MLAARE -Drunken

I was in the middle of doing the morning tasks of feeding our small animals. The hamsters, rats, guinea pigs, etc.

And I opened up one of the cages of rats that we had.
That's currently a bit over crowded due to the holiday season as we're going through animals rather quickly.
....With the exception of rats.
I don't know why we were sent so many, our Rats don't sell. It's like...one in a month if we're lucky.
And we have basically a year supply of rats currently.

So needless to say, I lifted up their little house to check on them all.
And noticed that one of our little rats was smaller than the others.
So I picked him up to see if he was doing okay.
Because if one rat is smaller...usually that means that they're not getting enough food or water.

As soon as I picked him up he began squeaking.
wiggling.
Twisting,
turning.

He was very energetic.
Making it hard to examine him closely.
Not that I needed to see him closely,
As I put him back in the cage...
He fell over.
like right onto his back.
And struggled to get back on to his feet.
Once he was on his feet...
He staggered around the cage.

Kinda in a drunken way. An energetic drunken way.

Not.
Good.

There was something going on here.
Possibly something neurological.
As seeing that sort of shaky gait, the trouble walking...
Doesn't bode well.

So I immediately called the manager to take him to the Vet.
Its not a sort of situation where you want to wait and see if he recovers.
The sooner he's on meds the more likely he is to get better from whatever is troubling him.

Unfortunately...I left work before the rat came back from the vet.
So I don't know what the final prognosis was.
Hopefully its something treatable. 

Guess I'll find out tomorrow.

-Sarnic Dirchi