# My 8 month old rat died with no warning... diagnosis?



## firefall27 (Mar 24, 2011)

I was wondering if anyone can help me figure out why my rat, Beryl, died... 
Her cagemate is alive and well, but I want to make sure she stays that way.

Beryl has always been less robust than her cagemate, and a little less "bouncy", but not too skinny and still quite active and I haven't noticed any strange behavior change lately.
I've had both of them for about 6 months and they haven't had any sneezing or runny noses or anything... No discharges, nothing.
This morning, I was dropping some treats off in the cage and found her lying, as if she was asleep. The only abnormality I could see is that one of her hind feet is quite swollen, and both of them are kind of purple...


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## Nazarath (Feb 20, 2007)

I am not sure how much help I can be other than perhaps you can ask your vet to do a autopsy(sp)?? a vet will probably be able to tell you exactly what the problem is and if your other little one is at risk.


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

congestive heart failure...?

was she blueish around the mouth/lips/tail tip too?


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## BVR.rats (Sep 17, 2009)

Sudden death with no symptoms is almost always heart failure. If your vet is experienced, they can do a necropsy and feel the texture of the heart, but that's only possible within 24 hours of death and only if the body has been refrigerated and not frozen. Otherwise, you'd have to rely on there being a physical abnormality to the heart obvious enough to diagnose.

It's also possible she threw an embolism (a clot) into her heart, brain or lungs. That causes superfast death with no symptoms. 

Unless you saw severe respiratory symptoms, swollen glands and the like, there's little chance it's something she's going to give to her cagemate. If they're littermates, however, heart issues are often genetic.


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## firefall27 (Mar 24, 2011)

I think you're probably right about the congestive heart failure... She's always seemed slightly frail. I buried her, so the autopsy is kind of a no-go... Fortunately, they weren't related by blood. I rescued her from being snake food, so Lord knows the breeder didn't give a s*** about health problems.


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## Frodowisebrandytook (Mar 26, 2011)

I am so sorry for your loss. The heart or a clot in some other organ seems like the best bet. I had a 2 month old die suddenly and our best guess was that it was a pituitary tumor. she had always been a little slower, and the day before she died she was not acting quite her normal self, but nothing drastic enough to warrant a vet visit. We found out later that Blue rats (the ones with the pretty gray coloring) have all kinds of heath issues, one of the biggest being pituitary glad tumors. We have since had two other Blues die at the ages of 5 months and 1 year. All of our hooded fancys, albinos and Irish marked have lived to ripe old ages. 

I am so sorry. Best of luck to you with her cage mate.


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

blue rats are at no higher risk than any other colored rat for pituitary tumors or other health issues. usually pts are a slow and gradual downhill spiral until death, and it's VERY rare in rats under a year old. it sounds more like she may have had a stroke or had another issue. sorry about your loss though :-[


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