# Boy dies from rat bite fever



## monster_paws (Jan 17, 2013)

Anyone hear about this? 

http://www.coloradonewsday.com/nati...-from-pet-rodent-they-purchased-at-petco.html
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/24820847/child-dies-from-infected-rat-family-sues-petco
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlin...-after-calif-boy-10-dies-from-rat-bite-fever/

What a tragedy. Shame on Petco and also the grandmother (an adult!) who allowed a 10-year-old to have his rats "get married" and have tons of babies.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Doesn't seem like petcos fault. The free info pamphlets they should've gotten ("for their science project") warns about this and proper care measures. Not only are you asked to take one, they are standing beside the cages. I am not sure I expect pet stores, especially feeder stores, to blood test their rats - if you want quality and safety, why are you at a pet store?. 

Stupid grandmother. I bet this family is going to get rich for being ignorant, and rats will get a worse name.


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## Daize (Jun 8, 2013)

It's sad that a child died. It's even more sad the cause was a pet rat that he loved. The Grandmother was simply trying to do what she thought would make her grand son happy. A child is dead. Pointing fingers and placing blame won't change that. 

Although it's rare, it seems that pet rats can carry diseases that can prove to be fatal to their owners. Fortunately, it doesn't happen that often. Hopefully, it won't happen again.


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## monster_paws (Jan 17, 2013)

As an adult, the grandmother should have known that it is NOT okay to get a child a pet so that they could "get married" and have babies every month. Wow, so cute to have itty bitty babies. And then what? The rats will have a litter every few weeks and then the babies will have babies and pretty soon they will be overrun with rats. Here comes the CL ads "FREE RATS! Take one or twenty. For pets, but if you feed them to a snake that's okay too." Yes, the circumstances are very sad but the irresponsibility and ignorance are appalling. What could she have been thinking? "I'm going to make my grandson happy and indulge in his childish whimsy. They can deal with babies later." It's not rocket science that rodents mate like crazy. There's even a stigma about rats multiplying like crazy and she somehow thought it was absolutely okay. I'm not angry that they bought a diseased rat, this obviously wasn't their fault. I'm shocked at the level of irresponsibility of a fully grown adult who thought it would be so cute to make her grandson happy. 

I've bought rats from Petco before. The guy gave me a box and stood back in the corner and said, "You do it, i'm scared to touch them." They let me get a single rat and a hamster cage and sent me on my way. I didn't even know they had pamphlets. Of course after I did my own research, I had to do a cage upgrade and get a buddy. Rats already have a bad rep. My dad actually called me today and gleefully announced that someone had died from rat bite fever and linked me to the article, "I told you so!"


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## Daize (Jun 8, 2013)

monster_paws said:


> As an adult, the grandmother should have known that it is NOT okay to get a child a pet so that they could "get married" and have babies every month. Wow, so cute to have itty bitty babies. And then what? The rats will have a litter every few weeks and then the babies will have babies and pretty soon they will be overrun with rats. Here comes the CL ads "FREE RATS! Take one or twenty. For pets, but if you feed them to a snake that's okay too." Yes, the circumstances are very sad but the irresponsibility and ignorance are appalling. What could she have been thinking? "I'm going to make my grandson happy and indulge in his childish whimsy. They can deal with babies later." It's not rocket science that rodents mate like crazy. There's even a stigma about rats multiplying like crazy and she somehow thought it was absolutely okay. I'm not angry that they bought a diseased rat, this obviously wasn't their fault. I'm shocked at the level of irresponsibility of a fully grown adult who thought it would be so cute to make her grandson happy.
> 
> I've bought rats from Petco before. The guy gave me a box and stood back in the corner and said, "You do it, i'm scared to touch them." They let me get a single rat and a hamster cage and sent me on my way. I didn't even know they had pamphlets. Of course after I did my own research, I had to do a cage upgrade and get a buddy. Rats already have a bad rep. My dad actually called me today and gleefully announced that someone had died from rat bite fever and linked me to the article, "I told you so!"


