Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / March 2004

Your other post said your vet was doing an autopsy on one of the boys
that just died, right?  You should at least wait until that gets back
-- if it was lung tumors, you can get some new boys, but if it's
contagious you definitely don't want to expose any more rats to it.

--Theresa
http://tiger_spot.mapache.org

That question is a bit of a minefield....  There are some that say its OK
and others that don;t recommend it.  I myself have all my boys living
together and yes, I have one wee man who has Myco and has had it since he
was probably born.  That was 16 months ago.  To this day Cairo is still the
only one with chest problems.  When he is on medication he is fine and lasts
a month or two in between visits to the Vets.  These are my views only
though...  I have always wanted my boys to live together...:)

Regards Kate

First of all, almost all rats carry the myco bacteria. It is the secondary
infections that really make the rat sick: such as: upper respiratory
infection, pneumonia, chest congestion, nasal congestion...
A rat will become sick if his immune system is weak due to any amount of
stress.
Exposing new rats to the myco strain to a colony with active myco flare ups
is indeed a risk. BUT... I have 13 rats, 2 of them have active myco flare
ups and it has not spread to the others. That said: bringing new rats into
your home will be added stress to the new boys and to the current boys. So
here's the dilemma: do you bring new rats into your home and risk having
myco flare up. How can you reduce this risk? You can adopt new rats but keep
them in a separate room in the home, until those new fellas become
accustomed to you as mommy and daddy and to their new surroundings. After
about 2 weeks of quarantine,which is usually all it takes, then you do slow
"intros" with the older fellas on neutral ground, so it's not a shocker to
them that there may be intruders in their home. Intros on neutral ground
shouldn't last longer than 10 minutes, just long enough for all the rats to
realize, there are other rats in the home... then with time, the intros
lasts longer until you can add them all together and everyone is happy.
I hope this helps.
Also, not all rats will have myco flare ups, only the weaken ones, the older
ones or those experiencing stress.
You have/had some older rats with you, congratulations on having them live
that long... you are doing something right, basically, I'm at the point that
if my rat lives to see 2 years, then I'm forever grateful to have known him
and any extra day is extremely special.

Hmmm... I would wait for the autopsy results back from the vets and then
consider things.

I had the same dilemma when my Oscar died last summer from respiratory
problems.  I  was left with a rat on his own (Oscar's cagemate, Louie) who
has always suffered repeated bouts of myco flare ups.  I didn't want to keep
him on his own as he was so depressed after Oscar died and looked so lonely,
but then I was worried adding new rats would mean they may catch the
respiratory infections Louie constantly gets.  In the end I didn't think it
was fair keeping Louie as a lonesome rat  so I took a chance and introduced
two young  males and eight months later the younsters have never had any
problems whatsoever.

If you decide to get more rats, I think what Joanne has suggested is a good
idea.

Tracey