https://www.vetsurgeon.org/f/clinical-questions/10808/overweight-lethargic-rat---please-help This evening I have seen a rather large male rat - he weighed 1Kg a few months ago and the owner has managed to get him down to about 800g but he&#39;s still the largest (domestic) rat I&#39;ve ever seen! The owner is a very experienced rat owner, with manyen-USTelligent Community 10https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/56120?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:05:42 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:7c1f77d6-3843-4f26-8c7e-9bde91403357Rachael Winder<p>Is that the reason for Dumbo rats then? Ignore my ignorance if not. I see a handful of these and they are enormous and generally just look obese. They tend to be slow, not as active and I find take ages to recover from anaesthesia and wounds are a&nbsp; bit more fragile to heal. Should I be dealing with them differently?</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/56115?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:55:34 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:7cd77165-5f31-4820-8b67-50273dd33b74Mark Rowland<p>Ha ha yes i know, its just the story I was told and it came from a source I trust (believe me there are not many of those). </p> <p>To me it explains why I see the odd REALLY fat rat that is kept the same as others.</p> <p>I have worked these up in the past and found no other diagnosis than fatness</p> <p>Havnt tried Yarvitan though, Hmm......</p> <p>If there is one thing I like about rat medicine its that its not hard to find product data on unlicensed drugs as most have been tested on rats.</p> <p>Im still battling my fat gene! <img src="https://www.vetsurgeon.org/emoticons/v2/Very_happy_smiley.png" alt="Very happy" />&nbsp;</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/56111?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:37:31 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:b7fcd2ba-51a4-4c65-a7df-b310aeca6f21Michael Woodhouse<p>Mark - is it the 1st April? You pulling our legs?</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>https://www.vetsurgeon.org/thread/56110?ContentTypeID=1Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:13:00 GMT146601cc-3922-4be7-9974-7e1d4e45a66b:e7437ab2-7449-46b1-b311-46e8df314fe1Mark Rowland<p>There is a fat rat gene out there. The story is some animal liberation folk liberated some rats that were genetically modified to study obesity and the gene got into the general population. Ther are prone to obesity related issues and so I would be doing chest rads to check the heart and lungs. A blood sample taken under the same anaesthesia would be useful also. Goodluck</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>