It's amazing you're "assuming" the plan was to have litter after litter. It could be, like so many people on this forum, there would have been only "1 litter". Then they might have kept one of each sex so each of the adult rats would have a "same sex" cagemate. They might even had had them spayed/neutered after they had a litter. They might have changed their mind and not breed them at all. People are getting all upset about "what might have happened" more than "what DID happen"......

So many assumptions about "what might have happened", but nobody will ever know what "actually would have happened"......


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## littleknitwit (Feb 9, 2014)

Is it uncommon for pet rats to carry this disease? Makes me nervous because we just got two from PetSmart. Do they check or treat rats preventively? I have scratches up and down my arms from my skittish PetSmart rat. I understand that this disease is quite treatable if caught early enough, so I am glad I am aware of this.


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## Patches (Dec 22, 2013)

It is very sad that something like this happened, I feel for his family. Rats are going to be getting a bad reputation now definitely. I have gotten several calls from different family members today telling me how I need to get rid of my boys and how I should have done more research. My mom told me that the news is saying that you must handle pet rats with gloves and wash hands regularly after handling them. This is very frustrating especially since my family is saying they refuse to watch my rats when I go on vacation unless I get them tested now.


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## Maddie (Jan 13, 2014)

It's upsetting to hear this has happened especially for the family. I don't agree with getting rats and breeding them for a ten year old just to do it, but it's also not the issue at hand. Although the article already has people pointing diners and laying lawsuits, so it's no surprise members here would be upset. When the article questions responsibility at the bottom.I don't think it's anyone's fault really. There are things that could have been done yes but they weren't. I only hope people learn from it maybe with chain Petstores having a higher standard of pets being a bit more healthy. Hopefully people will also realize the importance of having new pets checked out by a vet for health. Big or small I've always been an avid believer in regular vet check ups and bloodwork ect being done.It is very unfortunate though as I'm sure this will just add to the opinions people have of rats. It's a shame since obviously other animals have the ability to harm people as well.


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## Hey-Fay (Jul 8, 2013)

I have to side with Daize. It is absolutely horrific and heartbreaking that a child died. From the photos on the link it looked like the boy loved his rat tremendously and more than likely had its best interest in mind. Please don't assume what the boy was or was not going to do. And don't be so cold towards his death and his grandmother. It was horrible that he died but he did not deserve it! That boy took great care of his rat and you have no clue what he would done later on. The internet had made us desensitized to tragedies. A child died, people! Where is your sense of compassion?


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## Ergala (Jan 23, 2014)

I had people posting this on my wall as well. My friends are pet store owners and I was in there today buying bedding and we were discussing this. I'm sorry but rats are not the only animal that can make you sick. Hamsters and turtles can give you salmonella or e coli, cats can give you cat scratch fever and their feces can give you toxoplasmosis. People are mauled by dogs, **** two children were killed by their neighbors pet snake that escaped! The truth they are animals as are we. What on earth do people expect? The truth is that this was a freak accident. The disease was highly treatable with an easy to get antibiotic. Why he wasn't treated sooner or became that ill so fast we may never know.


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## Hey-Fay (Jul 8, 2013)

Ergala said:


> I had people posting this on my wall as well. My friends are pet store owners and I was in there today buying bedding and we were discussing this. I'm sorry but rats are not the only animal that can make you sick. Hamsters and turtles can give you salmonella or e coli, cats can give you cat scratch fever and their feces can give you toxoplasmosis. People are mauled by dogs, **** two children were killed by their neighbors pet snake that escaped! The truth they are animals as are we. What on earth do people expect? The truth is that this was a freak accident. The disease was highly treatable with an easy to get antibiotic. Why he wasn't treated sooner or became that ill so fast we may never know.Sent from Petguide.com App


Exactly! Thank you for putting that into words.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

My heartfelt condolences to the family. The rat marriage thing might be something the attorneys made up for publicity, so I'm not going there... This family was part of our rat owning community and so we grieve together. 

Oreo was apparently a shoulder rat from the photos, the new rat may have been a traveling rat too, they may have contracted the disease during her outdoor excursions and the illness may not have come from petco at all... The boy may have even been infected by a wild rodent that snuck into his house. I'm sure this will be determined eventually if this case isn't just settled to make it go away. 

