb 3, 2012)

The same thing happened to my rats eye. She had a PT so I think it was pushing on the back of her eye which made it bulge out. I posted a picture of her eye a few weeks back but it looks pretty much exactly like your rat's eye. My rat was on prednisone so I started giving it to her two times a day instead of once and her eye went down after about a day or two. After her eye went down, it turned all gray and cataract like. It didn't seem to bother her, but I don't think she could see out of it anymore after that. 


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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

Well it went down a little and he started to eat....im still guna take him to the vet today to check and see what they can do....it is alrdy grey ish though and he does a sorta flip flop walk

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## Andypan (Aug 27, 2012)

Rest forever at peace my little man...i love you...im just sorry that you were so young.

He had cancer and there was nothing the vet could do....he will always be apart of me
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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

Oh no, I'm so so sorry... I know you did everything you could and I think that's wonderful. You loved him very much and I'm sure he knew that and loved you back even more. At least this seemed to be something that happened quickly so he wasn't in pain for too long and he is now not in pain anymore. Poor little guy, I'm so sorry for your loss, you seemed like you really loved him and took great care of him.


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