# Red staining on the back of their necks..?



## sonicboom (Sep 3, 2011)

I have four female rats (about 4 to 5 months+ old), and two of them (the white and the Siamese ones - my lighter coloured rats) seem to have red staining on the back of their necks. My Siamese also has a small scab above her shoulder, that doesn't seem related.

One of my rats, that has been treated for a URI before has got similar symptoms as before, and I'm observing her before I put her on antibiotics again as the symptoms are slight.

I'm wondering if the staining could be due to that red stuff relating to mycoplasma that rats get and it's transferred across from my sick rat to the necks of the others while being groomed?

Or could it be something else? The skin surrounding the areas (apart from that one scab I mentioned before) seems to be fine. My Russian Blue's fur is quite dark, but does not seem to have that staining like the light coloured rats.


----------



## sonicboom (Sep 3, 2011)

I've looked closer at the staining, and it is only on the tips of the fur, so I doubt it's from the skin. My sick rat does have very slight crusty eyes and sounds a little congested, and I have some antibiotics I can put her on if she doesn't seem to be getting better within the next 24 hrs or so. She's still as lively as anything, and I want to avoid putting her on antibiotics every time she is going to have a slight infection, as I don't want her to become resistant to them; she might end up being one of those rats that's get's ill a lot. Is that the right thing to do? Just now while I'm typing this I can here her and her congestion, which only seems to be there in the evenings (which is characteristic), so if she's the same tomorrow then I'll put her on them


----------



## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

It's porphyrin. Their grooming pattern (cephalocaudal grooming) is nose, to face, to behind the ears, so any porphyrin that has drained out of their nose will get smeared on the back of their necks. You aren't seeing the porphyrin on their faces because they have already "cleaned" it all.  They usually clean it off after they wake up from sleep.










If she relapsed you probably need to try different antibiotics or a different combo... or at least for a longer duration.

If they are all staining like that you might want to look into possible irritants like your bedding, anything like other pet dander, carpet shampoos, cigarette smoke, etc. a little staining every once in a while is OK but if it's always there or really dark something is wrong.


----------



## christinelovesyou (Jan 7, 2012)

I was wondering the same thing about my Siamese! Thank you!


----------



## sonicboom (Sep 3, 2011)

Thanks. I'm moving house tomorrow, to somewhere that should be a better environment for them. I'll see about taking her to the vets again next week if she's still unwell.My bedding is Bio-Catolet and BioXcel. Do you think that the individual staining is therefore not coming from just the sick rat, but each of them?


----------



## Soya (Dec 6, 2011)

I also read somewere that ratties saliver is pink, & so can lead to staining on paler rooties. My smeeze girls get this too & I figured that was why? (My girls staining is a pale peachy pink colour rarther than red)


----------



## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

Porphyrin is basically the rat equivalent of our mucous/snot. It is produced behind the eye and drains into their noses. Small quantities of it are OK. A little bit around their noses or a light stain on the back of their neck every once in a while is normal. But excess around their nose and eyes, or dark orangey red stains could mean they are ill or stressed. 

I've never used those litters so I can't say for sure.


----------



## Maltey (Jun 26, 2011)

I use Bio-Catolet. Well at the moment it's just in their litter trays since I use fleece, but I used to use it on the whole cage and I've never found any problems with it. I've not used the other one, but I would suggest it's not Bio-Catolet anyway.


----------



## HoneyRose (Sep 7, 2011)

My Siamese has the same thing too, but is in perfect health...I figured it was from grooming


----------

