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Chin Strap posted:My wife just said one of our rats has suddenly started losing her balance. She was showing a tiny bit of porphirin for the last two days but we found no URI going on. She is getting in touch with our rat vet now. The two rats I've had with pituitary tumours were about 1.5 years old when they happened, so yeah.
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Jun 18, 2014 17:50
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 10:25 |
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Invalid Octopus posted:The two rats I've had with pituitary tumours were about 1.5 years old when they happened, so yeah.
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Jun 18, 2014 17:56
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Vet says pituitary tumor. Our local rat rescue lady says that they have a treatment plan that works about 80% of the time to increase their lifespan by 6-12 months, involving just getting the size of the tumor down using bromocriptine (I think?). She isn't in pain yet so we will give it a shot. I'm just glad we have someone like her to walk us through it all.
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Jun 18, 2014 18:41
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Chin Strap posted:Vet says pituitary tumor. Our local rat rescue lady says that they have a treatment plan that works about 80% of the time to increase their lifespan by 6-12 months, involving just getting the size of the tumor down using bromocriptine (I think?). She isn't in pain yet so we will give it a shot. I'm just glad we have someone like her to walk us through it all. Please update on how it works out!
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Jun 18, 2014 19:24
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We treated a suspected pituitary tumour with prednisone. The rat could only walk in circles, along with other symptoms. It was a few years ago, but she did function normally for awhile. It bought her at least 2-3 good months IIRC.
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Jun 20, 2014 04:49
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Rats play by wrestling and nipping at each other, right? That's what I've been told but my mother refuses to believe me despite my constant telling her that's just how they play.
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Jun 20, 2014 07:02
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dovetaile posted:Rats play by wrestling and nipping at each other, right? That's what I've been told but my mother refuses to believe me despite my constant telling her that's just how they play. Yes, just like kittens or puppies! If you hear long, shrill shrieks, hissing, sidling, kicking with hind legs, those are more aggressive signs. Or if anyone draws blood. Baby rats pretty much never are truly aggressive, and I'm assuming you have new baby rats hence your mom's confusion 
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Jun 20, 2014 09:17
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I'm wondering at the moment if I'm feeding my rats wrong. They smell kinda... funny. Actually, they smell like honey. Like, put-it-on-toast-and-eat-it honey. I have no idea if this is normal for rats, but it's the same for both of them. Should I be worried?
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Jun 20, 2014 21:41
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My rats smell like corn chips, so I guess if you should be worried, I should too.
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Jun 21, 2014 03:13
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Big Bug Hug posted:My rats smell like corn chips, so I guess if you should be worried, I should too. Do you have males? Males always smell like corn chips. Edit: One of my rats always smelled sweet no matter what I fed him. Just his natural scent, I guess. Unless it's recent, I wouldn't worry about it.
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Jun 21, 2014 03:52
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Big Bug Hug posted:Yes, just like kittens or puppies! I got them in January so I guess they're still babies? But I've had rats since back in high school so it should be nothing new. re:rat smell- Yeah my boys always smelled like corn chips and grape jelly. Best smell. 
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Jun 21, 2014 03:54
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Chin Strap posted:My wife just said one of our rats has suddenly started losing her balance. She was showing a tiny bit of porphirin for the last two days but we found no URI going on. She is getting in touch with our rat vet now.  This started happening to one of my rats, Clare, this morning. The rest of the week she was active, fine, grabbing her treats like a vicegrip, and today she was barely able to hold them. Plus whenever she gets to the edge of something (the top of the cage, my leg, etc) her feet don't seem to know where to go and she'll slip and fall. Can't even put her on my shoulder since she always moves and ends up slipping off. She had surgery two? three? months ago to remove a benign mammary tumor on her lower right side, I also noticed when checking her out tonight that she's grown a new tumor under her front right leg. She's also around the same age - got her and her companion in April 2013 and they were probably a month or two old.It's weird seeing the shy food inhaling machine called Teresa being more active than little miss curious explorer Clare  Since she's so stumbly and sluggish, would it be best to keep her in a separate cage, even if it's a small transport cage?
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Jun 21, 2014 04:00
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Is it safe to pick up rats by their tails? I don't usually have the need to do that but my new 6 weeks-old babies are incredibly hyperactive and it's impossible to catch them otherwise, when they try to get on my table or start digging through the trashcan.
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Jun 21, 2014 04:45
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Jack Trades posted:Is it safe to pick up rats by their tails? Extremely not recommended. You can grab them by the base of their tails to catch them, but don't pull or lift them bodily by the tail.
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Jun 21, 2014 05:04
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Yep you guessed it, I have boys.  dovetaile posted:I got them in January so I guess they're still babies? But I've had rats since back in high school so it should be nothing new. Yeah, my pair of boys is about 8 months old and still crazy active. Some rats just love to play.
