Pet Rats

[MacroGuru]

Anyone here have pet rats? Or have had them and know a lot about them?

My daughter was moving one back into the cage after I finished cleaning it tonight, the thing twisted out of her hands and she instinctively went to catch it, throwing her body in the way so it wouldn't hit the kitchen floor and break it's neck.

Well, the thing now leans to one side, she pinned it up against a cabinet to stop the fall. I do not think it is the neck, but it could probably be the shoulder....now if it is the neck, can they live for a while with it like that?

I don't want to drop $100+ down for x-rays and such at the vet (I spent $65 for a virus it had when we first got it)

Anyways, any advice could be helpful, and I hope to not wake up with a dead rat in the cage.

[Young Drachma]

My ex girlfriend did. As for the money stuff, rats get sick easily and they die all the time.

Paying a lot to save them - from what I understand - isn't always smart because they just get something else shortly thereafter.

But again, that's just from what I heard 2nd hand.

The whole thing was kinda creepy to me. :)

[Yellow5]

We owned two a few years ago.

Kinda hard to tell you what is wrong with it when you describe it as "leaning". If you don't see a break anywhere and it appears to be moving it's head okay then I would give it a day to see if it gets back to normal. They are pretty tough despite their size.

Ours eventually died of tumors which is pretty common.

[Groundhog]

Yeah I had 2 a few years ago, and my girlfriend had 4. All of them died of tumors after about 2-3 years.

As for the lean, well, it's hard to say without looking at it. If it can still move around OK and doesn't appear to be in pain (ie. still eating, drinking etc.) then I'd give it a few days and see how it is. If it's still leaning after a few days you might need to get it looked at unfortunately.