I'd like to think that commercial rat farms and stores try to keep their customers and employees as safe as possible, I know pet shops often take in accidental litters and some locally source from second rate breeders... so this is an imperfect world.

If this rat had come from a large commercial rat farm we would have had many more cases of the disease since June. There's more to this story than the family's attorney is leading us to believe.

As Petco is likely to settle to avoid the bad press I doubt we will ever know what happened, but we should all keep our eyes open just in case there is a problem we should know about.

With all of the hits the commercial rat trade takes from pet rat owners, leave it to business people to take themselves out due to their own negligence... If this is as reported, a few more cases like this and there will be rat bans... Beware the well intended.


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## glider11 (Sep 7, 2011)

Ergala said:


> I had people posting this on my wall as well. My friends are pet store owners and I was in there today buying bedding and we were discussing this. I'm sorry but rats are not the only animal that can make you sick. Hamsters and turtles can give you salmonella or e coli, cats can give you cat scratch fever and their feces can give you toxoplasmosis. People are mauled by dogs, **** two children were killed by their neighbors pet snake that escaped! The truth they are animals as are we. What on earth do people expect? The truth is that this was a freak accident. The disease was highly treatable with an easy to get antibiotic. Why he wasn't treated sooner or became that ill so fast we may never know.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com App


You said it perfectly! 

I have already gotten a call from my Grandad (who, prior to this, was beginning to like my rats) about how I should get rid of my rats and be careful I don't catch this disease.

It's not fair that dogs and cats are just as dangerous to own as rats but as soon as a rat does something it is all over the news. If the same thing happened and it was caused by a dog instead of a rat, I'm sure it wouldn't have received this much attention and there wouldn't be panic as a result of it! Rats are already disliked and vilified enough.

Also, I was very annoyed by the CDC website and many of the news articles about this incident which state that any time you hold a rat, you should wear gloves! It is a very sad situations but the reactions to it by the press are ridiculous.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

This thing has blown up so bad that today, while searching for a rat rescue whose name I had forgotten THIS article came up on google, from "michigan rat rescue". number one hit...


My statements shouldn't be construed to be a nonconcern for the loss of life. I directed my statements to the morality of the situation, as it is now a case of justice and blame.


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## ratswithfoxandbear (Feb 12, 2014)

My mother made the call to me while I was reading through this thread. It was tough because I got snippy, and I need to be prepared to explain that it was an incredibly unfortunate _accident _that this happened. I'll be better about it next time.

I've been bitten by one of my girls, and my mother was terrified that I would die. It does not help that I stayed home from work today due to forever-long headache. (No, I do not have rat-fever. I am a teacher, and I have 5th-grade-fever.)

This is so sad, though. These situations are absolutely devastating to hear about because animals are animals and do carry diseases... there is a risk we frequently forget.


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## TNCraftyRat (Nov 13, 2013)

I feel like if anyone is at fault here than it would be the doctor for not correctly diagnosing the child and not getting him started on antibiotics. It was a bacterial infection that the child would have had for a few days before he died, bless his soul. I have looked up the infection and experts say that it only has 25% chance of causing death without treatment. So there was really no reason for that rat loving boy to die. It makes me sad to think what happened to his rats.


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## Hey-Fay (Jul 8, 2013)

TNCraftyRat said:


> It makes me sad to think what happened to his rats.Sent from Petguide.com Free App


I know. It breaks my heart to think about the probable outcome they had.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

The center for disease control had the rats for testing. We can assume what the outcome was once they got their answer.


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## DHmorris (Feb 27, 2014)

My condolences to the family and here's to hoping Petco will re-examine how they take care of / breed their animals! 

On a practical note: Does anyone know how to prevent one's rat from acquiring this Rat Bite Fever bacteria? I got my two male rats from a good rat breeder and they seem in good health so far (7 weeks old). Do you recommend a vet check up for new rats? Do you take your rats for check ups periodically? My friends and family are concerned about the safety of owning a rat after all this negative publicity; and I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to ensure the safety of me and my rats! Thanks in advance.


