Cabotine - Gaining weight way too fast for my comfort!

[jorats]

Oh boy. that's obese... and scary. Does she eat anything different? I wonder if that could be extreme water retention and that could be due to heart issue.

 

[hopefloats]

A 400 plus gram gain is too much for Cabotine in less than a year, no matter how cute she looks...its worrying. :/

You expect a little middle aged spread starting around 18 months (Lilith is ROUND now and used to be whip thin) but this girl isn't even middle aged.

Is she acting well in all other respects?

Oh boy. that's obese... and scary. Does she eat anything different? I wonder if that could be extreme water retention and that could be due to heart issue.

Which is exactly why I subscribed to the thread but I wont deny the cuteness. I have asked numerous times about weight gain, because of Edgar 5 month old and two pounds of rat..... I am no help with the weight...... but I cannot help seeing a pile of rat......

 

[Roo]

Ditto. If it sounded careless for me to express my fondness of ze pancake, I apologize. :heart:

 

[purinpurin]

Rapid weight gain like that makes me immediately suspect hypothyroidism. Have you gotten your vet to check your rat's thyroid levels?

 

[jorats]

A 400 plus gram gain is too much for Cabotine in less than a year, no matter how cute she looks...its worrying. :/

You expect a little middle aged spread starting around 18 months (Lilith is ROUND now and used to be whip thin) but this girl isn't even middle aged.

Is she acting well in all other respects?

Oh boy. that's obese... and scary. Does she eat anything different? I wonder if that could be extreme water retention and that could be due to heart issue.

Which is exactly why I subscribed to the thread but I wont deny the cuteness. I have asked numerous times about weight gain, because of Edgar 5 month old and two pounds of rat..... I am no help with the weight...... but I cannot help seeing a pile of rat......

Edgar, from the pic looks like a generally big rat, robust if you will.

 

[jorats]

Ditto. If it sounded careless for me to express my fondness of ze pancake, I apologize. :heart:

We certainly can't deny how pretty she is even in her full pancake look. :heart:

 

[Godmother]

SQ once had a rat who suddenly began to gain weight fast, until she looked like the ones in Intro Psych textbooks; when rats have a lesion in their satiation centre (ventrothalamic nucleus, I think), they lose the ability to feel full. But SQ's rat had been normal weight and very active and agile until about six months before she died. In contrast, Cabotine's weight gain has been really steady. You might want to plot it in Excel and see if there are any times when the weight gain accelerated. Now, of course, it might... just because she can't exercise much at that weight. Poor baby. Hope you can find her a solution.

 

[Unepuce]

First of all, sorry for not showing before, I had to get my car to my dad for it's biannual wax. My shoulder is all sore by now!

Thank you for the nomination - it is a sad nomination, but yes, she's a cutie all the same. And finally starting to enjoy cuddles with that!

Rapid weight gain like that makes me immediately suspect hypothyroidism. Have you gotten your vet to check your rat's thyroid levels?

Hum... no, no thyroid check. Didn't even think it could be done. I'll bring it up with my vet.

Something must be off with her metabolism...she may have Zuckers (rare in pet stock though) but it seems more like she's just going to gain weight no matter what you feed her

She gets lots of opportunities to exercise, she's drinking, pooping, peeing normally etc?

She gets a double CN to roam around, plus out time, I have 2 wheels available, hammocks and baskets to climb into - if she wants to move, she can. But she just doesn't. I actually bought a harness so I could let her explore the floor, forcing her to search for a hiding place, so she would get a bit more exercise, but I still have to have her get used to it - she won't kept it on. She's drinking, eating (obviously a lot), poops look normal but it's much harder to comment on pee and she will not use the litter boxes (seems good for poops, but not for pee, somehow). But the x-ray was to check on fluid retention and there's none.

Now, I need to research Zuckers.....

ETA - OK, rule out Zuckers... I adopted her mom with her, and she was tiny (actually had to have her PTS 5 days later for cause of PT, but she had been in the SPCA for a few weeks and Carole didn't mention any weight variations - Carole is the volunteer who was fostering them)

 

[fenshae]

Wow. Is Zucker's the same as having a faulty leptin receptor? I ask because for a writing project I read about so-called "poundmouse" lab mice who eat and eat and eat and end up looking exactly like that because their leptin receptor doesn't work in their brain. If that's what Zucker's is, apologies for bringing it back up lol.

She's quite a fuzzy little koosh-ball of a rat! I honestly don't know what can be done if you can't find the source of the weight gain, but I wonder if maybe swimming would be easier on her? Assuming she'll do it, of course. But it would probably be easier on her joints than running etc....some of those mice in the study I read about did swimming, which is what made me think of it.

 

[Unepuce]

I admit this is food for thought. Need to see how she reacts in water, but with summer on the way, this actually might be something she'll get to enjoy! Thanks for the idea!

 

[handmeafish]

I'm starting to think there might be something to this black rat idea.
Seamus weighed 414 grams this morning... He's a smaller rat, about the same bone size as Cedric who weighed 340 today. When Nevile got sick about 2 months ago they were the same size, and he was 340ish in the beginning of his sickness. He's no pancake yet, but i'm worried he might be headed that way.

 

[Unepuce]

Just weighted her again today... now this is definitely a chronic thing... she is 713g !!! :gaah:

I didn't get to try swimming yet, but that as got to be tried now. I really am at loss here... what in heavens can I do for her???

Here's a picture of her and her mom when I was introducing them to my crew. Cabotine was estimated to be 3 months old



And a view of her silhouette, 2 weeks after the picture above


The pancake picture was taken on May 2 - last weight at the time was 588g!

We really need help here!!!

 

[hopefloats]

Aww I am sorry! I would say a vet visit is in order....

 

[Unepuce]

I took her what - about a month ago? That's when we had her x-rayed and it came out clear and perfect. :bow:

But that didn't help much...

 

[Rianca]

If you have space for it, you could try to make a room rat-proof.
Our bedroom is rat proof, and they can run around in it, they really enjoy it too!

 

[hopefloats]

I would guess she needs blood work, xrays wont show anything that would cause weight gain...

 

[Joanne]

I had one rat Mimi that kept gaining and gaining weight. At the end I suspected a tumor because she was so incredibly round. I would try another x-ray to see if anything is different. I suppose exploratory surgery is an option, but it's also risky. But she's also pretty young, and will probably not do well for much longer if she keeps gaining weight at this rate.

 

[fenshae]

I'm guessing bloodwork would be a good place to start, also.

 

[purinpurin]

Well, as I suggested before, get her thyroid levels checked. Your vet hasn't done that yet, so it's probably a good idea to get it done to rule out hypothyroidism.

 

[Unepuce]

I had a 3-rat vet visit on Monday and took the whole colony as everyone was awake when I went to pick the 3 up. I thought of asking the vet for tricks for Cabotine - didn't help much. She didn't like the swimming idea, but I realized afterwards she might have thought I was to do it outside (she had mentionned pneumonia :giggle: ).

Forgot to ask about blood and thyroid testing though. Think I'll call them and ask, as I believe she is in today.