Lethargic Rat

[satomi325]

Today when I went to give some of my rats treats, I noticed that one of my girls was all poofed up. The red flags immediately went up. She's not pregnant or with a litter at the moment. She normally comes up to the front of the tub and greets me with the other girls. She usually comes straight to my hands and licks my fingers. Today she stayed in the far back corner.
I picked her up and she was pretty limp and didn't struggle or anything. Once she's in my arms, she normally would be actively exploring.
Definitely not her usual self.

And aside from her behavior, she seems skinnier and has more loose skin.
I did the scruff pinch test to see if she was dehydrated. She was, so I gave her some Sub Q fluids. She seems to be breathing relatively normal. No wheezing that would indicate URI, however her nose is a little red.

My rats are fed Mazuri and have water at all times. The rest of the girls in her tub are physically normal and acting fine.


I just switched to aspen shavings for the first time this weekend. My usual stuff (pellets), were out of stock. I don't know if there's any correlation to that, but I thought I would include that.

And she's a Russian Blue Variegated. I had one other Russian Blue Variegated in a separate enclosure who mysteriously died last week. That Blue was the first rat death I've ever had that wasn't caused by a snake.
These two are the only two of that color and pattern. All my other rats are mink, American blue, Black hooded, or siamese. These two Blues were bred by the same breeder but from different litters to the same parents.
Again, I don't know if there is a correlation between the two Russian Blues, but thought it was weird this is only happening to both of them. This current girl is showing signs of what the other girl had a week ago before she died.
And again, they are in totally different enclosures with no contact with each other.

I hope someone can help me and give possible suggestions to what is going on.

[aldebono]

On occasion I will have one that does this. I give them some Ensure and treat with Tylan like its a myco flair up. It doesn't seem to be infectious. Tylan shouldn't be given with milk products, so I give one in the morning and one at night, probably still not ideal, but what are you going to do?. The Ensure really helps get the weight back on them. I need to look a little harder for a non dairy one. Maybe they make it in soy??

Wolfyhound soaks her mazuri in the Ensure so they don't knock it over and spill it.

This seems to happen with my really old breeders and girls bred a little too young. One of the drawbacks to harem breeding.

[satomi325]

I have Baytril on hand. Can I use that instead of Tylan?

I'll try the mazuri + ensure soak.
Do your rats recover from such episodes? I'm just really worried. This happened so suddenly.

[wolfy-hound]

I've had several of the old girls bounce right back after a few Ensure-Mazuri meals(like two meals...) without meds added.

I let the stuff soak for a while so it gets soft too, that way there's no effort to eat it. Did you check her teeth too? I sometimes forget to check that.

[satomi325]

This girl is a maybe 6-7 months old? Maybe less. I can't remember exactly. She has only had 1 litter and that was 2 months ago.

Is there only one kind of ensure? I can get this at a grocery store right?

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[satomi325]

I just picked up Vanilla Ensure from the store. Soaking mazuri blocks now.

Thanks for the help guys. I'll update later with this girl's progress. She looks more alert than before since I gave her some fluids.

[aldebono]

Keep us updated.

[wolfy-hound]

I used vanilla regular Ensure... then got cans of strawberry on advice that rats adore it better. They didn't. They still like it, but liked the vanilla just as much. The small cans at Walmart are fairly cheap but hard to shake up if you don't use up a can(and for a rat sized portion, you can get a TON of portions out of a single can).

I'm wondering if I can freeze Ensure in ice cube trays and just keep the cubes in a bag and thaw one at a time when I need some.

[aldebono]

I got the cheaper stuff than Ensure this time. I checked the label and it has just the same ingredients.

I would imagine you could freeze it. I use to mix up batches of Opossum milk replacer and freeze it.

Pups love the left over Ensure too!

[satomi325]

Here's an update.
The rat didn't make it. She passed away the next day. She wouldn't eat on her own so I tried syringing her some food. She seemed to take syringed liquified food fine. She just couldn't chew or get up to get food on her own. I guess it was already too late to help her. I think she died minutes before I found her as her body was still warm and loose.

All this was so sudden, I wonder what was wrong w/ her.

Thank you both for being so helpful. I really appreciate the advice.
And I think I'll use the Ensure from now on with my nursing and pregnant mamas to give them a boost.