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Jun 21, 2014 06:43
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Kari, when my rats get old and start stumbling I always remove the ramp, effectively making my cage 1 floor (its a FK). The younger rats would still climb/jump up if they wanted. I would definitely do something if you think she'll still try to climb.
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Jun 21, 2014 06:47
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Big Bug Hug posted:Kari, when my rats get old and start stumbling I always remove the ramp, effectively making my cage 1 floor (its a FK). The younger rats would still climb/jump up if they wanted. I would definitely do something if you think she'll still try to climb. Ah yeah, now that you mention it I've heard about people doing that before. I have a R-685 from Martins, I'm sure I could pry apart the rings that hold the ramp to the first balcony step. Hopefully Teresa doesn't mind the extra work -- she's never been a jumper. Thank you (EDIT: Or should I remove the ramp to the top floor, so the two are segregated completely?)Clare's a bit worse today, unfortunately. Dropped her morning treat and couldn't find it again
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Jun 21, 2014 13:37
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Yeah, removing the ladders or whatever won't help for long. She's already struggling with eating and it will get worse, sometimes very very quickly. Time to either start on treatment or make a tough call.
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Jun 21, 2014 14:04
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Pituitary gland tumors are also supposedly a very painful way for a rat to die, which I personally don't doubt, given the arched backs, flinching and other signs of pain the poor little guys always seem to have. You're not really doing your rats a favour by making them go through that for as long as possible.
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Jun 21, 2014 14:10
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god rats are so dirty and smelly and nasty and gross 
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Jun 22, 2014 10:00
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Chin Strap posted:My wife just said one of our rats has suddenly started losing her balance. She was showing a tiny bit of porphirin for the last two days but we found no URI going on. She is getting in touch with our rat vet now. Seems to have been heatstroke. We have just recently moved and didn't think the temperature was bad enough for that. We have a window AC unit in now, and our rat is almost 100 percent better.
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Jun 22, 2014 14:47
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Fraction posted:god rats are so dirty and smelly and nasty and gross Adorable. It's too bad that most people don't know that rats groom themselves as much as cats, if not more. Rats do smell quite a bit though, especially boys, but that's true for any pet.
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Jun 22, 2014 15:05
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My cats smell way more than my rats, stinking up the house every time they use the litter. And I clean up grosser stuff from my cats. Grr, hairballs.  One of my rats spent about 3 hours yesterday ripping up every bit of paper in their cage amd carrying it up to the top shelf to make a giant paper nest. I was helping him at one point, he'd come to me and I'd tear a piece and give it to him, he'd bound up the ramp and carefully place it in the pile. He seemed to be enjoying the hell out of it. So much so that after he had ripped up literally all the newspaper he kept looking for more, making sad eyes at me and running around the cage. His cage mate just chilled in the nest and let him do all the work. Now they're gonna sit in it for a few days and its gonna be gross, but I feel bad for destroying all that work... Big Bug Hug fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Jun 22, 2014 |
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Jun 22, 2014 15:49
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I always feel a little bad taking a dirty stinky blanket out of Garrus' cage because he works so hard to make a perfect little nest with it.
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Jun 22, 2014 17:24
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I had to get rid of the sheet I used to cover their cage because they had shredded it to pieces and would make a burrow out of it. That and I was tired of washing a pee and poop stained sheet with my laundry. 
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Jun 22, 2014 19:34
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Look how wobbly they are when they shake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvuIaxeLKE&t=90s
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Jun 27, 2014 09:11
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repiv posted:Look how wobbly they are when they shake Adorable. I wonder what my pudgy boy would look like in slow-mo.   Bonus comedy picture:http://i.imgur.com/Cu9epaV.jpg "Bring me Solo and the Wookie."
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Jun 27, 2014 10:01
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An update on Clare: she went to the vet last Monday, she thinks she had a stroke. Got some medicine for her and she's a lot stronger now, though of course she's weak on one side. EDIT: Forgot to ask, do rats brux or boggle when they're stressed or unhappy? Or is it just a pleased thing? KariOhki fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Jun 30, 2014 |
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Jun 29, 2014 04:04
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I have a situation here, maybe someone more experienced can give some advice. I have 3 boys right now. One of them is 1.5 years old and other two are 2 month old brothers. When I was bringing them food today I noticed that my older boy had a small wound on the top of his head. It was already closed and it was more of a small patch of caked blood. I have no idea how he might have gotten it but I don't think there's anything in the cage that he might have hurt himself on so I suspect that maybe he had a fight with one of the other boys except that when I found the wound all of them were sleeping together and they were never aggressive towards him. Small boys wrestle with each other and they often steal food from my big boy, since he's slow and lazy, but they never seemed to be aggressive towards each other. Is this normal part of male rat group dynamic? Should I be worried? Jack Trades fucked around with this message at 11:15 on Jul 1, 2014 |
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Jul 1, 2014 10:59
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There are some super cute rodents on this page!KariOhki posted:An update on Clare: she went to the vet last Monday, she thinks she had a stroke. Got some medicine for her and she's a lot stronger now, though of course she's weak on one side. After my rat had a stroke, she was bruxing a lot. Not like usual but really hard and loud. At the same time she was hunched with puffed fur, breathing hard, and not moving around ie signs of pain. So they definitely will brux/boggle when they're in pain or whatever. Really sorry to hear about Clare. With my rat, she had the stroke on Saturday evening, I realised what had happened on Sunday; she wasn't better after work on Monday and was put down first thing on Tuesday. I hope when it's her sister's turn I can get her from pain->dead even quicker. Fingers crossed Clare's got some quality time left in her.
