Sick Rats

[Jay_Bunny]

Monk, my first rat, is sick. I was starting to clean cages today and found him quite ill. He was sharing a cage with his son, Solja, and Solja seems fine. Monk is thinner than normal and he just seems scraggly. With all the stress in the house lately (roommate issues) I haven't been paying a lot of attention to the rats. Go in, feed and water, get out and go to bed. I finally had a day to myself today that I could get down and clean cages and handle everyone. I have removed him from the cage for now. I have put him in a small bucket (I don't have any extra cages and he's making no effort to climb out) and have him next to me as I type. He has no interest in water, so I'm giving him water by dropper/syringe type thing. He is also eating on his own. I have given him lab block, puffed rice, cornflakes, and oats to munch on.

So a short list of his symptoms:
- head tilt
- loss of balance
- thin
- uninterested in water

We also have another rat that we really don't know what to do with. He was housed with Solja weeks ago and started to show signs of getting sick (sneezing) so we moved him to his own enclosure to see if he could get over it by himself. He got over his cold (stopped sneezing) but now he has gone crazy.

List of symptoms:
- waving his head around
- acting jittery (like he's hopped up on caffeine)

Any thoughts? I can't get Monk to the vet today (closed) but I'm going to try and get him an appointment tomorrow if I can. I'm going to see if he shows any improvement over the night as I am going to stay up with him and be his "nurse". I think the head tilt probably signals a need for the vet.

The other rat was going to be used as a breeder but he is obviously a very very sick rat. I have no interest in keeping him as a breeder and I am not attached to him at all. He was actually bought as a feeder but we had bought one too many and we kept him. I do not feel comfortable feeding him to a snake since I do not feed sick animals to my snakes.

[blackcrystal22]

What type of substrate are you using?

[Jay_Bunny]

Woodpellet bedding with a layer of aspen on top. All rats are on this bedding. I can give you details on the setups if you think its enviromental.

[frankykeno]

Sounds like a myco outbreak that has advanced to the point of severe wry neck (that's the head tilt and is basically a severe ear infection). This rat that you brought in and put with one of your males was sick, that other male got exposed. Then you pulled the sick one and put the exposed one in with the other male which is now sick. That combined with you perhaps being stressed and not around them a lot may have allowed their enclosure to get a bit out of hand which makes this condition worse.

All rats carry mycoplasmosis but under stress and exposed to the germs of this sick new rat, it sounds like it's broken out in the active stage. Wry neck is not a good sign.

I'd suggest you read about it here....

http://www.rmca.org/Articles/myco.htm

It's just a suggestion but perhaps in future when you bring in pet store feeder rats and you don't use them right away, that you don't put them into your breeder group until you make sure they are not bringing in diseases with them from the pet store.

[Jay_Bunny]

We are not bringing in any new rats until this is figured out. I just picked up Monk and he has another symptom that I just noticed. He has hair loss on one of his testicles. I was just reading an article about myco when I clicked on this thread to check the response.

It definitely sounds like myco. According to the article, it also causes low litter sizes when they breed. His last fathered litter was only 6 and they all died at 2 weeks.

Is there anything I can do for him? And does the other male have it? What should I do for the colony? The other rats seem fine. I have All the females in other cages but their cages are in close proximity to Monk's cage. It says myco is highly contagious. Will all the rats have it?

[littleindiangirl]

It's pretty safe to say that if he has head tilt which like Jo has pointed out can accompany myco flare ups, he is really sick and will not be able to fully recover without anti-biotics from a Vet.

Head tilt is not always from a Myco outbreak. Myco is usually accompanied by hard breathing, gurgle noises in sinuses and possibly lungs/ URI.

If he has gotten to the point of head tilt from myco... there's not much else to do other than take him to a vet for treatment. You can make it easier on him by giving him soft moist food.

I prepare a soft food for my pet rat who has a weak immune system and cannot fight off small sniffles. This always works for me because he just doesnt eat very much when he is sick, and he loses weight and looks so sad. This little mix I give him always gets him right back on track, even though he has to share with his friend.

