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Rats and possible neurological damage, kinder to PTS?

8 replies

PixieofCatan · 09/01/2015 06:58

So it seems that my little Ashi has taken a turn for the worst. We came home last night to him screaming and running around his cage. For at least 20 minutes this was constant, and then he calmed down with a cover over his cage and was "only" screaming occasionally.
He was reacting to anything that moved, so we had to take everything bar one hammock and his food bowl out of his cage (he's on his own so no other rats in there to worry about). He had obviously spent a good part of the day attacking his toys as they had bite marks all over them and he wouldn't let us go near him.

This morning is the same again, I was so hoping it wouldn't be but it looks like he hasn't had a wink of sleep and has been up all night. This is my lethargic boy who cannot stay awake for long periods. He's screaming at any loudish noise still and just seems generally distressed.

He had at least five seizures on Tuesday (not normal, five a week at most was normal! But he has had multiple in one day before and he seemed okay after each one so I decided to keep an eye on it). I worked Wednesday and Thursday so wasn't home and he was fine Wednesday night, so I think that he's just had too many seizures and something has happened neurologically.

He is terrified of every movement and noise at this moment, my sweet little baby rat has gone and this terrified creature has replaced him within hours. I don't want to PTS him if there is a chance that he can get through it, but equally, this isn't a normal scared rat situation, we've known all along that the seizures may do something drastic and this is it. Can you get past neurological damage?

OP posts:
70isaLimitNotaTarget · 09/01/2015 08:48

Oooh Pixie this is awful Sad
This is your little boy that you cradled when you first got him as a teeny little 'runt' wasn't it.

I would imagine the seizures he's having would affect him longer term, is it making him hypersensitive to noise?
As a tiny boy, would he have medical problems like microscopic brain 'bleeds'
?

Is the screaming in response to noise d'you think or pain?
If it's pain, then it's really not an option is it? Sad

Have you phoned your Rat Vet for advice?

PixieofCatan · 09/01/2015 09:15

Yeah, this is my runt boy :( We've been expecting the seizures to get the better of him but not quite yet.
He's calmed down now, not wanting to be touched but not screaming any more. He's actually sleeping right now, which is good.

I just got a cuddle out of him but it was with him wrapped in a blanket, he was on edge but let me stroke his head. When he was calm I tried to remove the blanket slowly but the moment the blanket was gone he freaked and jumped. I was expecting it and was doing it over his cage just in case so he just jumped straight in.

I haven't spoken to the vet yet, I wanted to get a feel for him this morning and work out what to tell them. I'm wary about taking him in right now as he doesn't want to be touched, so getting him out of the cage, into the carrier and then in the car to the vet will be really stressful for him. I'm home until midday and DP gets home before 2, so I'll leave him for now and see how he goes this morning and then let DP take him this afternoon once I have a better idea of his situation today, though if he's like he is now later, I may ask DP to leave it for now as I don't want to unnecessarily stress him out IYSWIM?

I've heard from another runt owner who has said this has happened to one of her girls, so I'm waiting to hear back from her what the extent was and what the recovery was like. It seems like the constant fright won't be the status quo though, so if that's the case I want to work with him and see how he does over the next few days.

I'm just going to give breeder a call and then call the vet.

OP posts:
fortifiedwithtea · 12/01/2015 15:59

Pixie is there any update you'd like to share of Ashi today?

I first saw this thread late Saturday night and rather concerned/fear the worse as you've not posted since Sad

Thinking of you Flowers

PixieofCatan · 12/01/2015 16:47

Oh shit, sorry! I thought I'd updated Blush

He's okay now :)

He was calming a bit during the day on Friday, I spoke to my breeder and whilst she's not sure what happened, she did reiterate that he was almost dead when she found him, and this incident made her wonder whether Mum-rat knew something was more than a little wrong.

DP was home between 2 and 6 on Friday and decided not to take him to the vet as he seemed better than he was, then came to babysit with me. When DP got back from babysitting he called to let me know he was getting a cuddle out of him.

He is still a bit jumpy about being touched, he was starting to get that way, but he's happy to have a cuddle and be stroked with forewarning.

We decided against visiting the vet in the end as we both felt that it would do more harm than good. Especially as the only way to find out what happened would be to do tests and to do tests means using anaesthetic, which we're very against with him as if there is anything liver-related, anaesthesia would be bad for him.

OP posts:
70isaLimitNotaTarget · 12/01/2015 20:46

Good to see an update Pixie the little boy is still holding his own.

Did you get any feedback from the other Rat-Runt-Mum?

PixieofCatan · 13/01/2015 08:31

Yesh, she just said that she had to get Runty to trust her again after it was all over. Her two runts are in a cage with other rats so it happened in a group cage. I can't imagine how the other rats reacted to that! Ashi was attacking everything in his cage that he ran into. I'm wondering if he lost his vision temporarily, he seems to have done that before. We were also thinking that it may have been a kind of seizure.

He's turned into a right Daddy's boy since though, if Nick's in the room he's right at the bars of the cage, waiting to come out. If I go to get him out he runs into his box Hmm Sod Grin

OP posts:
fortifiedwithtea · 13/01/2015 13:47

Phew! What a relief Smile

PixieofCatan · 13/01/2015 18:17

:) It is! Just got to wait for the next drama with him! Bless him, he's full of them!

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