Rat Health Articles
Epilepsy and seizures
It is important to understand the difference between epilepsy and seizures. Causes of seizures include infections, tumours, toxic chemicals, and epilepsy. Most seizures have a cause other than epilepsy.
It is useful to think of epilepsy as a word for seizures for which no other cause has been found. Seizures are rare
in rats, but can be caused by many different things. Some that I have heard of are:
- Liver failure.
- Kidney failure.
- High fevers due to infection.
- Extensive ear infection or other pressure on the brain or brain membranes such as meningitis and hydrocephalus.
- Pituitary gland or brain tumour.
- Vitamin B6 (Thiamine) deficiency.
- Magnesium deficiency.
- Diabetes and hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar).
- Hormonal imbalance.
- Poisons such as excessive pesticides in the diet or something accidentally ingested in the household.
- Epilepsy.
Liver Failure.
The liver is responsible for breaking down toxins, as well as converting ammonia into a substance called urea (and
other functions). When this does not happen normally, increased amounts of ammonia or other toxins in the bloodstream
can affect the brain and cause seizures.
Hepatic Encephalopathy.
This is a metabolic condition of the liver affecting the central nervous system.
Clinical signs include: behavior changes, visual defects (blindness), circling,
pacing, anxiety, stupor,and seizures. [*]
Acute Hepatic Failure due to death of liver cells.
Clinical signs: acute depression and illness-vomiting (*note: not possible in rats), icterus, diarrhea,
seizures, hemorrhages. [*]
Renal Failure.
The kidneys role is to filter the blood and produce urine. It sorts toxins and chemicals the body does not want and
disposes of them in the urine. When the kidneys fail this filtration may cease completely, and these toxins build up
in the bloodstream, affecting organs (including the brain) they pass through.
Furthermore, problems can occur when the blood pressure to the kidneys decreases, and even though
there is nothing wrong with the kidneys themselves, the filtration process may slow or stop, causing similar problems.
This loss of pressure can be caused by shock, heart failure, physical trauma, and other conditions
Vitamin B6 deficiency.
Sugar can be a trigger sometimes, in which case a lower sugar diet should produce less frequent seizures.
Sugar robs the body of B vitamins, so could also cause a Thiamine deficiency.
Hormonal imbalance.
In humans, females can get seizures at puberty and menopause or during each cycle. If you have a young female rat
with seizures, keep a record of her seasons which are every 4 to 5 days in a normal healthy doe, and see if the
seizures coincide at all.
Article by Joolz & Laura
References:
http://www.cah.com/dr_library/liver.html
Reading:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000508.htm