Hello,

I was attempting to a get a rat colony going. I had 12 females and 4 males. I purchased all but one female from a local pet store and the males I got from a friend/breeder. This one female that my friend suggested I get from her local petstore apparently had a RI. My friend said she thought is was just because she was housed on dusty bedding that she was a little wheezy, so her being the one more experienced with rats I listened and bought the rat. She was actually the first one I bought. I picked up the rest within two weeks. Now one month later they all are sneezing a lot. The female that was sick dropped dead last night. Nothing else appeared wrong, just the RI.

So, I'm now wondering should I cull everyone and start over? So upset since I was able to start breeding one group and the others would be soon to follow. How contagious is this? Should I disinfect everything prior to bringing in a new colony (next time I will just go and take the drive to a feeder breeder and get them all at the same time). Or should I try to medicate everyone? I have them on tetracycline in their water (been about 5 days), I'm attached to a few of these guys but I don't want to risk infecting new stock so if I cull I assume I need to cull them all.

Thanks for any advice/help you can offer.
Nicole