# Rat itches so badly it breaks the skin and scabs.



## finnman1 (Jan 6, 2014)

This has been going on for a while now and has gotten worse, so I thought I'd seek some help. I think the redness/scabbing is a result from her itching. I'm not really sure if its the result, or the cause.

The past few days she has been REALLY itchy. Like non-stop and whimpering. When I gave her a bath, the water irritated her very much. Below are pics of her skin when she's wet as it shows the skin more. The other rat does not help her itch very much, at least not to the point of breaking her skin, it's more of a "helpful" showing she cares type thing.

Like I said, i'm not sure if the sores are caused by itching, or if there is something going on, and the sores are from something other than itching. Like the itching is not causing the sores, maybe something like a worm is??

Any ideas, please help! She's not having a good time at the moment.


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## finnman1 (Jan 6, 2014)

It's basically everywhere on her body. Even her face. A few days ago it wasn't this bad, and idk if its something bad or just caused by itching. I don't really see any claw marks. Sometimes when itching, small patches or clumps of fur do fall out. 

I try to comfort her and pet her and it calms her for a while, but I have to go to work and sleep...


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

Ok first off i would trim her nails, this will help prevent her causing sores any more and help break the itch scratch cycle. The priority should be her back claws. Next i would treat her with an ivermetcin based spot on. I'm not sure where your based in the world but you need to make sure its a good one, or go to your vet and they will help. Next i would look for some soothing teat tree based cream and put it on any raw skin, this should help sooth it. That should help her feel better initially, hopefully illiminating mites if thats whats causing this. If in a week she doesn tlook substantially better then you need to go to your vet and get a skin scraping done. There are infections that can get into the skin, useually fungal or bacterial, and they can be very uncomfortable for the rats and get much worse than she is at the moment. A scraping and test will give you an idea of what it is and how to treat it, unfortunatly the treatments do very different things so you cant try both. If that doesnt work then it could be an allergy of some sort, in which case antihistamene cover should see improvements then you can try changin bedding and food to narrow down whats the cause. It might not be a bad idea to go to fleece or towels for bedding now in case theres a dust allergy making it worse


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

This sounds and looks a lot like mites. If you are in the US, you can get Revolution from your vet. If you get the "cat 5-15lb" or the "puppy/kitten" that is best. They are the same concentration of meds, but the cat has more in the vial. It depends on how many rats you have that you will need to treat. The puppy/kitten is enough for about 3 rats, and the cat is good for about 5 rats. You will need to treat ALL of your rats, even if your other rats aren't affected as badly yet. If they are living near or with a rat that has mites, that means that mites are all over in their whole cage and probably on the healthy rats as well, but the healthy rats just haven't shown symptoms yet. Put 2 drops DIRECTLY onto the skin, make sure the fur doesn't soak it up. The best places to put it are usually to part the fur with a little water so you see the skin, and put it on the back of the neck/shoulder blade area and wait for it to dry completely before you let her go so she doesn't groom it off before she can absorb it.

She looks like she really could use the mediciation, she is just scratching herself to pieces!  When my rats had mites, I tried other treatments for about a month with only a little bit of improvement. When I finally got Revolution and put it on my rats, they stopped scratching by the next day. It worked very qiuckly and was great. I wish I got it sooner!

Make sure you get Revolution and NOT advantage or some of the other flea medications which could be dangerous to rats. Different medicines can be toxic. But Revolution is actually really safe to use so I'm really happy with it.

Good luck, I hope she feels better soon!


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## Batman (Sep 11, 2013)

She could have a skin infection you should take her to the vet to get antibiotics 

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## finnman1 (Jan 6, 2014)

I will clip her nails immediately and also stop feeding her cheese and other treats as there may be an allergy involved. At this time, I doubt that there are mites involved as the issue has been going on for several weeks and the other rat does not itch. To be sure, I will take my portable microscope to her when she's napping and check her fur for movement.

She was whimpering so i thought maybe it's possible she has worms or something?


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## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

Either way, she should definitely go to a vet, especially if she's whimpering. That's a very bad thing.

To me, it looks like a mite infestation that has gotten completely out of control. Again, just because one rat has it and the others don't, doesn't mean that it's not mites, or that all rats shouldn't be treated.

