Sick Rat - help and advice?

I have a rat who is about 5-6 months old (we found him in the driveway as a baby just before New Years and decided to keep him). He is very placid and friendly, only I noticed last night that he has all of a sudden lost HEAPS of weight, and now I don't know what to do. He is still grooming himself, etc, but I know that weight loss in rats is usually a very bad sign regardless of whether they are still eating and grooming themselves, and that they can die within 24 hours. I plan to take him to the vet this afternoon, only the local clinic says that they do not specialise in rats and I may need to see a specialist, who is very far away, not to mention expensive! Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong with my rat and what to do to keep him alive if I can't get to a vet for a couple of days...

What kind of rat is he? A grey one or a pretty coloured one? Maybe call a pet shop and ask them that sell rats. It could be something simle like worms and that would be easily treated with worming stuff. Is he getting plenty of good food rich in vitamin C and the vitamins they need? It could be a vitamin deficency that can easily be treated. There are lots of group chat things for animals (similar to this one specific to rats) I would try finding one and asking other rat lovers as they may have some advise if this is quiet common in rats. I have no experience in rats only horses, cows, sheep, birds and guinea pigs. I would try rule out the obvious things like vitamins and worms etc. Also is he pooing as much as always? Make sure he isn't blocked up. Is he eating normally? Also how active is he? Rats dont go through puberty at 6months I am sure they would be much much younger then this as I know when they are sexually mature they can loose weight if they are running around alot etc. Good luck. I hope he gets better.

Thanks Emmy, he is a very pale grey with black eyes. Not sure what breed he is. Thanks for the idea of ringing a pet shop. I might do that. I might look for an rat forum online too. Why didn't I think of that before...

yep contact a rat group or online forum
i used to have rats and its very common for them to get sick seemingly for no reason
my rats both got big tumors that grew out of thier sides and got told its too expensive to fix...were talking similar cost to human tumor....and thats if they even survive
i hope that its just a rat flu or food problems and you can get him fixed up
GL

Tattoo_mama, I once had a rat that got a tumour on her side too. It was so horrible... Poor thing... Luckily that's not what's wrong with this one.

Well, Min the rat seems a lot better tonight. I managed to find a rat specialist vet quite near to where we live and have borrowed some money off my parents so Min is booked in for an appointment tomorrow morning. I spoke to someone at the vet clinic and from what I described, it seems that Min has a respiratory tract infection, which should be treatable with antibiotics. I am hoping that maybe he won't need them though. Fingers crossed.

How is Min this morning? Is he on the mend still do you think? I have a pregnant guinea pig I brought her for my daughter 3weeks ago and turns out she is pregnant so we are waiting anxiously for her babies (and hope she is ok as they can have trouble having them apparently). Well anyway I hope Min is ok.

Min is heaps better this morning. This is just as well as I had to move his vet appointment to tomorrow morning. I gave him some lettuce, some garlic and a meatball with sauce last night and he seemed to enjoy it. This morning he was sitting on his training wheel cleaing himself, as opposed to yesterday morning when he was huddled in his cage shivering. So hoping that all is well but will get him checked out tomorrow just in case. Thanks for your support. :)

Good luck with you guinea pigs Emmy!