Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When I was checking on my rats today one of them was making a weird noise and it looked like it was trying to throw something up(opened it's mouth completly then took a breath in and closed it's mouth, kept repeating). I got it out and held it for a while and it continued the same behavior in my hands. It looked like it had a runny nose and was breathing HEAVY out of its mouth. There are 3 other rats in the same bin as Mr. Sickly and they don't exibit the same behavior. Any ideas??
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Is it wrong to pull on the food chain a little?

Sounds like it is dieing from it's lungs being full of infection. If it is not already dead, euthanize it ASAP. Repiratory disease is very common in rats. Pine shavings hurt rats lungs and cause the disease to flare up. If you are curious cut open it's lungs, you will be amazed at what is in there.

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Shannon in Reno
2.3 dogs
1.0 cat
Bunch O fancy rats and mice
50 something chickens
0.1 Black rat snake
0.2 Albino corn snakes
0.1 Chissel tooth kangaroo rat
0.1 Rosy Boa
0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Amazing Boyfriend

i have a rat that has a slight wheezing noise, i find that after i isolate it i place it on antibiotics you can get from a farm animal place, comes in powder and it works wonders, but im afraid yours is too far gone for that. Keeping my rats on this once a month prevents anything, and i have them on pine shavings, the darn fine dust as they dig around it gets to them every time. Hard to find a large bag of aspen these days.
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1.4 various boas(Flicka,Felony,Nova,Alias,Alibi,confessa,custody,Ms.Demeanor)
0.1 BRB Abalone; ABBI
1.0 Rott X (OSO)
2.0 cats (Simba, Morris)
fish & feeders

Terramycin is more then likely the antibiotic you use. It works great. Once a rat is to the gasping for breath point they should be euthanized. You can start them on antibiotics right when you hear the raspy breathing and they should get better. Rats always have respiratory disease, it is just a matter of how good the rats immune system is if they ever become sick. Not using pine or cedar bedding will make a huge difference.
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Shannon in Reno
2.3 dogs
1.0 cat
Bunch O fancy rats and mice
50 something chickens
0.1 Black rat snake
0.2 Albino corn snakes
0.1 Chissel tooth kangaroo rat
0.1 Rosy Boa
0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Amazing Boyfriend

I can get aspen but it's twice the price of pine. If pine is going to continue to give my rats repiratory infections then I will go to aspen only. The thing is this guy is the only one right now, is the infection contagious? If I were to use 1/2 and 1/2 pine/aspen do you think that will make a big enough difference to stop the respiratory infections?
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Is it wrong to pull on the food chain a little?

Do you think I should feed him to my boa or just put him down. Would there be any harm to my snake if I feed it the sick rat?
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Is it wrong to pull on the food chain a little?

all i use is pine, i have never had any problrems, use aspen for my snakes, and yes big bags are hard to find around here to

All I have used for my rats for 3 years is Pine bedding. Never had any problems. Boas are on Aspen, Ball Pythons are on Cyprus Mulch.

I get big bales of aspen from PetSmart for $13 each. Yes it is more expensive but better for the animals. If you keep your breeders for a year and your rats also have a great immune system then you may not see the effects of pine. Pine bedding will shorten the life span of a rat and cause them pain. I used to use pine for my rats 10 years ago and they had problems. So I switched to aspen. I used pine for my mice and they were in the same room as the rats and the rats were having some problems. Now all animals in the animal room are on aspen and there are no problems. I also don't keep rats that show signs of resp problems so that I only breed rats that have a high immunity to the disease. And yes, it is VERY contagious. Do some research about it on the net.
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Shannon in Reno
2.3 dogs
1.0 cat
Bunch O fancy rats and mice
50 something chickens
0.1 Black rat snake
0.2 Albino corn snakes
0.1 Chissel tooth kangaroo rat
0.1 Rosy Boa
0.1 Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Amazing Boyfriend

ive always used pine, there are different grades of pine out there, and one has fine dust when you get a handful and drop it, while others have large flakes and vertually no dust. if i could order online i would, the brand i use now that is available for me is, www.amf.com it's not the best i've come across, but i can only do so much.
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1.4 various boas(Flicka,Felony,Nova,Alias,Alibi,confessa,custody,Ms.Demeanor)
0.1 BRB Abalone; ABBI
1.0 Rott X (OSO)
2.0 cats (Simba, Morris)
fish & feeders

Make sure to use an open credit card so the vet can perform any tests or procedures necessary to extend your precious little rats life!!!