Out of my 5 rats that all live together in the same cage, 3 had scabs. Two had only a couple around the jaw and shoulders, and one had scabs all over and was getting more and more everyday. The other 2 didn't seem to be effected much at all. Rats immune systems can fight off mites a little bit and not be as bothered by them so they won't scratch themselves into ribbons even if they have mites living and feeding off them, but they still have mites because they are all living in the same cage and usuing the same bedding and litter and are probably cuddling and touching one another frequently. It's really unavoidable and some rats are more effected by it than others, but they will all have it. Sometimes vets can't even see when they do a skin scraping (usually because they are fur mites and don't live next to the skin, more in the tips of the fur), but they are still given Revolution and the treatments cure it. One dose is usually only about $15 to treat everyone in the cage, so I think to help relieve your poor rat, it's worth just trying it as it's safe to use and won't hurt her if she doesn't need it.

It could possibly be an allergy, but to me, it looks like really typical signs of a mite infested ratty who's condition has gotten out of control and she needs treatments as soon as possible since it's been put off for so long. If you think it's worms, you can try digging around in fresh poop for signs of it. If it's pinworms you should see them in her poop. But I think it's a mite parasite rather than a worm parasite, and she's whimpering because her skin is so torn up and inflamed and irritated, it probably hurts her to move at all.


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

It looks and sounds like mites to me as well. Beware... skin scrapings and even home microscopes will not often yield accurate results. Even skin scrapings at the vet with professional microscopes can come back falsely negative.

I'd proceed with an olive oil bath, rubbing two tablespoons of olive oil into her fur, avoiding eyes and ears, and letting it on her for as long as she'll allow. This will help smother any potential parasites in her fur and help to condition and repair her skin.


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## finnman1 (Jan 6, 2014)

Well, she was only whimpering right after the water bath. While I thoroughly cleaned the tub, I believe the water was irritating some of the exposed flesh. I will try the olive oil bath now (first starting on an exposed area to test for sensitivity) and will pick up some Revolution tomorrow as a precautionary measure.

Being in a crappy mood, she's not very calm, so it was impossible to clip her nails, until.... wait for it.... Peanut butter. In order for her to not be scared of the clippers (and after fighting with her for 15 minutes) I put a bit of peanut butter on my forearm so she had something to distract her while I clipped her rear nails. She knew I was doing it, but the peanut butter was just enough lol. Not even a bat of the eyes when I clipped them.

Thanks for the advice.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

water will dry out already dry skin so make it worse, olive oil will be a lot more effective at soothing her, so will tea tree type balms, which is what i've used in the past on smaller areas or rawness. 

Revolution is essentially a brand of the invermetcin spot on i was talking about, always worth a try in these cases. I actually keep a bottle of something called harkametcin, which is a bird ivermetcin sold here in the uk. If in doubt i treat them. A rat with a run down immune system can easily secumb to mites, its commonly though that all rats have a certain level which they manage by themselve so they can get them from nowhere and they arent visible to the naked eye. Saying that the kind of rawness your describing could well be something more, but the vet will generally try ivermetcin before perscribing anything else so you may as well get it over with first in the comfort of home


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## FidoPuppy (Aug 14, 2013)

I have a tube of horse wormer (ivermectcin) that I keep in my fridge for when Fido gets scabby/itchy. I put a tiny amount on a pea and in a day his scabbies are much better and within 3 days gone. Nice to know I can use up my unused horse wormer! Its only happened once, so Im thinking that was with him when I got him.


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## finnman1 (Jan 6, 2014)

An update for anyone who has this issue with their current pet.

I took her to the vet, and they checked for mites a few different methods and there were none. They were unable to prescribe anything for the skin issue. Maybe it was cancer? She stopped whimpering after a few days and seemed to live with it okay for a few months now. Recently, she has started to itch so badly that she breaks the skin and bleeds, despite my clipping her toenails. The bumps spread to her stomach, back, head, everywhere, and she seemed quite upset at all the itching on her body. 

I let her sleep with me, gave here lots of treats, spent time with her a lot (I'm 30 years old) and all of that cheered her up. A week ago or so, she started with a sinus infection and it progressed to a lung infection of some sort where she could not breathe properly. Her breathing had become very labored and despite all of this, she still had that awesome personality. A true fighter.

I made the decision to not allow her to suffer any longer and had to put her down tonight. I figure quality of life over quantity of life, and she basically had the apartment to herself, instead of a tiny cage. I cried, but she won't have to suffer any longer. It was quick and painless.

If you do experience this with your rat, please, understand that antibiotics or something needs to be done, because this will NOT go away on its own.


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

Checks for mites at the vet are pretty much useless. Even tests that work on other animals often come back as false negatives with rat mites. It just isn't satisfactory.

I am so sorry for your loss. I truly hope that there was something else at play here and that it wasn't just a simple case of your vet failing to treat something extremely common that can be safely treated even if it doesn't end up to have been needed.


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