mandycoot
Active Member
I believe my 30-month-old Armand has a stroke last night. I found him at the bottom of he and his brother's FN, clutching the bars to try to keep himself from falling over. He was very cold, limp, confused-seeming, and uncoordinated, and seems paralyzed on one side. I game him some Metacam and put him in a carrier with a heating pad and checked up on him thoughout the night (I figured the e-vet couldn't do much more than that :? ). He wouldn't eat or drink and and I think he is having a hard time swallowing.
I got him to the vet early this morning and they gave him sub-q fluids to rehydrate him. My reguar vet isn't in on Mondays but one of the other vet guessed that he potentially had a few things going on: he had a stroke, a PT ruptured a blood vessel and brought the paralysis on suddenly, or something was going on with his vestibular system. With the first and last, he has a chance of recovering, right? He is currenly on Metacam and Baytril, but so far his condition is the same as last night.
My biggest worry is that he *will* start recovering on his own but will still need nursing care, which I won't be able to easily give to him should he become more alert. For those of you know know my "bitey boys" and their history, you'll recall that Armand is a very aggressive rat and will leap at you to bite you if you get near him. Right now he is very out of it and I can stroke him and syringe-feed him no problem, but I'd never be able to do any of it were he healthy.
Basically, I'm looking for your experiences with rats recovering from strokes or other things which can cause paralysis. Is is reasonable to hope that he will recover without needing me to nurse him as he regains strength and alertness? Is it reasonable to hope that he will recover at all? We're basically taking a "wait and see" approach with him, and I have a follow-up appointment Wednesday with my main vet to check into his progress or decline.
I got him to the vet early this morning and they gave him sub-q fluids to rehydrate him. My reguar vet isn't in on Mondays but one of the other vet guessed that he potentially had a few things going on: he had a stroke, a PT ruptured a blood vessel and brought the paralysis on suddenly, or something was going on with his vestibular system. With the first and last, he has a chance of recovering, right? He is currenly on Metacam and Baytril, but so far his condition is the same as last night.
My biggest worry is that he *will* start recovering on his own but will still need nursing care, which I won't be able to easily give to him should he become more alert. For those of you know know my "bitey boys" and their history, you'll recall that Armand is a very aggressive rat and will leap at you to bite you if you get near him. Right now he is very out of it and I can stroke him and syringe-feed him no problem, but I'd never be able to do any of it were he healthy.
Basically, I'm looking for your experiences with rats recovering from strokes or other things which can cause paralysis. Is is reasonable to hope that he will recover without needing me to nurse him as he regains strength and alertness? Is it reasonable to hope that he will recover at all? We're basically taking a "wait and see" approach with him, and I have a follow-up appointment Wednesday with my main vet to check into his progress or decline.