Pet rat kills California boy; family sues Petco

[Bluebonnet Herp]

http://www.mercurynews.com/pets-anim...ily-sues-petco

Boy, and they thought the canadian rock python was the big cheese...

[JMoriarty]

Okay, that's really sad. I can't imagine being his parents, or his grandmother. My heart goes out to the family.

[Wapadi]

So does this mean there is a test we can do on our collection of rats to see if they are infected? Guess I will be calling a vet tomorrow...

[satomi325]

I'm sorry the child died. It's an unfortunate tragedy.


But am I the only one bothered that the grandmother bought a male to 'marry' the female rat??
This article also said this child had the rat for over a year(May 2012-June 2013). I'm not a fan of Petco, but how does the family know if the rat contracted the infection in their care or not?
And by that time shouldn't the male and female breed and have pups? And wouldn't the female and offspring be infected as well?


The article also states that rat bite fever is rarely fatal, so I'm wondering if the child also had an underlying illness or immunodeficiency?
Seems really unclear..

[Archimedes]

there are a LOT of holes in this story. sounds like dirty money to me.

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[OsirisRa32]

So does this mean there is a test we can do on our collection of rats to see if they are infected? Guess I will be calling a vet tomorrow...

As rats are one of the host species or natural reservoirs of the disease....yes you can do blood tests on rats but it is cost prohibitive and rats are typically viewed as asymptomatic carriers of the disease.

I would be just as worried over pet cats and rabbits for the common domesticated mammal species that brings diseases into our homes.

[OsirisRa32]

I'm sorry the child died. It's an unfortunate tragedy.


But am I the only one bothered that the grandmother bought a male to 'marry' the female rat??
This article also said this child had the rat for over a year(May 2012-June 2013). I'm not a fan of Petco, but how does the family know if the rat contracted the infection in their care or not?
And by that time shouldn't the male and female breed and have pups? And wouldn't the female and offspring be infected as well?


The article also states that rat bite fever is rarely fatal, so I'm wondering if the child also had an underlying illness or immunodeficiency?
Seems really unclear..

I think its interesting that if that rat was in their care for so long with nothing happening...I am sorry but as someone who studies infectious diseases for a living...rat bite fever is not immediately fatal...and this falls on the parents who in my opinion have no grounds to sue as rat bite fever would cause symptoms in a child...Personally if any animal ever bit my children they would be seeing a doctor regardless of the existence of symptoms or not...

[Mephibosheth1]

Exactly…the CDC page on Rat Bite Fever says it's very rare to see a fatal case, and that usually there are preexisting conditions. It also said that the fever usually is around 103-104….when I got fevers that high it was a trip to the doctor when I was young. That's bordering on dangerous temps for a human, so I don't see why the family didn't go to the doctor sooner, or at least give the kid an antipyretic.

And if we really studied the number of possibly fatal diseases that live on our skin, on our vegetables, and on our cats and dogs (E coli or Chlamydia anyone??) we would be living on the moon to avoid them all. I think it's overzealous for the family to sue PetCo for this…do we even know if the bacteria that causes this is "contracted" by the rats, or is it a member of their natural flora??

Oh, and OsirisRa, what field are you in that you study Infectious Diseases??

[Pythonfriend]

i think its a very rare freak occurence.

i couldnt find out much about the bacteria or the disease, except that its commonly found in rhodents, can be transmitted also via other animals that feed on rhodents, and that it responds well to antibiotics, and that complications are rare. and that death is extremely rare. basically when you get the fever, antibiotics solve the problem.

compare that to a real killer like tetanus, which can be found almost everywhere in nature, can be contracted with basically any unclean small wound, and when people actually get the disease its often rapidly deadly. i mean, wikipedia says: "Mortality rates reported vary from 48% to 73%. In recent years,^[when?] approximately 11% of reported tetanus cases have been fatal. The highest mortality rates are in unvaccinated people, people over 60 years of age or newborns". thats what i call a killer, and its so common on grass or hay that the crap of incompletely digesting herbivores like horses or rabbits typically contains it.

by comparison, this rat bite fever really seems rather rare, exotic, and even if the disease manifests, rather harmless and easy to adress. it wont make my list of things to worry about. not with other pathogens around that are much more common, much more deadly, and much harder to treat. what happened there seems like a really a rare and tragic accident, like getting struck by a lightning.

[JMoriarty]

I don't disagree with you at all about the story being strange. I do agree it's weird to get a new rat so they can "marry." I don't think they were thinking about the repercussions of having the rats together. I must have missed the part where the family had the rat for over a year.