My rat had a stroke??

[Jonny2184]

I woke up this morning and I looked into the rat cage and my rat Doris looked awkward.
Her head was tilted in one direction (and her head would kinda slowly swing in one direction. not very fast but you can notice it turning)... and when I "say" her name she comes running to the side of the cage so I said her name she came running but looked like she was half drunk. She fell over and didn't look very happy at all. She even bumped into the food dish a few times.

Now I think it's a stroke because my Pom had the same problem before he died. And the vet told us it was a stroke, and I think a few of my hamsters, when I was little had the same problem.

Anyone know what I should do??? Put her out of her misery??? I wanted to breed her again but it looks like that's not a good idea right now.

[lord jackel]

It sounds like head tilt. Strokes in rats are uncommon but head tilt (a bacterial infection when sudden / can also be a genetic deformity) are very common.


Options: Take her to the vet to verify and get antibiotics. Some will recover but usually not fully (enough to be good pets). I have had a couple over the years that have gotten it and gotten over it and lived many more months...but I would never breed them again (as you just cannot be sure it isn't the genetic form of the disease)

Sorry to hear that.

[Jonny2184]

Well that sucks!
I'll give her a day or more and see if she changes any, but if not I think I will put her to sleep.
The only bad part about that is I cannot feed her to my BP. She's way too big to be used as food. Poor girl will have to go into the ground and wasted.

Head Tilt... Weird... never heard if that before.

Well thanks and hopefully I get some new rats soon so I can start another breeding project

Thanks for the input!

[Ginevive]

Poor thing; I would take her to a vet.

[Jonny2184]

Yeah I kind of want take her to one too, but I bought her in the first place as snake food, not as a pet but as she got bigger and after she had her babbies it is now impossible to use her as a feeder.


Like I said I will give her time but I dont really want to spend money on saving the life of one of my feeder rats.
And unfortunatly I don't think I will ever look at a rat as a pet. If I did, I'd never be able to feed snakes...

Poor Doris... I'll check on her when I get home. Personally I rather she die on her own but If I have to do it, I have to do it I guess...

I may even just give the vet a call and see what she says. Maybe she can help me for free or even cheap. We will see...

I'm working 13h shifts for the next two weeks so I wont be dealing with her anytime soon so hopefully she can recover on her own. But I have my douths

Please for my Doris!!!!!

[SatanicIntention]

She has an ear infection, it's not a stroke. She needs antibiotics from the vet, such as clavamox, cephalexin, Baytril, etc. She is NOT going to recover without the proper medication.

Feeder or not, all animals deserve respect and proper veterinary care when they require it.

[Ladydragon]

I have mixed feelings about the name of your rat, but I hope all goes well for your rat Doris. Get her to the vet and some meds.

[Jonny2184]

Well..... Sadly Doris has moved onto a better life...
I didnt get to read the post from "SatanicIntention" and "Ladydragon AKA Doris" until just today.

From what a understood from "lord jackel" Doris had head tilt.
I went home that night at about 9:10 and my mother came to me and said Doris was looking pretty bad. So I went into my room, woke Doris up, and she could hardly walk out of her tissue box. She was falling everywhere.
I put my hand in to pet her back and she started rolling around really fast.
I tried again to pet her and did for a few seconds and then all of a sudden she flipped over and grabed my hand and scared the outta me. (but she didnt bite...)

She then tired to go back to bed but couldnt seem to get her nose into the door and was having trouble just finding the entrance.

So I said to myself, enough is enough and I'm gonna put her out of her pain.

So like I said... Doris is in her happy place. I wasn't very pleased because I had trouble doing the deed and that made it so much worse... but it is over now and had I known it could have been an ear infection I would have not done that at all... Not anyones fault but mine ( I learnt a lesson )
I just felt that when I was looking at her it was just ALL going downhill.
I felt super bad and didn't want her to have to deal with that kinda pain any longer...

I feel just sick about it now... and still every morning I wake up and look into the cage of Doris and think about her...

But this weekend I'm going to get 10 new rats from the pet store and keep another girl and breed her... well I guess Ill need to keep a guy too but I wont let him get to big that I cant feed him to Mitch or Shiri... I was thinking about naming the new rat Dorothy this time.

but anyway thanks for everyones input and next time I know that it can be a few different things and will look into more then I did this time. I just felt so bad for her, I couldnt watch her anymore. But I learnt something throughout this experience!

Thanks again!

[littleindiangirl]

Wow that's really sad. Sorry for your loss, but I woulda have prob done the same thing. I don't like to see animals suffer either.

[Jonny2184]

I'm still not very pleased about the whole situation really...

Thanks!!!