How Long Till Symptoms Show !

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Caeser

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So my little girl passed away yesterday, and i have another one but since she died from respiratory infection, i was wondering how long i should wait to get another rat, and if its contagious and how long it will take to show symptoms. but as of now nothing seems to be wrong.
 
I'm sorry for your loss. :(
URIs and myco flare-ups are not contagious. These are the most common respiratory problems. The only thing that is contagious in the respiratory department are viruses, which are pretty rare, and your girl would already be infected and showing symptoms.
As long as your girl is looking and feeling fine, you can get another friend ASAP. You will want to do some kind of quarantine with your new rat. Most of us can't manage keeping a new rat in a separate airspace for 3 weeks, but you could keep the new girl in a separate room to monitor her health before exposing her to your existing girl.
 
Okay! im going to go in a couple of days to get another cage and everything! thanks for the tips thats what i figured i should do !
 
Almost every pet rat, unfortunately, is born with mycoplasmosis. It is highly contagious. It is likely your current rat has it since her cagemate died from a respiratory problem. (Very sorry for your loss.) Some rats never show signs of it even if they have mycoplasma. Some only have symptoms towards the end of their lives. Also, secondary infections can occur as a result of a rat having mycoplasma. So, if (by chance) you were to adopt a new rat that had never been exposed to respiratory disease, you could potentially introduce the illness to him or her if your current rat is a carrier.

I've recently been through a somewhat similar situation: I decided to introduce a new friend to my current rat who does have myco symptoms. (Her symptoms are very mild and have been treated with medication but they continue to return.) I asked my vet and she said she would support either decision----to introduce a new friend or to keep my rat with myco as a solo rat. Knowing how much our ratties enjoy sleeping, grooming and playing with one another I did decide to get a new friend for my rat with myco symptoms. Not an easy decision.

In your case, it sounds like your current rat doesn't have any symptoms which is great! I completely agree with Velo that it is a good idea to quarantine new rats initially. When doing so, it seems like it takes forever but it sure is worth it!

Here are a few links on respiratory disease that discuss how contagious it can be in case you're interested:
http://ratguide.com/health/bacteria/mycoplasma_mycoplasmosis.php
http://www.ratfanclub.org/resp.html
 
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