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## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

This San Diego family are opportunist idiots. Like everyone in this broken society, if anything bad happens, it is someone else's fault. They should have taught the child First Aid and how to treat wounds with antiseptic. It is not the doctor's fault unless the family mentioned any rat bites to the doctor. How would any doctor know unless they were made aware?
It is sad that the kid died, but there is no way any pet store could possibly test every animal before they sell it.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

To everyone now fretting about dying from their rats: take a breath. calm down.

http://www.ratfanclub.org/fever.html

Keep a sanitary environment and care for yourself. If you seem to be getting sick and are concerned, talk to your doctor and get some broad-range antibiotics. It is not very likely, or all of us would be dropping like flies. In my many months here, only ONE MEMBER had a story where his girlfriend was bit by a rat and had a reaction, where it began to feel warm to the touch and swell. Went to the ER, said what happened, got a single shot and was fine.


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## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

In one of the articles on the above link, the kid sais he was eating rat feces. What a twit.


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## TNCraftyRat (Nov 13, 2013)

All in all, this incident was a most unfortunate occurrence where a boy contacted a very rare illness that was misdiagnosed and resulted in his unnecessary death. In the end it was not this rat's fault. it wasn't really anyone's fault. It was just an accident, a very sad accident that I am sure most people wish it did not happen. I feel for the rats in this case and for the family and for the doctor who probably wishes he had seen more signs or maybe he had never even heard of rat-bite fever.



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## LeStan82 (Dec 31, 2013)

It is very unfortunate the boy died and I feel for his family.. But animals can carry diseases and parasites that can be transmitted to humans.and should always be considered when owning a pet.( and should be common sense) It would be difficult and costly to test for every disease that you could get from your animal(no matter what type of animal you have).all animals carry bacteria in their saliva, you should always keep your wound clean and monitored(that should always be common sense as well).if children are involved they should be educated in what to do should they get biten or scratched and make sure they inform parent . Sometimes no matter how well you take care of a wound it can still end up in infection or worse. What a sucky inccident


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## Jackie (Jan 31, 2013)

Apparently 10-100% (um well that is vague) of domesticated rats have this, it's just that the infection rate per bite isn't high.
http://cmr.asm.org/content/20/1/13.full

I can't decipher all of this. I don't know if petco or it's distributor (evil rainbow exotics or whatever they're called) and even test the rats easily for this disease?

I don't blame the family. I would be lying if I said I knew about this disease before I got rats. I didn't. If you look up rate care on google (I tested this) many of the sites say nothing about this disease. It wasn't a case that they should have known better. This boy obviously had a weak immune system and died very quickly after showing symptoms. Nobody's fault.


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## Divit (Aug 5, 2013)

nanashi7 said:


> To everyone now fretting about dying from their rats: take a breath. calm down.
> 
> http://www.ratfanclub.org/fever.html
> 
> Keep a sanitary environment and care for yourself. If you seem to be getting sick and are concerned, talk to your doctor and get some broad-range antibiotics. It is not very likely, or all of us would be dropping like flies. In my many months here, only ONE MEMBER had a story where his girlfriend was bit by a rat and had a reaction, where it began to feel warm to the touch and swell. Went to the ER, said what happened, got a single shot and was fine.



Thank you, nanashi, for that useful link. I've saved it for future reference. It puts things in a better perspective. 

As a parent, this very sad story is also a reminder to all parents to let doctors know about household pets when bringing a sick child in. Not all doctors will remember to ask.


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## Ergala (Jan 23, 2014)

Dusty calling a 10 year old child who died a twit is not very kind  I have an 8 year old son and he does some very stupid things at times....he didn't need to die, it was tragic and handled poorly. 


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## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

My reference was in ragards to the other kid in the other article who was eating rat feces. What a twit.


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## Ergala (Jan 23, 2014)

Ooh my apologies Dusty! I swear kids do stupid things.


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## .275057 (Oct 22, 2013)

We were just told about this today at my store (PetSmart) and it's a sad story. They told us rat bite fever is pretty rare though. I know both my rats have bitten me once, and leave scratches on my arms fairly frequently. And this probably won't stop me from giving them kisses, either. I don't really think anyone is to blame, but I don't think anyone should be panicking about it. We were formally told to direct any customers who ask questions to a manager, but I'd love to just be able to tell them that rat bite fever is a very rare occurrence.


