Is it time to say good-bye to my baby?

1306 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Storyseeker, Oct 1, 2012

aleanna96

Discussion Starter · Oct 1, 2012

I have a 2 year old girl rat named Rue (Hunger Games). Well I think it might be time to put her down. I think she has gone blind in one eye because it is red from blood. It started awhile ago...like a few months ago. But I think she is blind in that eye and is scratching it, and making it bleed. But she is also not as active at she once was. She seems to be laying around, but the thing that makes me wonder if I should put her down is that she has "gone commando" (not underwear-less). She still kinda walks on her back legs but she also drags them some times. Its hard for her to get onto of her house and she cant really stay on my shoulders any more unless I have my hands right there to keep her there. So I guess I am wondering if anyone has any opinions on what I should do. Do you think she is fine? Or should I take her to the vet and have them put her down? (I really don't want to do that, but if my baby is in pain than I would do it

oh and her hair is kinda getting thinner and standing up more. But she is still her sweet loving self. She has not gotten aggressive at all....ever in her life...and I had her as soon as she could be away from her mommy

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Vladina

· #2 · Oct 1, 2012

This is always a hard decision to decide on but first and foremost, you absolutely need to get her to a vet right away. Based on the details of her condition, and her eye, she should have been taken to a vet already.

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lilspaz68

· #3 · Oct 1, 2012

HED (hind end degeneration) is something that happens to older rats. Its a paralysis and not painful, and they adapt well, but the eye needs a vet. It could be very fixable with a vet visit and antibiotics. I would definitely do that before even considering euthanasia.

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Storyseeker

· #4 · Oct 1, 2012

Yeah, HED is depressing (for us humans), but is pretty common. All it tends to need is adjusting access to important things in their cage to lower and safer levels, keeping a clean cage, and helping them bathe themselves with a baby wipe (and with boys helping them by cleaning the smegma from their boy bits). Also if they have trouble eating, try softer versions of the foods they normally eat so they can lap it up without holding it in their front paws.

The eye is the real concern, and it might even be treated easily with antibiotics or even eye removal if needed, since she's had the problem for a while. My old man rat lived to be almost three years old. His last year was with HED. They adapt wonderfully if given a chance, so you may have several months more with your rat depending on what's going on with the eye.

The red in her eye all along likely hasn't been blood though. Rat mucous has a red tinge to it and people often mistake it for blood. In short, rat snot is red. For most of the time she's probably just been producing this. Like with people excessive mucous production is a sign of underlying infection or irritation, so she's had /something/ going on. If she's now damaged her eye, there might be blood involved with the more recent symptoms, but a doctor can figure all that out for you.

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