Ok I've 2 rats that died in less than a week of each other and they both died in the same way. Gasping for breath, spazims and I need to now what cuased it. One of them had resp infection and they both had lice/mites.

Please help!! Are my other babys in danger? Sky and Bajha had there own cage but it might be airborn.

HELP!!!

Were they older? How long were they ill or had the mites/lice?

How far away is the other cage?

They were about 2 years old and their cage was on top of the biggest with a smaller cage on top of it.

if it was a virus your others may be in danger i would get to a vet if anyone else starts showing any symptoms it sounds like what racked through my boys i lost four of them to it

What was it? What were the early'est symptoms or signs?

i don't know exactly what is was the absolute earliest symptoms were much like a myco flare up. i posted it all on the mites thread and there were some really useful links night put up and it sounded alot like what my boys had so it might be what yours have i would definitely get to a vet asap though if they were kept on top or underneath the other girls then they are definitely at risk if it is an air born virus or disease

TAKE THEM TO THE VET! Please D:

Jesus... take them to the vet already!

Did you bring home any new rats lately?

this is a copy of my reponse to the other thread started the begining of this poor health saga in Sky14s Rats:

Nice one Poppyseed, Ive been reading this and thinking, "surely if your Rat is ill and you can't pay for vets bills there is a charity that will take it on and assess its needs then treat it, manage its comfort levles or put it to sleep?". Neglect is abuse and not following every avenue to get the best for an amimal who has come to depend on you for there almost every need, well...
Imagine you had a dependent relative at home very ill and you couldent afford to treat them, so you kept them at home, not exploring free clinics or anything, giving them soup and cuddles-people go to prison for that sort of thing, if I advocated that kind of thing I could never get my registration.
Alot of people come up againts these kind of problems...its how you react to them.


-What have yo don to improve the health of your rats sice this began?

I change the cages every 2 days I'm giving them fresh water every 5 hours (except when I'm not there or asleep) and clean the bottle every other time I change it. I've put each one in individuale cages to monitor them individualy and I wash my hands after I touch anything before and after I touch a rat or anything in it's cage and I use a towel when I hold them and a differennt towel for each rat.

How's that?

and if you know of any "free" clinics I can take my rats to in the Santa cruz/watsonville/Scotts valley area in California tell me.

quick way 2 make money so u can afford 2 take them 2 the vets....
clean cars round ur area
cut lawns '' ''
do extra house work and ask ur parents for ur allowence earlyer
have a yard sale
walk dogs
run erronds

ive had to do most of these before the money soon adds up luckly if i ever have an animal emergance i just ask my mom 2 loan me the money and she will untill i start workin and can pay it bk or she will deduct if from my allowence,
good luck wiv ur ratties

You mentioned you could draw as well. Do you have a deviant art account set up with a journal containing commission prices? I would do that as well, even though mines not getting hit recently I made enough money off if it when Joshu was in need.

I've also had good luck running ebay auctions for commissioned art XD Something else you can do!

*Sighs VERY deeply*

How many times must I tell you? I'm 15 I live in a neborhood that I might get raped or shot in at only 7:ooPm and my mom is unemloyed with a fixed income.

Ok?

So then what did you plan to do for your animals, were you to come upon hard times? Did you even plan at all?

You asked for help, we are giving the suggestions we can to help you. Someone even posted LINKS to vet assistance that you totally qualify for. How do you think we can help? We can't see your rats, it's the internet and you have said before you don't have a camera and even if you did it wouldn't be much help. We can't weave a magical spell to make them all better, we all have our own animals to care for so can't wire you the money. So we are suggesting ways you can make money for a vet, and they seem like good ways to do so. No reason to get all huffy and yell at us when YOU are the one that posted here asking for OUR help.

Sorry I can't weave a magical spell or lie to you and tell you your rats will be alright. I can't do either of that, none of us can. The only thing I can tell you is get to a vet and let them make sure they are fine. That is the ONLY way you will know.

So please, when people are trying to help listen and don't yell back. It's incredibly rude.

Sorry I can't weave a magical spell or lie to you and tell you your rats will be alright.

*Sigh* I'm 15 not 6.

