HELP ASAP!!

[terminallyCapriciousTC]

I have an old man rat, Houdini, he's a good old man and is loved by me, close friends and my Twitch community.

Over the last few days he's had a sudden turn in behaviour. Going from being a lazy, old man, who is showing the 3 5 month old babies how to win me over with grooms, to now? His front legs spasm every so often in small episodes usually, 30 mins-1hr every hr or 2. He non-stop grooms, to the point his little front paws are open wounded where thumbs would be and bleeding, covering the backs of his legs, mouth n nose in blood, as well as aforementioned paws. And he's losing weight.

Google isn't holding answers. I don't know what to do.

Please help, I can't lose him after losing 3 rats in Oct, Nov n Jan.

 

[Kye]

I'm not entirely sure what's going on but could you get us a video of the behavior? It would help tremendously

 

[terminallyCapriciousTC]

I can't get a video as he's sleeping on my lap rn, but to put it simply, he grooms his arms aggressively all day, and the spasms are like, if his arms were little bird wings, like how birds flicker their wings to stretch? That type of movement, open-close left-right shaking thats extremely fast n close into his body. He never does this but only has in the last few days.

 

[Kye]

Sorry for the delay, it sounds like he's just grooming but if he's hurting himself perhaps he's over grooming from a stressor? Without visuals on the feet themselves it's a bit tricky to figure it out but let's go to the basics. Has anything changed recently?(fabric softer, food, cage placement, etc) does he seem to be cuddley with the new guys or seeming distant. Is he more demanding of your attention than usual? Is he eating and drinking fine still?