Quote Originally Posted by Wretched Deviant View Post
Mycoplasma is common in most rats, it's a respiratory disease with no cure. It's common in the majority of rats you'll get, it starts as sneezing, snifling, porphyrin stains, head tilting or neck rolling, once it hits the lungs it starts to show in signs on respiratory infections. It's incurable, and can be expensive to treat with the use of multiple types of antibiotics together but usually it makes abcesses on the lungs and eventually kills the rat anyways. I've found all my rats, my mother, the father, the three weaned babies, and the eight fuzzies have it. Had the vet check it out. I've lost a lot of pet rats to this already, spent a lot of money on trying to treat it. Maybe it's not the same issue but most rats have it. And yes, I clean the rat cages with a mild soap and water solution, let it air dry, then replace the bedding with something like paper towels or cloth (for my mothers), they always have fresh water and food, I spend more time with the rats than my snakes.
Some excellent info, I've been through mico issues myself, lost some very kewl rats to it, sucks.
I'm breeding dwarfs now, hoping to keep them free of, since they sell for $20 a pop for dumbos