Hind leg weakness and muscle wasting around hips

[Kuroku]

I was wondering if anyone could offer any experiences or help on this one? Because I am lost!

Rewinding back to early December, my 20 month old male Silent Bob had a lump removed, this was located next to his groin. It was fully moveable but hard, so removing it was pretty straight forward for the vet. The procedure took only 15 minutes and the wound was closed with skin glue. The surgery wound healed and fur almost fully regrown, no complications occured during the healing process.

The muscle around his hips are now wasting so his hips feel boney, yet he feels of normal weight elsewhere. He can't walk properly on his back legs (looks quite stiff), and his toes sometimes curl up underneath his feet as he walks. He is putting weight on those legs but is very wobbley and his rear end often gives way.

He is eating and drinking but spends most of his time sleeping these days. He also has a stubborn upper respiritory infection (stuffy nose - his chest is fine).

My instinct is telling me that his lump is growing back, the surgery site feels hard now where previously it was fine, could it be possible that if there is a lump in there, that it is attaching itself to his hips or something else that could affect his mobility?

Otherwise could it be general hind leg weakness? Is it possible at this age? And are these two signs likely to be related or just a coincidence?

[Kuroku]

I'm going by the assumption that this is general HLD and is a coincidence that it happened a month after his surgery.

What treatment options are available for this (to slow progression as I know there's no cure)? Or is it just a case of making sure that his environment is safe for him? He lives in a Savic Freddy 2, there is no shelf in it as those Freddy shelves are a nightmare to clean! There was also a hammock and climbing rope in there but I have confiscated these for his own safety. But I will be making him a low level hammock out of fleece. I have no worries about him climbing the bars as he doesn't really do this anyway. He has always been a lazy boy! His bedding is Bedexcel which is cardboard cut into squares plus I use old clothes and fleece blankets for him to curl up in.

Also, what is the average timescale between initial signs to complete hind leg paralysis? If there is one?

He is happy to spend more time out of his cage with me, which helps a lot, he is a proper lap rat! I am doing this more often because he just looks so miserable in his cage right now and not through illness. The problem is that I can't introduce him to my other rats and new rats are out of the question. Silent Bob and Jack's regular upper respiritory bug was originally brought in by another pair (Frank and Archie who have both gone to the bridge now but not because of this bug), the bug is contagious and stubborn to get rid of. It comes and goes but only affects certain rats, but to bring in new babies is too much of a risk. I was going to try my other lone rat who recently lost his cagemates, however he himself died 2 days ago.

[Jemma]

This does sound like HLD. I would consider switching him to a kidney friendly diet (see renal for links) as often HLD is linked with kidney failure. You can also give him regular glucosamine and cod liver oil in case it’s arthritis related HLD, plus if he seems stiff and in pain regular painkillers such as metacam can give him a real boost. Whn my lads suffered from HLD I would adapt the cage, I use wilko’s cat litter trays as shelves (melt holes in with a hot skewer and fasten to the bars) and filled pretty full with litter. I also adapted the trays so I could slot ferplast ramps in (equine canine feline sell these, again you just melt holes in with a skewer, it takes some faffing to get them the right shape but works well). This meant I could have several low ramps and shelves for the boys to still be able to get around. I found they really appreciated this as even with advanced HLD they would spend all day going from the top of there area to the bottom and back up again, despite there being food and water at every level, they just wanted to be able to move around a bit. I only added these ramps when they were no longer able to pull themselves up the bars to get around, I feel that if you assume there disabled too early then they will go down hill faster from not using what there able too.

Average time scales vary massively, my first lad to show very minor HLD signs lived for 6 months before an unrelated condition took him. The other 2 managed a good 5 months before they went of what I assume was heart or kidney failure so possibly related, even then they were still getting around the cage to a certain extent and quite active given there age.

I would strongly suspect that Silent Bob and Jack actually suffer from mycoplasmois which pretty much all rats carry, so the bug that keeps appearing to pop up has always been there, just when your 2 little ones came along the brought in a secondary infection, this will have weakened there immune system and triggered the myco, then once the secondary infection past there was some lasting damage. This made the myco more active which is why your seeing an apparent infection coming and going. This being the case it’s perfectly feasible to get new rats to keep him company, indeed my old men with there advanced HLD seemed to get a new lease of life when I introduced 2 bouncy babies to the cage. There are very very few (and very very rare) infections that stay infectious for more than a few weeks (if you allow for 2 months after the first symptoms hit your rats then your pretty safe), as far as I am aware none of those are respiratory bugs.

[Kuroku]

Hi Jemma,
Thanks for your response.

Silent Bob did go to the vet (sorry for the lack of update) and was perscribed metacam for what the vet assumed to be Arthritis. Unfortunately Silent Bob was later found to have heart problems in addition to his HLD and deteriorated a lot further - in the end I felt the best option was to put him to sleep.

As for Jack - He and Ted had a severe resp infection when I got them from rescue 2 years ago. Therefore they are prone to flare ups (not that it matters too much now). Jack developed some small abdominal tumours and passed away about 5 weeks ago, just after showing signs of illness - he already had a vet appt booked for him. Ted currently has a massive tumour in his abdomen so it'll only be a matter of time (he is still functioning well in terms of eating).