Pogo's Serology Results - CAR B

[violet976]

Pogo's serology results are in. I had him tested after fighting what seemed like very resistant respiratory issues all year: The rats had many congested breathing attacks, and one mouse shared wet sneezing with them as well. Both mice arrived with lots of sneezing, and Pogo arrived with the horrible grunting/stuffiness he has to this day, but the lack of response to a variety of antibiotics had me suspicious of what I was fighting here so we tested Pogo - the worst of the bunch.

I'm not overly familiar with many of the viruses, so advice is appreciated. Is there anything here that I should be highly concerned about, or that would prevent me from wanting to bring more rats/mice into my current groups? I was hoping to bring my new rat Templeton in from quarantine, but is the CAR B going to change that plan? We've are currently treating with a long, heavy course of Doxy & Cerenia, but I was told we'll move them onto a sulfa antibiotic if their breathing declines again.

I'm told CAR B is bad news, but what does it normally mean for taking in new rats? Is this something where most would let their entire group die out first, or do you keep bringing in new rats anyway? I'm completely unfamiliar with this.

Hopefully these links work. Let me know if the results are big enough to be read easily:
Page 1
https://www.flickr.com/photos/scarletnotion/15896626719/

 

[dspch911]

Maybe this will help you since I don't know anything about Car B, but after reading this I would say you should not bring any new rats/mice into your house. Hope you can keep the symptoms under control and your rattie feeling better.

http://ratguide.com/health/bacteria/car_bacillus.php

 

[Joanne]

CAR bacillus is very contageous so any new rat you bring in to the colony will get it. All of your rats will have been exposed by now. It seems to be like Myco in that sometimes the infection is subclinical and the rat is OK, and sometimes it flares up.
Here's a link: (There are several papers but they didn't seem to discuss treatment, so back to the Rat Guide!)
http://ratguide.com/health/bacteria/car_bacillus.php

 

[violet976]

Can I ask how many on this forum have dealt with a positive diagnosis of CAR B, and if so, did they opt to let their groups die out or did they keep intaking? I wish I knew how common this bacteria really was, and the likelihood that I would allow my groups to die off only to bring it in again shortly with a future intake.

At the moment, I suspect that Pogo and Bean are affected intermittently by it, and possibly Mari (mouse) too but he's always been slightly sneezy since he came home in April. All three are finally on an upturn again now that we resumed doxy and cerenia. My vet was torn on the idea of allowing my colony to die off as well, as she stated any rat I brought in after that could bring it right back in.

I suppose I'm looking mainly for advice from those who have had to make this decision with CAR B, and what they decided to do.

 

[jorats]

I'll post here too in case others would like to know.
I had CAR B in my colony, a few years ago. At the time I was devastated and made the decision to allow my colony to die out. As time went on, I didn't really notice much of a difference in my rats. Some required meds long term or for life but that wasn't new to me. I then had a long discussion with my vet and she believed I shouldn't allow my rats to die out. She told me that car b was very common now and the chances of avoiding it always is pretty much impossible. She also told me that it shouldn't stop me from rescuing.
For optimum safety and health of your pets, one should adopt from one place only and allow those rats to live out their life in their home without ever bringing new rats. But if you rescue rats in need... then the need far outweighs the disease and possible symptoms. Not all car b rats become sick. And not all rats will contract it either.

 

[violet976]

Thank you Jorats. I'm honestly glad to see others chime in publicly, because so little is actually said in the forums about this and I think it's good for people to see both sides of their options.

For me personally, after speaking with my vet and a few members privately, I've opted to continue taking in rats/mice despite this diagnosis. My vet feels very much as Jorat's vet does, that CAR B is much more common than people believe and it's simply hard to put that to fact because so few people have the means to test for it. My vet also feels the likelihood of bringing in another rat with CAR B after allowing my current group to die out is quite high, and then I'd simply be back where I started. I certainly don't have the money to test every rat I bring in (and my numbers are small - 3 rats and 4 mice at any given time), so I'd never know with certainty that I was CAR B free. I could have had this for years now and not known until just a few days ago, and still most of my rats have hit the 2+ year mark and died from a variety of unrelated causes as well.

I too feel I would rather err on the side of saving those I can and only letting my group die off if things began getting bad enough medically to warrant it. While I've definitely been seeing the vet more and may be facing lifetime antibiotics for a some of my kiddos, the problems are intermittent and enough of my kiddos are healthy enough for me to hold off on anything that extreme.