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Jul 1, 2014 21:54
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Yes stress bruxing is louder and harsher than happy - bruxing, believe it or not. I can always spot the difference. I hope Clare is going OK. I've had old rats who couldn't get around (though admittedly never one who's had a stroke) who were perfectly happy so long as I let them snuggle on the couch with treats a lot. My old rats get super spoiled.
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Jul 2, 2014 00:52
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Thanks all  She's still inhaling food and snuggling on my lap, so we'll see what the vet says after the rounds of medicine are finished.
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Jul 2, 2014 01:50
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Hey all, minor head-swaying (just when he's on ledges and stuff) in a <1 year old male PEW rat, yeah or nay?
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Jul 2, 2014 03:23
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dovetaile posted:Hey all, minor head-swaying (just when he's on ledges and stuff) in a <1 year old male PEW rat, yeah or nay? Does he look like he is scanning? It is their way of depth perception. The pink eyed and ruby rats do it.
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Jul 2, 2014 03:43
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Chin Strap posted:Does he look like he is scanning? It is their way of depth perception. The pink eyed and ruby rats do it. Yes it does. Thank you!
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Jul 2, 2014 04:01
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I need ideas for fun things to put in the rat cage. We recently got a larger one and they seem a little bored. I'm going to try to scrounge up some empty boxes, what else can I put in there?
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Jul 4, 2014 23:06
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anotherjen posted:I need ideas for fun things to put in the rat cage. We recently got a larger one and they seem a little bored. I'm going to try to scrounge up some empty boxes, what else can I put in there? Band-aids.  (I got blood drawn yesterday and my boys are fascinated with mine.)
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Jul 5, 2014 00:26
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Jack Trades posted:Is this normal part of male rat group dynamic? Should I be worried? Males can be pretty aggressive toward each other, but their scuffles shouldn't end up with actual cuts. I would keep an eye on them and make sure they're not fighting. anotherjen posted:I need ideas for fun things to put in the rat cage. We recently got a larger one and they seem a little bored. I'm going to try to scrounge up some empty boxes, what else can I put in there? Bones from leftovers make great chew toys. I put up some rope that they sell for parrot perches and some of those plastic igloos. I also like to stuff toilet paper tubes with a small amount of treats with a bunch of paper wadded in so they have to take the time and dig it out. Also, hammocks are a necessity.
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Jul 5, 2014 00:41
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I didn't see anything in the OP about this so asking here: What are thoughts / guidelines / cautions about potentially owning rats in a house with cats? I used to own rats for many years as the only pets in the house. I haven't had any for the past 3 years as I've moved around etc. My fiancee and I now live together and came with 2 cats that are pretty mellow / well behaved as far as most cats go. Would it be ridiculous to try to own rats in that type of situation? I am considering it right now but wanted to know opinions on the matter. We have a substantially big enough house that we could keep them separate but I want to know if it would be too stressful just having the cats around. If not how does one go about socializing the two?
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Jul 5, 2014 17:03
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I'm not saying it's impossible to keep rats and cats at the same time, but you're going to run into problems eventually, as more or less always happens when you try to keep a predator together with small prey animals. You'll have to overcome a lot of difficulties that you don't have if you keep only one or the other. For example, the presence or even just the smell of cats stresses rats out like all hell. The last time I took my rats to visit my parents, one of their cats snuck into the room while I wasn't looking and jumped on the table with the cage. My poor guys wouldn't do anything but hide in my shirt and shiver for hours afterwards. You might be able to overcome that sort of natural aversion with time, but even then there's potential problems. If the cage bars are spaced widely enough, your cats might decide to try and angle through the bars, either grabbing your rats with their claws or getting their paws bitten by the rats. Even if that isn't the case, they might still jump onto the cage or latch onto the side and make it fall over. The are a lot of potential issues like these. You can try, but personally I really don't recommend it.
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Jul 5, 2014 17:21
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