# Okay guys...I think Scrabble has a nail on his tail.



## Babs (Jan 26, 2012)

It probably sounds weird, it probably *is *weird, but my rat has another nail, exactly like the ones on his hands and feet, growing from the end of his tail! I tried to get a picture, but it's difficult to make him stay still long enough to get a good one. You can kind of see it here.
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Has anyone ever seen anything like this before, or does anyone know what it is? I'm baffled here!


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## Kiko (Sep 18, 2009)

Holy cow it even has a toe!!!

Mutant rat!

More usefully lol, I have never seen anything like this.

It is either just a damaged end of a tail that looks strikingly like a toe or a very strange mutation. Either way, it's cool in a science geek kind of way.


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## Babs (Jan 26, 2012)

LOL my sister is serially offended :'D


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## shelabama (Nov 4, 2011)

Is it possibly an old degloving injury, and what you're seeing is bone? Looks pretty crazy!


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## Kiko (Sep 18, 2009)

Degloving injury is what came to mind to me also, it looks clean and not scabbed or infected so it appears safe.


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## Babs (Jan 26, 2012)

It _could _be, but to me it just really looks and feels like another nail. It's really weird! I got my sister to check it out since she trained as a veterinary nurse, and she agreed that by all outward appearances, that's a nail. It's nothing like bone at all, it even curves at the end like his little nails on his hands. Crazy!


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## Babs (Jan 26, 2012)

OH. I'm not the first! http://www.ratforum.com/showthread.php?30189-quot-Tail-Nail-quot My bad, I just found that post when I googled "tail nail rats". I wonder what it's all about. It's very interesting, either way!


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## Lioness (Nov 11, 2011)

Whoa, weird. And - I agree - kinda neat.Is he a new rat or did you just notice it?


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## 1a1a (May 6, 2011)

Looks like a spur (nail), dominant rats are meant to grow them but I found one on my beta rat once. I've never seen one curve like that before though :-D creepy.


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## meekosan (Dec 23, 2011)

So weird and cool at the same time. I've never experienced anything like that with any of my rats. I'll have to add that into my physical inspections I make on the girls. The boys haven't tried hurting each other thus far in dominance.


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## A.ngelF.eathers (Jul 6, 2011)

Yeahhh, that's not creepy at all xD


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## EleashaC (Jan 30, 2012)

I'm not sure if it has any bearing on rats, at all, but I'm a dog groomer, and two different dogs I groom on a regular basis have tail-nails. They don't grow from the ends, though; both got them part-way down. Their vets have confirmed that they are, indeed, toenails. A little deformed toe grew, and everything! We clip it just like a regular nail, or it keeps growing. There's a proper quick inside, too. One dog's parents got it removed (not for any medical reasons, they're just prissy, and thought it looked ugly) but the other one is still going strong. It doesn't seem to cause them any discomfort at all, and I have no idea why they develop in the first place.


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## Babs (Jan 26, 2012)

He's not a new rat, he's a bit old. Probably over a year, I adopted him just before Christmas but he's definitely an older boy. I think he's always had it though, because I did notice he had a hard end to his tail but I just never took the time to really look at it. That's really weird about the dogs! I never heard of anything like it before, I wonder why it happens. It's very strange, kind of cool but really weird. Scrabble is my only rat who has it.


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## Buddy (Mar 13, 2011)

After reading this about your rat, I checked my boys. Two of them have a nail at the end of their tails. :/ But they are no where as big as your rat's.


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

I have had a few rats with extra cartilage growth poking out at the ends of their tails. That does look oddly like a toe but who knows.


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## giggles_mcbug (Sep 10, 2011)

I think that's really creepy. For the record.


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## meekosan (Dec 23, 2011)

I was looking at my kids and Teyla has an itty bitty point that is not hair on her tail. Interesting to see what comes of it as she grows.


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## Babs (Jan 26, 2012)

Huh. So Scrabble really is one of nature's "Special Little Rats"  And in a completely-unrelated-but-not-really anecdote, I was cleaning his tail yesterday after he'd dragged it through spilled coke and it was all sticky, and he actually started whipping it like a scorpion tail when I went to take a hold of it. My rat is evolving. :/


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