Changes on the Tail -- Darker and hairier than usual ??

[puffnstuff]

One of our rats seems to be exhibiting changes to her tail. What used to be a relatively "naked" scaly pink tail, now looks like a completely different tail. It is covered with a rusty-brown hair, and in a few small spots the "hair" is missing. This change has happened only over the last week or 10 days.

Old age is not the issue -- she is probably about 6 months old.

Is this a normal thing? Or is it some sign of something I should be worried about? I will try to take a picture of the tail and post it here.

Update: So here is a picture of tail taken just now. Does this look like a normal rat tail? Can you guys see all the rusty hair it's covered with? Like I said, this is relatively new. It used to be a naked tail, mostly pink with some brownish spots on it, but was never hairy like this. It's very dry feeling. You can zoom in to see detail.

 

[lizmo1221]

Haha, looks like your lady doesn't really keep up with her personal hygiene. To me, that looks like a tail that hasn't been cleaned in a long time, and is covered with dead skin and stained with dirt and urine. Some rats clean their tails, some don't (like my girls). It looks like your girl was cleaning it, but has given up on that practice.

There is nothing to worry about. Dirty tails don't really mean much, and are not harmful to the rat. If you want to, and your rat will put up with it, you can clean it for her. Just take an old toothbrush and put some mild detergent on it (I use Dawn), wet it, and gently brush from base to tip on all sides. You will see the tail becoming cleaner, and possibly the dead skin flake off.

Make sure you are gentle, and do not go from tip to base of the tail, that can remove fresh skin. If it stresses her out too much, it may not be worth it either. I clean my girls tails sometimes when they get really dirty, and they sit still and are patient while I do it.

 

[lizmo1221]

Oh and on the hair part. That hair was probably always there, it was just white before and you couldn't see it. Now that its dirty, it shows up a lot more

 

[yoni]

Yeah, that's a dirty tail.

 

[MomRat]

An alternative cleaning method is a soak in a mild salt-water solution, between warm and hot. We discovered this when we had two rats that needed sitz-baths for neuter abscesses, and suddenly they had the cleanest, whitest tails ever. If you want, after a 5 minute soak or so, you can just take a damp washcloth in a loose fist and run it with the grain of the hair, down the tail, like you would ringing water out of your own hair. This seems to stress our boys(who hate baths) much less than a bath with soap that takes time to rinse off.

 

[lilspaz68]

Has something changed? Her tail went from pink and clean to dirty in 10 days like that? is she possibly not feeling well, since we know she used to clean her tail assiduously. Have you changed her environment etc?

 

[puffnstuff]

Well, that's what I was most worried about, that there might be something wrong with her health-wise. I've read about various tail issues, and panicked when I noticed all this rusty-brown scaly hair, which didn't used to be there.

Nothing has changed in her environment. Cage is kept clean, or as clean as possible with daily wiping down of all surfaces and a weekly hose-down of the entire cage. Her other 2 cagemates' tails are clean and normal looking.

So, I tried to give her a salt water 'bath', using an old toothbrush to gently scrape the tail clean. She wanted no part of it, and kept jumping up onto my arms. Her tail definitely looks a bit cleaner and lighter than it was, but she needed more time to soak, but refused to cooperate.

Does anybody have any experience with using lemon juice? I'm wondering if a few drops of lemon juice in the bath water might also help to naturally bleach the hairs clean.

So I just tried another attempt, this time with lemon juice and warm water. This attempt met with very loud squeaks of protest, and lots of poops in the water. She was fine with sitting on a towel and allowing me to "brush" her tail with the toothbrush, so I just kept dipping the brush into the lemon water and stroking her tail. Not sure if it did anything. I still think she needs a good long soak, but that's not gonna happen. Here's a pic of her tail just after the cleaning. Definitely not as rusty-scaly-hairy looking, but still not as clean as it used to be. At least she smells lemon-fresh!

 

[lilspaz68]

Try liquid dish soap with water and your tooth brush...its most efffective. I usually get them to sit with their tail in warm water to soak a little (wear long sleeves!) and then I rub in dish soap in a sideways downward motion, then I get the tooth brush and gently brush the tail in short strokes towards the tailtip. Once that's done, I rinse it quickly under water from the tap. Of course the whole time I am rubbing in the soap or brushing the tail they are running on the counter as I play "chase the tail" :laugh4:

 

[allycat]

i have two girls who don`t like to keep their tails clean either. I use take a cup of warm water and about 1 tsp of baby shampoo. I then dip a soft bristle toothbrush in the solution, put a pile of rice crispies on the floor and as they are munching away I gently stroke down the tail to the tip and in no time it is a nice pink tail again.

 

[Cinderwolf]

I'm resurrecting this old thread because i was about to post one with the exact same issue. I am glad to hear its just dirty tails, I didn't even really notice then my friend pointed out that they tails were orange and not pink like before. I think I didnt notice cause I see them every day.

At any rate it became really apparent that the tails were try when La Jolla decided she needed to climb the cage door while it was open and when she was heading back down, it dropped down onto her tail. She was fine but there was a nice white/pink spot where the dead skin had chipped off, that spot and the very tip were nice and smooth while the rest of the orangey tail is bumpy. So I think I will do a nice tail cleaning.

Anyways, I'm glad I did a search instead of burdening everyone with a new topic haha