My rat has a short tail... amputated?

Question

my female rat had the end of her tail amputated when i got her. (she came to us with the injury and we took her to the vet and got it amputated). Her tail is a good 6 cm shorter than my adult males, but he is a bit bigger than her. they do live together (he has been desexed) and she is fine. I just wonder if she has learned to balance differently because i am always being poked in the eye with a stumpy tail!! :p i know tails arent much use except for balance. so yes she is healthy and happy. does she balance differently? Would she even know that she is missing a good 3rd of her tail?

Answer 1

My female rat lost her tail completely when she was still in her momma.  She was just fine.  She will adapt quite well.  Rats are amazing at adapting to just about every thing from food to living conditions.  My female also only had one ear and only had 8 toes in all.  She produced some of the most amazing babies I ever saw!

(Her litter mates nursed on her resulting in a deformity)

Answer 2

i dont know if this will help but i had a gerbil when i was a lot younger and when i took it out of the cage one day it ran away from me and then i grabbed it by the tail and the end of the tail about an inch or so came off she recovered fine and from what i remember the tail grew back to normal size(im probably remebering the tail growing back wrong because i dont think they can do that)

Answer 3

i am sure it probably through her off for a while. and i bet standing and jumping and balancing felt different and required a little getting used to ... but she will/ maybe already has. so yeah she probably noticed and has probably adjusted already :)

Answer 4

Rats are very resilient creatures. They can recover very well from amputations, even legs, without seeming to know that they are handicapped. Even manx rats, ones who are born without a tail, seem to have no trouble balancing and climbing around.

I get poked in the eye too, and all my rats have their whole tails. :)

But you are wrong when you say that balance is the only function of the tail. The tail of the rat is the only place on it's body where there are sweat glands. That's why it is hairless, so the sweat can evaporate better, and that's why it often feels slimy and get icky faster. Rats who are missing their tails are more likely to overheat than rats with tails. I don't think you have anything to worry about if your rat still has 1/3 of her tail, but I thought you should know. :)

Answer 5

My girl had to have an inch of her tail amputated as well. The rat learns to compensate for the smaller tail by swinging it differently. Their balance is off for a short time until they learn how to balance with the new tail length.

By the way, how did your girl have her tail injury? My girl was being played with by a 7 year old boy and she started to head away from him, he grabbed her tail to bring her back...and degloved the end of it.