Injured Rat

Monk and Chip have been living together since they were young. They play and roughhouse but today, while we were working on the rat rack, I noticed that Chip was limping. He is favoring his back right leg, holding it up and not wanting to put pressure on it. There is nothing really he could have fallen from other than the water bottle holder but I've never seen either boy try and climb it. I plan on calling the vet and seeing what she thinks.

Have you given him a good hands on going over? See if perhaps his cage buddy nipped a little hard on the joint area maybe. Check for an abcess, wound, swollen warmer than normal area. If he did take a hard fall it may have popped the joint but only your vet will really know what has occurred.

There were no obvious signs of injury other than he wouldn't use it. We took him to the vet and she examined him and she said it was a fracture. She said that she felt a fracture but only an x-ray would confirm it was there. The vet said even with an x-ray to show the fracture, they couldn't do anything for him. She said that he would just chew any bandage or splint they put on him so she said to just keep him away from things he could climb on and give him a chance to heal it himself.

Oh and just to see how I'm doing as far as his weight, they put him on the scale. 4oz. I brought Monk along for the ride and they went ahead and weighed him. 6oz. Little piggy he is. :D

Chip died 2 days ago. I found him slightly stiff in his cage. We contacted the vet and told them about it. They said they were sorry and that they would discuss it and try and figure out what happened.

Sorry to hear he passed.