Obsession with cleaning bum

[DarkBlade]

Hey ya!

If I scratch or pat Blueberry's bum, he will go nuts and try desperately to reach to clean it. Sad news for my poor manrat is that he's not flexible at all so he can't reach so I clean it from time to time. I thought he maybe had fleas or something at first cuz only around the bottom of his back does he have what seems to be little white spots sticking to his fur. I treated him with Ivec multiples times and it didn't change anything. He's neutered since november so he doesn't have orange oil on him.

Enyways, was just wondering what he could have. I checked his skin and there's no scab or anything alarming about it.

 

[jorats]

Some rats are just like that, they don't like to have their romp touched. How old is Blueberry?
Touching the romp can be a dominance move or can cause excitement.

 

[DarkBlade]

He's just around a year old. I got him last summer while he was a little blue thing. =3

 

[jorats]

He's at that age. I've had a few who did that a lot too.

 

[lilspaz68]

At a year old he should still be flexible enough to groom his butt. Try a gentle scratch and see if he's itchy, but if he gets feisty just leave him be, and he's possibly hormonal.

 

[MomRat]

Little white flecks but no mites/lice sounds like dry skin to me, if not the hormonal stuff. =) Try adding a little olive oil to his diet every couple of days? See if he will lick it off your finger, or you can put it on a small piece of bread.

 

[sarunia]

My rats have their obsessive parts (for Little Rat it's his balls). I always figured it was a part of their personality (like people who play with their hair or bite their nails. Sometimes Slava gets a bit off when I touch his rump, so I've stopped. I think that there might be a reflex of some sort (I had a cat like this when I was young).

 

[DarkBlade]

Thanks for all your replies. =) I was beginning to get a little worried. But I tend to be obsessed when one of my rats passed away recently. I'll try the olive oil see if that works. Else, I'll just leave him be.

 

[DarkBlade]

If the olive oil isn't working.... He does have little red spots pretty much all over his back now and there's some orangey spots... plus the flakes glued to his fur... Does that look like a surface pyoderma? He's getting rather cranky when we touch his back and bum now. But, besides scratching and going nuts when we touch too much, he doesn't show any signs of discomfort.

If it's pyoderma... How long can you leave that be cuz he had this flakey problem for such a long time, months. I tried treating him a couple times with Ivec and wait to see if it would go away. A very important note too : his cagemates aren't having any of these problems so I guess that really disqualifies mites ect...