What does the start of HED look like?

[hopefloats]

Templeton and Loki both are going on 19 months. I have noticed their they use their back legs to support themselves funny, i can see them readjusting. When they eat, they sometimes hold themselves up with one hand, this has been going on for a few months now. The same thing with grooming. They are not off balance everything else is fine, they dont stumble around or fall off things. They still have all their balance. Their walk is changing, you can tell it is not a young rat walk, which I am used to.

I only seen HED in videos. I just dont know what it would like at the start. If it starting, I would like to know what I can do to help. I already have ramp cover, and an extra shelf food on top and bottom levels, mally permitting it to stay, and hammocks hanging lower.

I have been avoiding posting this for weeks. It kinda worries me, I am pretty sure it is starting. Mally is the same age, since she is their sister. but she is not aging as fast LOL and the older girls who are about 2-3 months old some are aging better than others.

[BBvideo 425,350:3mlwzere]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK7KsLRakKY[/BBvideo:3mlwzere]

 

[Dazzle87]

That is about how it has looked for mine. I'm not sure if you can say for sure it is HED at that point though, as I've also had old rats that just didn't have as much spring to their walk from age.

 

[hopefloats]

Oh that is good! So some may just have an old walk and not HED? I am still taunted by some of the videos LOL they make me tear up HAHAHA.. I am not used to them not being how they have been for so long. I see all these little changes and I am not sure exactly what to do to accommodate them. Dont get me wrong Templeton still popcorns around and gets his grooming and pinning the girls but i can tell they are going through the change.

 

[KatTheHippie]

Oh that is good! So some may just have an old walk and not HED? I am still taunted by some of the videos LOL they make me tear up HAHAHA.. I am not used to them not being how they have been for so long. I see all these little changes and I am not sure exactly what to do to accommodate them. Dont get me wrong Templeton still popcorns around and gets his grooming and pinning the girls but i can tell they are going through the change.

Think of how a person ages, not all of them age the same. My 83 year old grandmother on my mom's side can dance a right jig without tripping up at all, where as my 70 year old grandmother on my father's side needs a walker, and has had two knee surgeries. Some ratties just slow down as they get older, just like some people, where as some age a little less gracefully. I wouldn't start worrying unless your boys start dragging their feet, like, taking a step, then the top of their foot/knuckle scrape the ground as they move to take another. That's what I noticed at first with Bennigan's HED onset, but even when his back legs were completely immobilized he still had a fine quality of life. He just had a long cage, with low hammocks, and no more levels.