M
Maddie Paulus
Guest
Hey everyone. A few weeks ago I noticed one of my rats, Niles, was falling over every now and then while grooming. At first I thought it was funny/cute, and that he was just getting old. In the following weeks, he began sleeping more and then about a week ago I noticed he was not holding his food with his hands. He sort of pushed it around on the ground while trying to take nibbles of it. Since then, I've been feeding him soft foods like cream of wheat, avocado, ensure smoothies, and really anything else I can get him to eat. He is shaking his head a lot, bruxing more than usual although not excessively, and it does seem he can't reach all of his head to groom with his front arms. He's also having trouble scratching his head/chin area with his hind legs. Most of this seems like a PT to me, but I have to wonder because he walks just fine, and when he eats he only licks or takes the tiniest nibbles-- he can't/won't eat anything more solid than eggs. His breath has smelled bad for some time, and I was wondering if there was some chance that he had a mouth abscess going on that was causing the stiffness and avoidance of eating hard foods. He has a healthy brother and I'm also worried about what to do if Niles worsens and has to be PTS. Please fill me in on any advice! I've only had one rat before, and have no experience with PT or mouth abscesses.
