# 3 rats dead within 2 weeks :(



## weldon79 (Sep 26, 2006)

Hi, ive never been on this before but i had four rats last month, and now i have one. The first rat was a female and one day she looked really weak, and was barely moving, the next morning i found her dead. Today i came home from work and i found the other female was dead, and one of the males was dead. I checked on them the night before and they were perfectly fine. On the males neck i noticed a patch of hair missing and a few little red dots. All the rats were under a year old. 

I was wondering if anyone knew what this was and if they could help me so my last rat doesn't die as well. I'm thinking it was a disease the first one had, and spread it to the other two. If you know of this disease or ways to prevent please tell me. Thankyou


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## lilnuttbutt (Sep 28, 2006)

First you may want to make sure your cage is completely clean and steril, and give your rat a bath, if something was transmitted, it may still exsist. If you got them all at the same place, alot of pet stores don't take care of rats well and they can contract diseases, and breathing problems. You may consider not going back to your pet store, and maybe calling a vet or SPCA to see if they can give you any advice.


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## ratwings (Sep 3, 2006)

Yikes. I hope you find the cause of this outbreak! Keep a close eye on your remaining rat also.


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## pinnacle (May 24, 2006)

I hope you find out because that is so sad. My worst rat death caused from was from respiratory disease. There were all kinds of weird signs found on him so it might just be. I'm not completely sure though.


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## LiamHasRats (Aug 11, 2007)

Thats so sad i would just die if any of my rats just died like that


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

I would take the remaining rat to the vet. Does that rat have red spots on it's skin as well? Not sure but that sounds like mites to me but mites won't kill a rat. Mites do come out more when a rat is ill however.

But yeah, take them to the vet and see what they say. I wouldn't bring any more rats in the house until that rat is seen by a vet and given a test to see if they are carrying anything dangerous. It sounds like SDA or some other very serious rat disease ): If that's the case, the remaining rat needs antibiotics or it too may die quickly and without much warning ):

Sorry about your loss.


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## JESSU (Aug 8, 2007)

Did the water bottle stop working? 
I was playing with my ratty and I felt that he was thirsty so I got a bottle of water and filled the cap for him. He was really thirsty. Here his water bottle was twisted to tight and didn't drip right. I felt so bad.


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## Night (Feb 23, 2007)

Have you brought home any new rats recently without properly quarantining them at another home for 3 weeks?


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## Figment (Aug 8, 2007)

Have they been sneezing or breathing weird?

Dragon had a respiratory problem and she lost 90grams over a period of 4 days and started acting really lethargic...

We got her on the meds and she went back up by 100grams and was back to herself...


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

The original post is just shy of a year old...


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