sade
Member
Last wednesday, one of my new rats, as yet nameless, fell from a desk. At first she seemed fine, but by that night she barely able to drag herself across her hammock to eat the errant food crumbs off the floor of the nearby cage platform. During the morning of the second day, she was mobile, but she was moving in strange, loopy motions, tilting her head back and forth, and such. By the end of the second day, she was once again weak. I got help from some of you on the Chat channel who recommended 1.2 mg of Ibuprofen two to four times a day. From then on, I would find her relatively mobile in the morning, yet still obviously in pain, and then weak by the end of the night. I finally managed to find an appropriate vet in the area on Monday. He performed a physical examination but couldn't find any obvious breaks or internal injuries. The vet gave her a shot of cortisone and recommended a higher dose of Ibuprofen after the cortisone wears off.
The cortisone returned her to her normal behavior... for about two days. She is once more either weak or unwilling to move. On Thursday I will start giving her 2.5 - 4.8 mg up to six times a day. Hopefully that will help. My main concern now is that she has not grown as large as her cagemates. She's clearly abnormally thin, and she seems to be having trouble eating solid foods. She lays flat on the cage bedding with both hands stretched out in front and tries to shovel food into her mouth without actually picking it up. Just now I put one of those compressed seed snack logs into the cage with hopes that she'll have less trouble eating it. I am less concerned over the precise health value of the food than the amount, at the moment. She needs to eat something.
A quick read of other ER threads suggests to me that there are viable soft/liquid food diets that some of you have come up with, which I'd like to hear about. I don't know exactly what the problem is, but I do know she won't improve unless she gets the energy she needs.
Any other general suggestions would be much appreciated. I've already provided access to food and water on the bottum level of the cage, as well as a second source of both food and water on the middle of three platform levels, ramp accessible. I'm planning on removing the platforms entirely with the hopes that she'll sleep with her cagemates (who normally sleep up top) if anyone here thinks it will help.
EDIT: She's store-bought and less than two months old.
The cortisone returned her to her normal behavior... for about two days. She is once more either weak or unwilling to move. On Thursday I will start giving her 2.5 - 4.8 mg up to six times a day. Hopefully that will help. My main concern now is that she has not grown as large as her cagemates. She's clearly abnormally thin, and she seems to be having trouble eating solid foods. She lays flat on the cage bedding with both hands stretched out in front and tries to shovel food into her mouth without actually picking it up. Just now I put one of those compressed seed snack logs into the cage with hopes that she'll have less trouble eating it. I am less concerned over the precise health value of the food than the amount, at the moment. She needs to eat something.
A quick read of other ER threads suggests to me that there are viable soft/liquid food diets that some of you have come up with, which I'd like to hear about. I don't know exactly what the problem is, but I do know she won't improve unless she gets the energy she needs.
Any other general suggestions would be much appreciated. I've already provided access to food and water on the bottum level of the cage, as well as a second source of both food and water on the middle of three platform levels, ramp accessible. I'm planning on removing the platforms entirely with the hopes that she'll sleep with her cagemates (who normally sleep up top) if anyone here thinks it will help.
EDIT: She's store-bought and less than two months old.
