If you have had rats long enough you know what HED stands for. Its Hind end degeneration and my old man has it. He waddles now. No walking straight. Gee this is my 2nd boy to have that. I hate to say this but its kind of cute the way he waddles over to me. Like a new walking baby. I know it will get worst and I will have to cover the wire cage bottom soon to make it easier for him. But he is still his lovable self. He loves to clean me LOL and wants me to pick him up all the time. I don't mind.
More about HED. This is more common in older male rats but I know this can happen to females too. It gets worst as time goes on so make sure this cage bottom is covered if you have a wired bottom. Even if the holes are small your ratty will get exasperated every time he can't move to where he wants to. It might be a good idea to make the cage shorter if its very tall to limited their movement. I couldn't do this with my 1st ratty who had HED but what I did was to put 2 bowls of water and food and 1 extra litter box which I cut very short on one end. It helped a lot and he got to stay with his brothers. I know there are other things I can try to keep it at bay and one thing is I will be giving him vitamin B12 which is suppose to help keep it from coming on to fast.
This is a youtube video showing what it looks like.
Like I said he is an old man but he is happy other wise.
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