very smelly urine

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benzin.fox

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 14, 2008
Messages
211
Location
central coast,NSW,Australia
A couple of days ago I could smell this horrible smell coming from one of my rat cages. I have never smelt urine like this before. It made me want to vomit. It was rotten and stale smelling.I clean the cages very regularly. At the most every 3 days. The smell was coming from a group of 4 rats. Their fabric bedding smelt so bad I threw it outside on the grass to get away from it. The poor things having to put up with it in their home:( The smell was also present in my bathroom after they free ranged in there.

After cleaning the cage thoroughly the smell soon returned. I think one of them must have something going on.

In the cage is genevieve a 2years 8 months female, beckie 1.5 years female,archibald,1.5years desexed male,and vivienne approx 6 month old female.

What could this smell be? Anyone? I'm seeing the vet tonight so i'll ask her too of course. I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with this?

Thanks in advance,kristen
 
Sorry I can't help you out, to me all rat urine stinks! It will be interesting to hear what your vet thinks so please post the end result.
 
If the smell is not a normal rat urine smell and it seems to be very strong, my guess would be a urinary infection, nothing an antibiotic can't fix.
Good luck and let us know.
 
Pick up your boy and take a sniff at his penis...if the smell is worse there, he may have a penile plug, you'll have to help him remove.
If he is not source of the smell, have you given something different to eat lately? Are they getting enough water? You could give them extra lettuces like romaine and watermelon to force them to get more water in their diet. And if all that still doesn't help, it will be time to see a vet.
 
Usually when there is a *sudden* change from the norm, there is a problem. When my kitty had bad breath, it turned out she had an abscessed tooth.
I would take each rat in turn and give them a good sniff, and see if the smell is coming from just one rat. You might need to take each of them out on their own for several minutes to determine the source if they're all stinky..
 
jorats said:
Pick up your boy and take a sniff at his penis...if the smell is worse there, he may have a penile plug, you'll have to help him remove.
Click to expand...
Oh the joy of owning rats :D
 
Ok so I sniffed archibald prize's penis.no smell. the bad smell has since dissapeared. I'm wondering if it was something i had fed them? the cage just has normal rat smell when i sniff it.

I hope it doesn't return..

*sit tight this may or may not be over yet!*
 
nope, the smell is back. ive separated the rats into two cages so two in each cage and will narrow it down to which rat the smell is coming from and then the vet said she'd treat them.

meanwhile one of these rats i have just discovered having a seizure..will post a new thread..
 
That is what i am thinking because the smell is coming from where the male who had the seizure always sleeps and of course that's where he does most of his peeing.

Any ideas?

the seizure was triggered by the sound of the vacuum cleaner. he had one once before but i thought he was just running around really fast and scared of the noise so i stopped vacuuming.this time when i stopped he didn't..he was flailing in the litter tray, tight mucsles,mouth open,not responding to me, squeaking loudly. after wards he just lay on me and was very tired and didnt come out of his house all night im sure..

He's a desexed male rescue who came to me when he was around 8 months old making him about a year and a half old. no health problems so far. not even a myco flare up or a tiny wheeze!
 
Oh ya, that's like a panic attack, not a seizure. My Moose used to do exactly that and always with the vacuum cleaner. You'll need to remove him from the room when you vacuum.
 
EXCELLENT!!! Much better.

How do i tell the difference? i really thought it was a seizure -even though it looked like the panic attacks they can get from myco:(

the flailing limbs,unresponsiveness and the fact that he looked out of control made me think it was a seizure.
 
From the seizures I've seen, they don't run around. But you know, if I never had Moose and never seen it myself, I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference either. Have you checked if your boy has a penis plug? That wouldn't cause seizures or panic attacks but it would explain the smell.
 
i took a look on ratguide and followed the intructions. when the penis came out of the shealth there appeared to be a tiny plug in there, it's small and not like the pictures on ratguide. i am having trouble removing it..
 

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