I mentioned that George is starting to drag his back legs. This is something that we've seen as a few of the old boys have gotten up there in age, and in one of the girls (Leather, but she was almost 3 years old.) There are a few things that can cause a rat to lose the use of the back legs; in our rats I believe all have been from spinal cord compression. Here are some good articles about it:
Generally when our rats have started having trouble with their back legs we have moved them into a flat cage (as I mentioned, I waited too long to do that with Leather, resulting in the accident and her broken leg.) Since George is only just starting to have problems (he's using his back feet, it's just an obvious effort for him to make them go where he wants them to go) I found a cage with solid plastic balconies and ramps...he can still go up and down, but there's no wire mesh for him to get caught. When the rats have gotten to the stage where they truly are dragging their legs, I replace the bedding with fleece blankets so it's softer, and I make sure they get the shallow food dishes so they don't have trouble eating.
Posted by Abita at March 28, 2006 05:45 PMThank you for the explanation Abita.
Posted by: Eanna at March 28, 2006 08:40 PMRat Rat is dragging her back legs a bit, but since she can still jump etc. I've let her be. I hope it doesn't get much worse than this.
Posted by: Lynn at March 30, 2006 03:40 PMHey Lynn...hopefully Rat Rat won't get much worse. For some reason it seems to affect males more often and to a greater degree than the females. Leather was our only girl who really had trouble, but she was nearly 3 by then.
Posted by: abita at March 31, 2006 05:20 PM