Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi Guys,
I am not new to rats, have had them for about 12 years now. My current three are females, ages 8 months and one 2 year old. One of my younger girls has started itching holes into herself (I think). She has a large sore on her shoulder, and two right above her eyes (typical rat scratching places). I haven't seen any barbering and I didn't notice any mites or lice. All of my girls are housed together and no one else is exhibiting the same problems. They are on "yesterdays news" and "carefresh" litter and oxbow regal rat food with seeds once a week, yogies and the occasional piece of dried chicken. They also get a echinacea/goldenseal tincture three days a week.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please help, I have never seen this before.

I hate carefresh because I am allergic to it, maybe they are to? I would try triple antibiotic ointment. Are the sores infected?

Really need to know more about the rats. Did you just get these particular rats? Is the Yesterday's News and Carefresh new bedding you are using or is it what you have always used? What about the food? How much chicken are you giving them when you do? Is it possible one rat is eating it all?

As rats are most active at night, a lot of behaviors can be going on when you are sleeping (unless you are a night owl and spend your nights watching your rats all the time).

I suggest separating the afflicted rat, put a bit of ointment on the open wounds with a Q-tip, be very careful not to get any in their eyes. Keep its cage sterile..use just paper towel for substrate and a small hide. Water bowl and food bowl should be the only other things in the cage. You can put the cage next to the main cage so the singled out hurt rat can be see her former cage mates.

If she gets worse or you see sores showing up on the other rats, a vet check may be necessary for all affected rats.
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PHLdyPayne

Thanks for your response!

The carefresh and yesterdays news have always been the same and in addition we have been on the same packages for a while now. I have had the younger girls since november and the older rat since the previous December. Only one rat is showing any sores.

It is possible that one rat is eating all of the chicken, but they maybe get a small piece of dried chicken once a week. They also get a few (maybe 10) pieces of chicken and rice dog kibble (California Natural) each day. I think it is doubtful that she is eating all of the chicken/dog food as one of the other rats is much more dominant.

I am going to wash her in a Tea Tree and Aloe shampoo tonight and see how that works. Some of her sores seem to be healing while others are opening up. Could it be a compulsive overgrooming?

My weird experience with rat sores (not caused by parasites of any sort) was with John Jr. He had all sorts of trouble, but the skin condition was the most persistent. Basically, my vet said that it *could* be an allergy, and if it was, it could be to absolutely anything...even the other rats he lived with. I had eliminated all of the usual suspects, did bedding trials, and made sure he was on a low protien diet. In the end, what gave him relief were injections of depomedrol about once a month.

Another thing I've found that helps when it's more of a dry skin itchiness than anything is a fatty acid supplement. I use the gel caps made for dogs, poke a hole in one and drip the oil onto something tasty. Just one drop every few days is usually enough, in my experience.

Whatever it is, I hope she finds some relief soon! Good luck!
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~Rachel~

Tea tree drys out skin very bad. I wouldn't use anything with tea tree oil.

What kind of open sores? How big?

I rescued two rats that had many absceses all over them. I would describe that as an open sore.
They went to the vet, who much to the ratties' protesting, lanced open the absceses, squeezed out the puss, flushed them out with saline, filled the gaps with antibiotic ointment, gave them a shot of some kind, and sent me home with medication for them to get daily.

Do the open sores stink? Stick your nose up to them and take a whiff. If it smells icky, it might just be an abscess. They smelled awful.

Other things that I know that cause itchyness:
mites, lice, fleas, heat, and excessive protein.
Keep a lookout for all of those.

Thanks again for all of the responses.

I used the tea tree shampoo because it is a natural anti-bacterial and anti-fungal and in small, theraputic doses can be quite good for the skin. In addition, the shampoo has aloe, which moisturizes. The shampoo is formulated for itch relief and worked wonders on my dog when he had allergies. My ratty (Peapopo btw) seems less itchy today and her sores all looked better.

I wondered if it was the high protein and have cut everything but the regal rat. Unfortunately the sores have increased in number. They aren't abcesses but rather like if you continuously scratched the same spot until it bled. They are very shallow and very wide. The two largest (shoulder and flank) are about the size of dimes, the other three are aobut the size of pencil erasers. We have been putting hydrogen peroxide and T.A.O on them daily and some seem to be improving. I think the bedding change may actually be helping.

I am going to try the omega-3 oils on her. I use these for my dog and have a wonderful unscented salmon oil that might help. Thanks again for all of your imput, it has been very helpful. If anyone thinks of anything else that would be fab!

It very possibly could have been from too much protien. Maybe just stick with the staple diet for awhile to see what happens.

If it keeps getting worse you may need a vet to prescribe some oral antibiotics because it could be getting infected because of all the scratching.
Chlorhexiderm shampoo or a peroxide based shampoo for dogs might be good to use, those are made for infected skin.
Usually you can't buy those in a pet store- you have to buy them from a vet but a lot of mail order catalogs sell them without prescription such as K V Vet Supply or possible Drs. Foster & Smith. Feed stores might sell them too .. it's just usually you can't find them in pet stores for some reason I can't explain.
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PHRatz