lilspaz68
Well-Known Member
You definitely need to handle your sickies. You need to hold them, feeling their body condition, and listen to their lungs, to ensure they are the same or improving. Keep records on all your rats. Dealing with a virus is stressful and exhausting and records can help.
On how fast it will go through your colony depends on your setup. Are all your rats in one room? Is it a smaller room or a large room and some cages are far apart?
How many rats are showing symptoms, even just sneezing? How long has it been now since the initial patient zero(s) came into your home?
I actually managed to keep 2 rooms of rats safe...very hard to do. The sickies were in the livingroom. I would come home from work, change to different clothes I had carefully put aside, grab medications, anything I needed right away. I'd go into the other room, medicate, check everyone, top up food and waters, and leave as soon as possible. Then I could deal with my sickies after. I was lucky and it didn't spread.
As for testing. Get all the info for your vet, order the test kits, and let them do the blood. Make sure it's a rat that's at least 3 weeks post-exposure and you might want to test several rats. Check what each panel tests for, you want to make sure to get SDA, Sendai, CARB at least.
On how fast it will go through your colony depends on your setup. Are all your rats in one room? Is it a smaller room or a large room and some cages are far apart?
How many rats are showing symptoms, even just sneezing? How long has it been now since the initial patient zero(s) came into your home?
I actually managed to keep 2 rooms of rats safe...very hard to do. The sickies were in the livingroom. I would come home from work, change to different clothes I had carefully put aside, grab medications, anything I needed right away. I'd go into the other room, medicate, check everyone, top up food and waters, and leave as soon as possible. Then I could deal with my sickies after. I was lucky and it didn't spread.
As for testing. Get all the info for your vet, order the test kits, and let them do the blood. Make sure it's a rat that's at least 3 weeks post-exposure and you might want to test several rats. Check what each panel tests for, you want to make sure to get SDA, Sendai, CARB at least.