1/4 of short can of Innova canned dog food (has chunks of carrots, potatos, rice, organic meat)
1 table spoon of cooked brown rice
small teaspoon of flax seed
1 Tablespoon of raw sunflower seeds
oatmeal or barley

and whatever fresh veggies or vegetables I have on hand.

I mix it all up, serve room temperature and always make sure to have enough for my other rat. I serve it once a day along with fresh fresh water and lab block.

I have even provided him a heated area by his hammock to help him recover.


Not saying that this will cure him, it's just to get him eating again.

[littleindiangirl]

We are not bringing in any new rats until this is figured out. I just picked up Monk and he has another symptom that I just noticed. He has hair loss on one of his testicles. I was just reading an article about myco when I clicked on this thread to check the response.

It definitely sounds like myco. According to the article, it also causes low litter sizes when they breed. His last fathered litter was only 6 and they all died at 2 weeks.

Is there anything I can do for him? And does the other male have it? What should I do for the colony? The other rats seem fine. I have All the females in other cages but their cages are in close proximity to Monk's cage. It says myco is highly contagious. Will all the rats have it?

ALL rats have myco. (except lab rats)

Myco is the kind of infection that remains in check until the rats immune system is compromised.

[Jay_Bunny]

His breathing is labored and his eyes are very unfocused. He has taken to rolling and using the side of the "enclosure" to steady himself (laying on his side).

We can't get to a vet until tomorrow, and I'm not sure if they take in emergency cases like this very early in the morning. We are considering an emergency vet as they are open 24hours. We know they are very expensive. A vet appointment for our cat this past year cost us $300 for the visit. She had to be x-rayed since she had passed blood in her stool.

We are going to try calling and telling them we know he has myco (he has a lot of the symptoms) and we need the antibiotics. Do you think they will just charge us for the antibiotics or will they make us go through a full exam.

This is so unfair to him. He's not even a year old yet. We raised him from 3 weeks old. He is our little man. Our baby boy.

[frankykeno]

Jay, if you read the link I provided for you the answers are in it. We can't diagnose your rats and tell you if they are sick or not or will get sick. That's a vet's job. You've had losses across the board it seems lately and I'm at a loss to tell you anything more than I have already. Something is up in your colony and you need to start addressing it. Feeders or not, it's not fair to animals to die for no good reason.

The last time you posted about rats dying on Aug 10th I responded with this post...

If you are having die offs in various littes from various females at various ages I'd be looking at your husbandry first. It's not unusual to get crap rats from a pet store but you don't usually see problems across the board like that (it's more individual animals). Look into how you are keeping them, breeding them, feeding them, etc.

Getting "furious" because a breeding animal doesn't perform as expected is counter productive. They are living creatures, not production lines. They will do as best they can depending on their genetics, their abilities, how they are cared for, etc. It's not personal.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=72792

My thoughts haven't changed much Jay. If you have sick and dying rats, from adult breeders down to new pinks then something is going on with the husbandry choices you are making. I'd think you'd be wise to address it as quickly as possible.

If that rat is suffering either seek vet care or humanely euthanize it. It's hard but you have to make these calls for the animal's sake.

[littleindiangirl]

His breathing is labored and his eyes are very unfocused. He has taken to rolling and using the side of the "enclosure" to steady himself (laying on his side).

We can't get to a vet until tomorrow, and I'm not sure if they take in emergency cases like this very early in the morning. We are considering an emergency vet as they are open 24hours. We know they are very expensive. A vet appointment for our cat this past year cost us $300 for the visit. She had to be x-rayed since she had passed blood in her stool.

We are going to try calling and telling them we know he has myco (he has a lot of the symptoms) and we need the antibiotics. Do you think they will just charge us for the antibiotics or will they make us go through a full exam.

This is so unfair to him. He's not even a year old yet. We raised him from 3 weeks old. He is our little man. Our baby boy.

They should give him a check up. Definitely, you have really no clue what your dealing with here, or the full extent of it, that has to be considered before treating him with any medicine.

I've taken my young male rat to the vet like I've said, and he was young as well (<year old). He has never had a very strong immune system, and I retired him from breeding immediately. He had only sired a few litters, and he only does well with one other male. Any more and he stresses out and gets sick.