Help! Advice on sick baby and adopting more...

[JenD]

Hi everyone - I'm totally new here and new to the rattie world (trying to post a general message to the group, but not sure how). I really need some advice. A few weeks ago, we adopted two male babies who are now 9.5 weeks old. We got them from a breeder who was listed on the AFRMA site and she was very nice, but very young. She had several litters going at once. When we picked up our boys, one of them was sneezing and that night, made some scary sounding noises. I eventually took him to the vet and he checked out ok, but the next night, he was grunting so I captured it on video and emailed it to the vet. He and his brother are now on baytril.

Meanwhile, we are supposed to adopt two more babies from this breeder, but I don't have another large cage to house two more males in for a long period of time. Does anyone know how long it takes to get rid of an infection? Even though he's on antibiotics, is he still contagious? I think it is tied into mycoplasma (?) somehow as the vet mentioned some rats have to remain on a low dosage of antibiotics their whole lives. Does that mean he will always be contagious? Will he always need his own cage with his brother? I just want to do right by our babies and I am disappointed that one of them came to us sick because it will complicate adding to the colony. Will the new babies be sick, too?

I'm torn as to whether or not I should cancel the adoption until the boys get better or tough it out on a long quarantine. Any advice would be appreciated...Thanks in advance

 

[SQ]

All rats have myco and it flares up from time to time depending upon the rat and its immune system. Even if it doesn't flare up, it will gradually cause long term damage to the rats organs. There are many different strains of myco. and myco is contagious, nothing you can do about it.

I don't think much of your "breeder", sending you home with a sick baby. Sometimes the stress of a move can cause a myco flare up or new home sniffles, but that isn't the case here. Hopefully the baytril will soon have the boys feeling better, if not there are various combos of antibiotics you can try. Your boys will need to be treated with antibiotics for at least 6 weeks.

Although you are getting rats from the same source, it is always a good idea to quarantine new rats for a couple of weeks before doing gradual intros. Since your boys are 9.5 weeks old, unless the other boys are introduced to them very soon, you will need to do gradual introductions and will need to have a separate cage for them until the intros have been completed. Babies can be easily introed to other babies as they view new rats as playmates. Older rats need to go through gradual intros. Rats are considered to be babies until 3 months of age.

As for getting new babies from this "breeder", you might want to wait until your boys are feeling better before introducing new rats as it will cause some stress.

myco.:
http://www.rmca.org/Articles/myco.htm
http://www.rmca.org/Articles/respir.htm
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Conten ... C=0&A=1437

 

[jorats]

Welcome Jen!!! It's good to see you here.

Jen and I have been communicating via email for some time now. I've given her my thoughts on the whole issue...
The breeder definitely needs to become better and learn more before producing more sick babies and it's unfortunate that it's the rats and their new owners that will pay for her mistakes.
I also believe her boys will overcome this illness with the proper meds and proper care.

 

[JenD]

Thank you both for resonding :joy: We decided not to adopt any more at this time until our babies are fully healthy again & I feel really good about that. While I want to open our home and hearts to more of these adorable guys, we made a committment to our boys and their health and recovery needs to come first - and I also wouldn't want to expose any other ratties to this...so thank you both. It made me very happy to hear that they should both recover without the need to be on baytril for life. If we end up adopting more in the future, you bet I'll be posting for support on proper introductions. After reading a bit about it, I am amazed and totally respect those who have opened their hearts and homes to difficult situations and worked at it lovingly and patiently to make it happen. :bow:

And yes, the breeder could and should have handled this differently. I told Jo that she is only 18 (breeding rats for a year) and had litters of rats, mice and bunnies. While I think she was well intended, she was in way over her head. She is a member of AFRMA - so I learned, like Jo said, not to just go by that - investigation, word of mouth, and common sense now - so many red flags, but as a first timer, I had no idea.

This board is great! I'm so happy to be a part of it and excited to learn from all you rat savvy animal lovers! Thanks again!

 

[Dahlas]

Hi Jen
Hope your little boys are doing great soon......they sound like they have found a wonderful home. Looking forward to seeing pictures.

 

[JenD]

Thank you Dahlas! Your little one is quite a cutie I have to figure out how to download a picture of the boys. Chaulky is doing much better, thanks for asking, but our Wodent Wheel arrived yesterday and I put it in their cage and they were t-e-r-r-i-f-i-e-d of it! It moved, it's huge, it's dark and scary? I don't know - I thought they'd love it, but they didn't. I left it in the bottom level for the night, hoping they'd come to it on their own, but in the morning, all their poops were in the upper levels and the litterbox they are used to using on the bottom floor was clean...drat! So I took it out, but I think it stressed Chaukly a bit. He might have had a mild sneeze today and his body was jerking like a hiccup, though he made no sound. I'm off to post about that - do you know what that means?

Sigh...my poor babies...there's so much to learn about with rats! They're amazing little ones

 

[jorats]

As for the wheel, why not put a few sunflower seeds inside, that might make them want to check it out.

 

[JenD]

Good idea, Jo. Should I do that in their playing area (usually the bathtub or a small pet pool we bought for them - no water, obviously!)...but maybe have it there rather than in their cage so Chaulky's stress level is lower as he fights this infection???

I thought they'd be so excited by this huge wheel. Hope they take to it so they can stay fit!

Oh and I have a picture to send to you of the boys eating their bananas! The rats DO love bananas and my twin girls say it in the same tone that you do when they feed them - it's really cute "Bananas! Who wants Bananas?!?" Hee hee!

 

[jorats]

lol!! too funny with the bananas.

You can definitely start off with the wheel in the play area first. :nod:

 

[Catibrie]

Hi Jen welcome to the forum! There are a great bunch of folks here who really know their rat stuff, I've learned LOTS from them - I am sure you will too.
Glad to hear you are loving having the boys.