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## Gannyaan (Dec 7, 2012)

Between 22000 and 25000 people are diagnosed with cat scratch disease and need to be hospitalized for it annually.... But no one gets all uppity about that, now do they ?!?!

Rat bite fever, on the other hand, is extremely rare. It's also very treatable with antibiotics. Out of the two million animal bites per year, Only ONE PERCENT of all animal bites per year are done by rats. One percent... And obviously, not all those people are getting rat bite fever. It's really rare, and it's treatable. (Some people like to sit there are argue that the symptoms are ambiguous, but seriously... What's the tip off? Bit by a rat and suddenly having those symptoms... Oh yeah, that's pretty obvious!! If you go to med school for 4 years and can't figure out that if a person is getting sick following a bite from ANY animal, that you should prrrooobbabbllyyy look into it....? ) 

Whether the parents should sue petco or not... Hhhmm...... l honestly, I'm not sure. When infected with Streptobacillus moniliformis, some rats are not symptomatic... So it's hard to say whether petco should be liable for something like that... Treating all rodents for it/screening them may not even be worth it. Meh. If I was them, I'd pay the family and thats it.... 

Anyways, the take home for any new rat owners: rats are not usually biters, and you're not likely to get rat bite fever. BUT if you do get sick following ANY animal bite or scratch, you need to see a doctor. It's easily treatable. 

......
Also, rat poop is bad for you. Don't eat it. Any poop, actually. 


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## LeStan82 (Dec 31, 2013)

I am in veterinary care and have several battle wound scars from being bit and scratched by cats and dogs over the years( they get scared at the vets), also my rats scratch me daily, mainly because I am a jungle gym to them...lol. I have never had an issue. Just keep wounds clean and if it looks infected a doctor visit may be in order. People with a weak immune system might want a dr. Visit anyways if it is bad.


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## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

So sad that the boy died. Especially at such young age.


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## Urithrand (Feb 12, 2008)

One of my friends linked this to me a few weeks back swearing black is blue that scientists were labelling rat bite fever as the new bubonic plague. It took a great deal of self control to educate him without swearing or resorting to physical violence but I think he got the message.


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## BlackBirdSeesYou (Nov 4, 2012)

Ugh I hear too much of this. My grandma's friend has been freaking out about it. And before now she's always loved my rats. She just called today and while I was amusing her by listening, she said, "so are you getting rid of 
them?" Of course I said no. I could never get rid of my babies. Then she said "but after these you're not getting anymore, right?" I said yeah (though only because I have ferrets and a dog also and they're all a lot to care for plus I'll be going of to college in a few years) but I'll definitely be getting more in the future when I get my own place. She was exasperated. Stupid media.


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## Divit (Aug 5, 2013)

Gannyaan said:


> Between 22000 and 25000 people are diagnosed with cat scratch disease and need to be hospitalized for it annually.... But no one gets all uppity about that, now do they ?!?!
> 
> Rat bite fever, on the other hand, is extremely rare. It's also very treatable with antibiotics.
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


One article said that in a recent 10 year span, there were 200 documented cases in the US of rat bite fever. That averages a mere 20 (twenty) per year compared with the 22-24 _thousand_ per year for cat scratch fever! 

The number of rat bite fever incidents represents 9 one-thousandths of 1% of the number of cat scratch fever incidents. Wow! Use that statistic to counter those you know who are getting skewed views of the risks.


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## Maddie (Jan 13, 2014)

Hmm not to mix things up, but I would assume the number of people owning cats would be higher than rats and of course there would be more documented cases of cat scratch.


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## Divit (Aug 5, 2013)

Maddie said:


> Hmm not to mix things up, but I would assume the number of people owning cats would be higher than rats and of course there would be more documented cases of cat scratch.


Agreed. There are undoubtedly way more cat owners than rat owners. 

However, the HUGE variance in numbers (22,000 compared to just 20) suggests that the incidence of cat scratch per cat owner would still be much higher than the incidence for rat bite per rat owner. At least that's how I look at it.


