Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I went to the store to buy 4 more rats. Thsi morning one of them is already having extreme difficulty breathing. So I knocked it out and put it in the freezer. Another one is sneezing a bit but I am going to wait. It is weird because i sterilized all the cages before putting them in...What I noticed was that it is being passed from the other rats that are near them. I read that post by phwyvern saying it might be Mycoplasma and can be passed through the air and humans are can be carriers but not affect us. Well, the others that have had it from exposure to the other rats are doing better and sneeze every now and then but not to the point where they are suffering. They seem like they are getting immune to it. Also, the larger newcomers have not shown any signs of probs. I am waiting on this other small rat to see if its symptoms get worse. So it seems my chances are far greater when the rat is an adult or larger versus a young one as their immune system is a bit stronger....... I don't just want to kill them off and start over because they have cost me over $50 for them individually (andn not including meds or anything else). Next if I carry this whatever stuff then any rats I obtain will get it and could kill off another group...SO I might wait and let them fight it off themselves.....BTW, the mice, which are right next to the rats nursing 30 or so babies, do not show any sign of sickness, not even a sneeze. Funny how things work, especially when I was going to freeze the mice after they finish nursing and can't seem to get a rat, which I need far more than mice, to fight off infection.....

I have a couple of thoughts on this. One, how long were the new ones in the house? If it was less than a couple weeks I really would suspect an environmental cause....ie, chemical use, air treatments or scenting, bedding or bedding of an animal nearby that they are reacting to or something of that sort. Or are they all from the same place originally?
I have had rats deathly ill right next to healthy ones and it never left the cage. Counting on moderate hand washing etc on your part I wonder if you are dealing with an illness or a respiratory sensitivity to something you haven't thought of.
Just wondering.
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Sonya

No I don't even handle them. I only handle when I clean the cages. Even then I just grab by the tail and put them in the tub. I ususally clean in the order of healthy first then move on to the next. But now that everyone is showing symptoms, I have just set them in the (2) 1:3 groups. I lost this one in one day. It was from a totally diff. place. It took 24hrs for it to start suffocating on its own flem. The other one from the same store is showing no signs and is seemingly ok. The silver rat was having a nose bleed like the first ones that died but is now fine and coming out of it....It almost seems to me like the chicken pox virus. You have it for the rest of your life, and can be passed on but once you get it and recover you cannot be reinfected with no symptoms. That's what I am thinking....The largest one from the place of initial infection has not showed any signs of anything. No sneezing, whiping its nose or .......Maybe its an immune system thing is what I am thinking.....But the first was a large and was the first to die...All I can do now is wait and watch.....But like I said earlier the 3 mice that have been nursing haven't even shown any signs of sickness at all. So it may me isolated to the rats......

Hmmm... odd but then again not really unheard of either. I used to live in Vermont (And we're going back there soon) never had a sick rat from that end of the country. No sneezing, nothing. Got here, and got some breeder stock.. Not really sick but they were kind of sneezing and looked a bit poor.. but I've nursed worse back to health. A round of tetracycline cleared up the symptoms and they never came back. My one female who had it really bad is now my best producer. All the new rats I bring in stay in quarentine for a couple weeks now.. so I can get whatever sniffles or problems cleared up before I introduce them to my main colony.

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Uh, of the sulfatrimethoprim I was supposed to use .1cc but after the vet gave the dose and the rat died 25min later on the way home. So I didn't use it on any of them. I am just using tetracycline in the water at a teaspoon/ quart.......
But what's weird is that I haven't had any worsening conditions. The one silver males' nose started bleeding like the others that are dead but seemed to pull through as he isn't sneezing and nose isn't bleeding. I have a smaller male that is sneezing pretty bad but when I went in the room last night I saw him working full time on these females that are in there. So, it doesn't seem to be bothering him to much. I am still waiting to see another with squinting eyes, labored breathing, and completely lethargic.....Have no choice but to wait it through as quarantine didn't seem to work much, the dead one never saw the group and died.....The others in the group remaining must have the tetracycline working overtime and must be actually working.....

I use about the same...in the water. Generally, if I hear repeated sneezing I'll do a maintenance dose of about 1 teaspoon to half a gallon. For bad cases they get double that dose for about 5-7 days...The maintenance dose is only for 3 days or until symptoms clear up. I've had quite good success with it and actually I haven't had any coughing, sneezing or weezing in any of my rats. Any new rats I bring in get a light maintenance dose for a week...as a preventative.

But medicating that way is likely to do little but develope an immune strain of whatever. Tetracycline is NOT good for growing young ones as it interferes with calcium formation. The problem with the other drug (like I am gonna be able to spell that this morning) is that it can have allergic reactions to it with rats.
For me I either medicate with baytril or not at all. If you want to feel like you are doing something you can treat them with drops of kids cold med or echinacea in the water.

I dread to mention too that I had a cage of rats....several years ago now, that had a congestive, nasty, fast virus hit them. Most got skinny, but pulled through with loads of babying (these were pets)One was not looking good, but not totally gone either and I had to go out of the house and the kids and poor dh had to deal with her when she literally exploded her lungs. She projected/coughed blood all over and, gee, died! Really disturbing. And a lesson for me to put them down when they get to a certain point.
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Sonya