Geriatric Rat

[leaveittoweaver]

My oldest rat, Barbosa is about 2.5 years old and is definitely slowing down. He sleeps noticeably more than the other two boys, has started to develop paralysis in the back legs, etc. I have a three level cage for the three boys. The other day I noticed that Barbosa has two not very signifigant cuts on his back(that were obviously not self inflicted) and I'm wondering if the other two boys are picking on him although I haven't noticed anything. My question is, should I remove him from the cage and keep him by himself? I know that other rats can be helpful with an elderly rat, actually barbosa took care of my first rat Hermie in his old age, but I'm just concerned, I'm also concerned about him climbing the levels and being in the hammock with his back legs not working that great. I don't want him to be lonely though at the same time. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[RatAttack59]

Somebody here had a similar situation with balance, and added a ton of "safety" hammocks all over the cage.  Pretty much if te rat fell,s/he would land in a hammock.  If there was a fourth in the group I'd have suggested splitting off two in a single level cage, but with three that doesn't work.