Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / August 2004

Hi All,

I came back from holiday yesterday to find an empty cage. We had two rats up
until 3 weeks ago but one died of a brain tumor (they were/are about 2.5
years old) so I assumed that her sister died while I was away and was quite
upset. My husband got back home from the vets where they had been - turns
out that she was dehydrated. She hadn't drank for a couple of days but
looked fine but when you touched her she was like skin and bone but looked
bulky. She was completely in a catatonic state. You could move her and
position her and she wasn't moving and she was just listless and stared
emptily. The vet gave her a couple of days to live. Her fur was stood on
end. Seems she got depressed at the loss of her sister and stopped eating
and drinking properly. She had been taking and eating treats from my husband
but leaving her ordinary food. We have been feeding her sugar water with a
syringe and it has really helped. She gradually came around a lot and the
vet injected her with adrenalin to perk her up. She was still very sulky and
upset so i decided to phone the pet store to see if they had any companions
for her (they hadn't before) to take her mind off things. Turns out they had
one female rat all alone. They warned us she was skittish and edgy because
she had escaped in the store and had to be chased! We collected her and
brought her home with a spare cage to introduce her slowly. When I put her
in the spare cage she shot out straight away and went powersniffing our
lonely rats cage. They both sniffed each other fine. So i opened up the cage
(with a spray bottle handy in case). To cut a long story short within one
day they are best buddies and seem to get on ok though the little one seems
to be dominating right now. They must both have been really lonely. Just
sent this so if anyone has a rat alone they know how bad it feels for them.
The new rat is NOT skittish at all like they said but they also said she had
been down since her cagemates got sold. When they are dehydrated they get
listless and their fur sticks up. She also seemed to lose the use of her
back legs but can now move around and is almost back to her old self and
improving all the time.

wish us luck,
Cat