Expert: Sandra Todd - 10/29/2009

Question
QUESTION: I bought two fancy rats from a pet shop that were fine for about two weeks. One was leaving with my room mate because he was moving in with his girlfriend and his rat lived with my two. So we got these babies, so my roomie could have a partner for his rat to take to his new home. I bought the other one just because I wanted to. They both came home and took to the other rats quickly. The two (the adult and the baby) moved to their new home about a week ago. Yesterday both the babies got sick at the same time LITERALLY. One died within a few hours, the other about 24 hours later, from SDA. They had been with the healthy rats this whole time so we took the healthy rats in today and they got shots of Baytril. Im terrified Im going to lose them all! Im going to get more meds tomorrow, even though they arent showing any serious signs of illness. One is kinda sneezing alittle but thats it. What are the chances that they have this disease, and do I have any chance of saving them? PLEASE HELP!!

ANSWER: How do you know the rat had SDA?  SDA is not usually fatal like that, not that fast. What signs of illness did the rat have?  ALso, SDA is a virus, which means baytril will do nothing for it.

I do not think the babies had SDA to be honest but if they did, chances your other rats will get it are high.  The vet must test the rats 3 weeks after they are sick to determine if they have the virus and since they died, the vet should have done a necropsy to find out cause of death.  

To avoid SDA, rat owners should always do a 3 week quarantine in a separate disease.


http://www.sandyscrittercity.com/thequarantinepage.htm

Sounds more like the babies had something congenital. I am very sorry for your loss.

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QUESTION: The rats were fine one minute, then the next they became lethargic and dehydrated. Now one of my other rats is actually showing signs of the illness as well. The vet has them on Gentocin and amox drops. My vet talked to a rqat expert at Texas A&M and he called me and told me he had to put the rats on a diff antibiotic that I have to go get from the pharmacy tomorrow. I wish I would have known to quarantine the new babies, but I had never read or thought of it before. Im afraid Im going to lose them all no matter what I do. My vet is not a rat expert, so he has been talking to other ppl that are and gets different answers. Im so frustrated I feel like I just have to sit here and watch my rats die. We believe it is a secondary infection.

ANSWER: Sounds like strep pneumoniae, which is very contagious.  It has nothing to do with strep throat, so dont get confused.  The medication the rats are on is a great drug, and I would have suggested using gentocin as well.  Amoxil will also help if it is indeed secondary infection which I also agree.  Just hang in there and keep me posted.  Your doing all you can right now.

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QUESTION: Ok so we have the babies on amox and Gentocin. Another rat expert suggested switching them to Doxy, and two others instead of the amox. They seem to be doing MUCH better just on the other two. I know they dont attack the mycoplasm, but they seem to be responding so well to just the amox and Gentocin I thought I should just stick to that for now. They are just sneezing a bit when they get excited. What do you think, should I switch? And how long should I have them on the meds, I read that some vets dont give them to the rats long enough and the infection comes back.

Answer

No dont switch.

Just because the rat has respiratory illness doesnt mean its always related to mycoplasmosis.

I still feel its strep related and the two meds being used now are the best that can be used.  

Doxy is not the strongest drug around so I would not change a thing if they are responding.