I lost the shy little girl that I got from PetCo today. I posted about her and trying to calm her down b/c she was so shy. Since I didn't ever really see her, it took me too long to catch the problem.

The few times I would see her, she would be scared stiff, and breathing really hard, which I figured was b/c she was so scared. It wasn't until just the other day that I realized that the other girl I had wasn't doing that, even when she did get scared (she's much more sociable than they shy one). I knew it was most likely an RI, b/c she was having such a hard time breathing, and I had seen her sneeze before. I went back to PetCo *bleh* to get some stuff to put in their water, but the people there told me to not do that, to just bring her in since I haven't had her for very long, and she's been acting like that since I got her. Well, I guess the combination of the heat from the short ride to the store and her getting all freak out about being moved was just too much for her.

Mostly I wanted to ask if there was anything that I needed to do for the other girl (Layla) that was in the cage with her. I know RIs can be contagious, and I'm putting in new bedding and cleaning the cage, but is there anything else I can do to either head of and early RI with Layla if she caught it, or keep her from getting on??

And I'm not buying anything from PetCo at all anymore. I haven't ever liked them, and today they were nice enough, but they didn't have any more rats. I know that they get their shipments on Tuesday (today) and when I ask he said that they had to reject all but the one huge male that they had b/c all of them had come in with RIs! Lucky I just found a little pet store that I didn't know about....it's a touch iffy, but still better than PetCo!