Rat Colony Disaster

[dfisk5]

I purchased two new female rats about a week ago. Both appeared (and still do) completely healthy--good coat, no sniffles, clear eyes, etc. I put them in a rack, separate tub, in my rat room. Since then, in the past week, I've had five of my adult rats, develop reddish discharge from the eyes, sniffles, labored breathing, hunched posture...and finally, they died. I have two separate rat racks, and rats in both racks have died. I now have another male who's looking sick, but everybody else appears healthy (including the two new girls). What happened?? I've never had trouble with my rats, and suddenly, I've got five dying in a week's time. How should I have introduced the new girls? Are they the cause of all this? I'm just really bummed and feel terrible that I might have introduced something that is killing my rats. Help?

[Kizerk]

what kind of substrate are you using?

[dfisk5]

shredded aspen

[SatanicIntention]

This is why you should quarantine any new arrivals for a minimum of 30 days. The new ones most likely brought something very nasty(Strep that caused pneumonia, etc) into your existing colony, and your rats died because they hadn't ever been exposed to it before. The new ones are fine because they've been exposed and have developed immunities against it(or were born with it). Don't worry about moving them now as everyone is already exposed to it anyway.

If you can get some cephalexin or amoxicillin from your vet, give it to your remaining colony so they can fight off whatever those new rats brought in. Streptococcus is very susceptible to cephalexin and other penicillin derivatives. If you can, take one of the deceased rodents, place it in the fridge and have your vet run a necropsy, gather a few samples of lung tissue, etc, and send it off for a culture/sensitivity. They should be able to find out what those rats brought in and you can inform the store you got the rats at.

[frankykeno]

I rarely buy pet store rats anymore but Becky's right, when you do try to keep them away from the colony for a few weeks at least to see if they've got any nasties. Heck I give the new ones a quick dunk in the sink too just to make sure they haven't brought any crawling "friends" home with them (I hate hate hate fleas and that sort of thing).

Best thing I can suggest other than the vet is just to keep them as unstressed as possible (cut numbers down in the enclosures as much as possible). Feed extra nutrition, keep them quiet, warm, clean and well hydrated and it will take it's course. Phone the vet and see if there's anything you can get from the feed/tack store as I know Becky's recommended that route for deworming meds for rat colonies but I don't know about antibiotics, for that you may have to go to the vet.

[dfisk5]

Thanks for the replies. One thing I don't understand though...if the new girls look and act healthy, how would quarantining them have helped? Wouldn't they still have "carried" in whatever they have, 30 days later? I'm not disagreeing with you, just trying to understand how the quarantine would have helped, and how to prevent this from happening again if I ever introduce new rats again. Thanks.

[Rapture]

I was thinking the same thing...

[frankykeno]

I think it's just to give anything brewing time to actually show up (if it's going to) but in the end there really are no guarantees when you introduce any creature into a stable population. It's just not feasible to vet each and every breeder rat or your breeder/feeder efforts won't be cost effective. I don't always quaratine new rats, I do if I can though but every one of them gets a bath to get rid of that pet store stink. I think it also helps them lose their old colony smell so when they do go in with any of my rats, they are accepted better since they don't smell so different (no science behind this...just my own theory of how rat colonies work).

[Dread]

Sorry for your loss. Definitely a recommended quarantine time is in place for a reason, sucks that you would have needed stricter measures to save your colony.

And don't forget Typhoid Mary... some individuals will not fall prey to infectious diseases but can be carriers to infect others.

[MarkS]

This is the reason that a lot of rodent breeders end up closing their colony, you have to make a choice between genetic diversity or bringing in pathogens. I know a few rodent breeders who have closed colonies that haven't added any new outside rodents in over 10 years.