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## ratswithfoxandbear (Feb 12, 2014)

Divit said:


> Agreed. There are undoubtedly way more cat owners than rat owners.
> 
> However, the HUGE variance in numbers (22,000 compared to just 20) suggests that the incidence of cat scratch per cat owner would still be much higher than the incidence for rat bite per rat owner. At least that's how I look at it.


This is when you need to look at the percentage of cat and rat owners that get these diseases. That way you have a more accurate picture. Statistics are pretty funny, and they can be swayed and manipulated. People get paid lots of money to do just that.

Based on my super fast math- 

.00002% of cat owners get cat-scratch fever. There are 95 million cats owned. 23,000 cases of cat-scratch fever. However, I read 40% of cats come in contact with the disease during their lifetime. They just don't bite or scratch their owners.

.0004% of rat owners experienced rat bite fever (ever). There are roughly 200 documented cases of rat-bite fever and roughly 500,000 rats and mice in homes. These numbers are incredibly difficult to verify though because people do not survey the number of rats owned the way they do for cats and dogs. I do not know the percentage of rats that come in contact with the bacteria over their lifetime, though. Of course this also gets confusing with feeder rats versus pet rats and mice versus rats. The 500,000 number includes the title "rodents."

All in all, this does not happen very often and we all need to stop pretending rats are bringing on the plague. They did not even bring the plague last time... ticks did.


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## Divit (Aug 5, 2013)

The 200 documented cases of rat bite fever was over a ten year period. So the average per year is only 20. 

You are correct that looking for the statistics of how many cats to rats are owned would be a better way to compare. I didn't bother to look -- assumed the rat count wouldn't be accurate. I did make a pie-in-th-sky assumption that there would not be more than 1000 cats per every rat (22k to 20). According to your numbers, there are 190 cats to every rat.

I'm glad you were able to find the cat & rat ownership numbers. Might want to double check your math though. Using your stats, I come up with *2.42%* for cat scratch fever *vs .0004%* for rat bite fever.
(23,000 out of 95 million vs 20 out of 500,00)

Both percentages are quite small.


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## Ltukey (May 28, 2013)

it would be telling to see the boy's autopsy reports as it's not usual for it to progress w/the speed the media is reporting...I wonder if that poor boy had an underlying condition&in fact the sanitation of his home.


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## Gannyaan (Dec 7, 2012)

Ltukey said:


> it would be telling to see the boy's autopsy reports as it's not usual for it to progress w/the speed the media is reporting...I wonder if that poor boy had an underlying condition&in fact the sanitation of his home.


I wondered the same thing actually... I'm not trying to just shft the blame, but seriously curious about the boys immune system and the strain of bacteria..... It's worrisome for immune compromised people 


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

As a shoulder rat handler, I've very sensitive to the kinds of things my rats can bring home. Yes I know the odds are way in our favor, but we do try and avoid places where wild rats live and letting our rats roam in pet shops or be handled too much by the employees there. I might add that from the photos in the original posts the kid did have a shoulder rat and took his rats outdoors where his rats might have contracted the fever.

But my wife is a teacher and my daughter goes to public school and every winter they bring home every nasty bug that makes the rounds in the local snot factories.. I have an impaired immune system and I know I'm much more likely to get killed by my human family members than my rodent family members... Life involves risks... and our family doctors know we have rats... 

I suspect that if you ever get sick from causes unknown, it might be a good idea to tell your doctor you have pet rats as a matter of policy. I'm thinking they might not be looking for rat bite fever or other rare rat borne illnesses otherwise. Being rare might actually make them more dangerous.


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## binkyhoo (Sep 28, 2008)

I worked in Microbio. Veterinary and Human. Clinical lab. I can say that I know of Dog bites and Cat bites that have gotten infected with Pasteurella. It is just a bacteria that they have in there mouth. Not pathogenic to most people. But sometimes a person gets in in a bad way. It is very sensitive to simple penicillin. It is sad to learn of this. I am reading up. 

And I agree, that they were not so optimum owners is a different thread/story.


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