Goosemoose Pet Portal

I'm new to this forum, so please be kind!  :wave2:

I recently adopted what I call a "special needs" Sprague-Dawley rat from the university I attend (I'm also the caretaker for the research rats there) who was diagnosed a few days ago as having congenital hydrocephalus. The two vets who looked at her were fairly stumped on what I could possibly do for her, and it's hard to find any literature or information on her disease.

She turned 6 weeks old today but is only 83 grams, about twice as small as her litter mate/sister that I also adopted. The healthy sister is doing great continuing her diet of lab diet food, but Niko (the sick baby) has problems eating the hard food unless I soak it in water, and also has problems finding enough coordination to drink from the water bottle. I've tried to introduce a water dish, but all she does it tip it over and soak the bedding of their cage, so I've resorted to hand feeding her the water.

Does anyone here have any suggestions on what I can feed Niko to help her gain weight, is nutritious enough for her and will also be easy enough for her to eat? I was thinking baby food, or soaking the rat food in some milk, but this is my first time owning rats (I confess I'm a cat lover), and would feel more comfortable getting advice from people with more experience and knowledge than myself.

Any suggestions or comments would help immensely, so thank you in advance!

Try either putting the water bottle very low so she can be on all fours to drink or buy a ceramic dish that's heavy hence cant be overturned. Ensure is a good supplement to help gain weight and provide extra nutrients which you can feed to her though a syringe. If she cant eat solid foods, there's a good chance that she might not do enough grinding to file down her teeth and end up with overgrown teeth.

I'm curious, how did they diagnose a rat with hydrocephalus?? Or was it just an educated guess?

Thanks for the advice, it's much appreciated!

And about your question on the diagnosis, from my understanding, her symptoms are very similar to other animals with hydrocephalus, i.e. enlarged and domed skull, extreme lack of coordination and difficulty moving, general weakness, and slow development. For a definite diagnosis she would most likely need to have an MRI, ultra-sound, or CT scan, but since two vets looked at her (the first wanted a second opinion), one with several years of experience in exotics, I think the diagnosis is accurate. So it was a very educated guess.

Additionally, the skull deformity is a dead give away for something like hydrocephaly, in humans and in animals-not much else will enlarge the head/skull like that, as far as I know.

Can youget some pics?  There is another person on this forum possibly having the same problem right now!  Some pics would be great! 

I managed to get some pictures with my laptop's built in webcam (no digital camera for me), but they're fairly poor quality and Niko was being uncooperative (hence the hand). Her sister Zoomie was also not happy about sitting still this early in the morning (usually play time for her) but she got a raisin for being nice enough to sit still for 3 seconds.

And since I can't seem to get the pictures into the post, you can look at my gallery for the two pictures. I'm really sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm tired and will fix it later.

For reference, I have small hands, and Niko was fairly close to the lens.

Because of the angle, it's hard to see the size difference between the two of them, but Zoomie is approximately twice as big as Niko.

If needed, I can see if I can get some better shots when they're both feeling cuddly and calm.

Nutricious easy to eat foods to put weight on are;
Ensure, Nutrical
Babyfood especially meat and veg
Avocado, banana(small amounts)
Boiled potato, pumpkin, sweet potato
Porrige

I would also be concerned about overgrown teeth, can she coordinate enough to hold small dried pasta or small bones?

I would soak the lab blocks in soy milk not regular milk.
(I currently have a 2 1/2 year old with an addiction to soymilk)
When I have had sick rats I have taken an egg carton and cut the tops off the pointy bits and put short black(demitasse) cups where the eggs were and filled those with fluids and foods as then they were less likely to get tipped over.  Obviously this is a short term solution but you might be able to adapt it.  What about a bird water dish that she can lap from.http://www.petguys.com/-097424200800.html  This clips to the side of the cage so less likely to get tipped over  The ceramic dish is also a good idea.

She's figured out some kind of wobbly compromise where she holds things between her wrists to nibble at, but she tends to drop the piece of food and lose it, tip over backwards, or accidentally bite her hands. She might be able to chew at something hard if I help her with holding it, so I'll see how that goes. If it doesn't work too well, I guess I'll start looking into getting her teeth trimmed regularly.

Thank you so much for the advice! I really (Niko too!) appreciate the help.

There was a case of this that was posted here a while back.  HERE (http://www.goosemoose.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,118/forum,rat/topic,4004155.0).

Either the pictures aren't working in that thread, or my browser is blocking them (which sometimes happens), but there's a lot of great info in that thread on helping a baby with hydrocephalus. 

I would also recommend soaking the blocks with soy milk.  This serves 2 purposes.  1) She gets the balanced diet block provides and 2) she gets more liquid in her diet, which helps with her drinking trouble.  You can also mush the lab blocks up and add extra soy milk to make a sort of slurpee that can be given using a syringe with a big tip.

Good luck with your little one!

Thanks for the link!

I'm definitely going out to buy some soy milk after classes tonight, ensure, and baby food.

The description of Cherub from the link is Niko to a T-except that at the same age Niko's weight is about twice as much. Another difference is she's also very loving and social with her sister; loves to do nothing else but cuddle up with her when they sleep and stick close when I'm not holding and playing with either one of them.

I'm so glad I found this forum--I don't think I would be able to take care of Niko properly and give her the kind of life she deserves if I hadn't.

You could also soak the blocks in chicken stock, (make sure it is low sodium!) fruit or vegetable juice, soup, or yoghurt. My rats love all of those things a lot, and they are all pretty nutritious.

Well, I've bought some Ensure, soy milk, baby food, and fresh fruits, and managed to find a sterile 1.0 mL syringe (yay for working in the biology lab), and now I have more questions.

What ratio of Ensure/soy milk to rat blocks do I use? And since rather than let her dip her face in the food when she bobs and has a sudden loss of balance, I'm going to hand feed her, how much should I give her at each meal? Or will she just know when enough's enough and stop eating? I don't want to make her tummy upset by any means.

(And on a related note, when cleaning out the rat cages in the lab today I noticed another probable hydrocephalus baby from a two week old litter. She looks like Niko, but is her mini-me. Her mother is the same as Niko's, not too sure about the father...but it looks like I might be adding another baby to the mix as soon as she's weaned.)

It's great that you're taking care of Niko and Doomie.  Hopefully Niko will have a full and fun life.
Foodwise I think she will probably stop when she has had enough.  Rats eat about a 10th of their body weight a day.  I don't think the ratio of soy milk/Ensure to lab block matters you will find the right consistancy for the syringe.  Will she lick from your finger as that is an easy way to feed baby food.
Generally you introduce new foods slowly and in small amounts to avoid tummy upsets however you're also trying to fatten her up.

I forgot something, boiled rice water is given to malnourished children as it is highly nutricious and easily absorbed without tummy upsets and it would be great in the syringe. (Literally the water left over when you boil rice)

Any chance of strongly suggesting not to breed from the mother again?  With two babies with the same problem it's clearly in the mothers gene pool