My rat sneezes a lot, breathes funny, and has some blood around his nose and/ or eyes. What’s wrong?
This is a very common question for new rat owners. Rats have fairly delicate respiratory tracts and can come down with Upper Respiratory Infections (URI’s) for several reasons, including the use of pine/cedar bedding, allowing ammonia to build up in the cage, a weakened immune system from old age of as a secondary infection from another illness. Symptoms include: sneezing/wheezing/labored breathing/porphyrin staining around the eyes and/or nose (often mistaken for blood/) lethargy/loss of appetite. Depending on the severity of the infection the rat may experience some or all of the symptoms. URI’s can be treated/controlled with appropriate antibiotics, but you must get the rat to a vet. The longer the infection is allowed to continue untreated the more like there will be permanent damage to the rat’s lungs and eventually it will turn into pneumonia. Q: “My rat scratches himself a lot and has scabs all over his body, but I don’t think he has any fleas.” A: This seems to likely be mites