Oh, wait a minute, this isn't the pet rat forum, it's the feeder rat forum (same animal, different use).

Refer to the rules..

Don't produce - fed off
Kill babies - fed off
Sick - fed off
Jumpy - fed off
Bite me - whacked on cement then fed off

Looks like a clear violation of rule number three!!

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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

hey dave your not far off, there is a rat that was taken to the vet cause of the large tumor it had, and the owner had to finally give it to me so i could disbatch it, some ppl don't think animals feel pain in conditions like that and don't deserve any.
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1.4 various boas(Flicka,Felony,Nova,Alias,Alibi,confessa,custody,Ms.Demeanor)
0.1 BRB Abalone; ABBI
1.0 Rott X (OSO)
2.0 cats (Simba, Morris)
fish & feeders

Hey, I understand the whole pet thing blah blah blah. Wanting to provide and rightfully so, what bugs me is the attitude of some extremists that these animals we keep deserve anything and everything we can do for them. There is a point in every pets life wher it either dies from naturla causes or needs to be put down to prevent suffering. Man up and do what's right.

One thing I see over and over is those animal rescue shows. They find this mistreated half dead animal and will spend thousands of dollars and commit all these resources to bring it back to health and get it placed with a new family. Not that it's a bad thing but what about all the hundreds of thousands of perfectly healthy animals that are put down because there are not enough homes. Wouldn't it make more sense to put down the sick ones and adopt our the healthy ones? instead of the other way around?? Litterally cannot save them all.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

i rember after one of the oil spills a group found a crude soaked sea otter they spent $80,000 to nurse it back to health and months later on it's grand return to yhe wild, on camera with media coverage, swam out looked around and was immediatly eaten by a killer whale, thanks for washing up before dinner

Exactly my point!!!
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

This guy was really sick so I did the most humane thing I could and prepared a nice dinner for bonecrusher (my boa constrictor).
I took a video clip of the rat breathing heavy I will try to put it on youtube to see what the rest of you think. I hope the other rats aren't infected by this guy. Right now the other rats don't seem to have any problems(crossing my fingers). I think I will get some aspen and keep them on that for a while. I really don't want to have a bunch of sick rats on my hands. Thanks for everyones responces.
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Is it wrong to pull on the food chain a little?

Pine and Cedar have more in common than rat breeders want to face.

All soft woods have phenols. Phenols are what give the wood it's sickly sweet smell. It's acidic, caustic and is very detrimental to any animal that breathes the fumes.

In any animal exposed to those phenols in pine and cedar, they will have elevated enzyme levels in the liver. It causes liver disease, kidney disease, cancer in the lungs, respiratory disease and leaves the door open for Myco flare ups which will ultimately kill your animal from respiratory distress and suppressed immune system.

Why doesn't any feeder breeder see these effects? How many breeders actually let their animals cycle breed and witness the 2-3 years of life? Just the shortness of life that most feeder breeders witness is testament about why they refuse to believe how poisonous pine is.

Dustiness is the least of your problems when your dealing with these soft wood shavings.

I will only ever used the Equine fresh pellets. It's a pellet that's been made in a process that effectively removes most of the harmful oils, tars, and acids. A little goes a very long way.

1 40 lb bag of pellets cost around 5-6$, and I can get 2 weeks of changes for 30 rats. It loosely comes to around 12$ a month for me, and it does a much better job in absorption, dust, and most importantly, SMELL.

Just my .02 cents
AFRMA- Softwood bedding

Well it's been almost two weeks since changing to all aspen and I've noticed a big difference in my rats "sneezing". I got a compressed 4 cubic ft bag for 10$ at tractor supply and so far so good. After one week smelled like a good time to change.
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Is it wrong to pull on the food chain a little?