Oh and I went to my friends and had him take some pics (they are SOOOO CUTE!!!) and I should have them by Sun so I'll post'em in -Meet my rats- when I get'em kay?

Well then what WERE you expecting us to suggest? That post right there kind of disproves your own statement *headesk*

Hmm.....


I'm 15. I babysit in my own house for $3-$6 an hour(depending on age), I made enough money within a few weeks for a basic office visit(mind you, they're a tad expensive).

I've been blessed with healthy rats, so only bills I'l be paying are for spaying and neutering. But, besides the point.

I have enough saved up for a tumor removal or two. Just from babysitting 6 year-olds alone.

Really, exhaust all possibilities. Don't give up, don't just let your rats rot in their own bodies.

??? *headesk* ???

*Very blank stare*

What?

Yes Sky, exactly *holds throbbing head* thanks.

Oh.

You should have spent your time not at your friend's house, but calling the vet for your rats.

Which only takes what, 20 minutes even D: PLEASE call him tomorrow and prove to us that you are indeed not 6 because right now, that's what it looks like.

I just keep reading this and thinking its a joke-surely its not possible for someone to be this incopetent-ive nursed people with brain damage that could handle this better-what is going on sky?
i know "everyone is doing the best at the time" but your best isnt good enough sky, if i knew were you lived id report you and your rats and the rspca would take them away and fix them...
I cant belive you can care about them and manage to forget that they are sick with the same thing that killled the otheres..
RRRAAhhh-so frustrating !!!!!!!!

Sorry...

*headesk*

haha! :lol: Sorry!

Some people have pets as collectables, and others truly care for them. In a situation like this, you can always tell what type of pet owner you're dealing with.

When my rats are sick, calling my vet and getting an appointment is constantly on my mind until I'm able to do so (IE - as soon as they're open). Sometimes I can barely get sleep because I'm worrying about them so much. For me, seeing them ailing and being sick is absolutely agonizing.

Yeah? Well I can tell what "type" of person you are but I'm not going to post it.

Allright lets be cool people.
What did the vet say?

The kind of person who doesn't like pet owners who don't care at all about the animals in their care?

Yes.

And if you're thinking I'm a btich, you're totally right, I am.

I posted it in -Over the rainbow bridge- kay.?

Oh and Night you spelled bitch wrong. *ameused stare*

Sky I think you ment amused?

Amused by typos? Nice.

.....everyone has there own way of spelling but spelling bitch-btich kinda takes the meaning away...

Except I didn't purposely spell it that way. Again, it was a typo.

Hhmm...

Im sorry but spelling amused-ameused also takes the meaning away, becuase thats NOT how you spell the word. lol.

:lol:

I could list 2 pages or more of "wrong" spelled words I've seen on this forum but I'd prefure not to so lets stop this before it gets ugly.

I like how that has nothing to do with this.

It got ugly when you pointed out that Night spelt bitch wrong. Why point something out if you "prefure not to" and then get all offensive when someone does it back to you? Im not trying to be rude, but this is ridiculous!

*sigh*

Lets just drop it and move on kay??

*sigh*

Lets just drop it and move on kay??

Her name's Jennie, not Kay. :wink:

like she sed just drop it

*sigh*

Lets just drop it and move on kay??

Her name's Jennie, not Kay. :wink:

-gigglesnort- :lol:

like she sed just drop it

Thank you. :)

like she sed just drop it

Why? She's being a hypocrite, and we're just supposed to let that go?

Personally, I think it's hilarious that Sky is correcting anyone's grammar considering how atrocious her own is.

Thank you! I'm glad someone else thought that.

"We all have different ways of spelling things."

Yeah...the right way, and the wrong way. Don't try and excuse your illiteracy, just learn to spell things the right way!

Thank you! I'm glad someone else thought that.

"We all have different ways of spelling things."

Yeah...the right way, and the wrong way. Don't try and excuse your illiteracy, just learn to spell things the right way!

:) im laughing but just remember not spelling well dosent mean you are illiterate

Um, are there mods on here? Shouldn't threads that disintegrate like this get locked?

(And y'all are making me paranoid about spelling now, too. I just double-checked that I spelled disintegrate correctly.)

Edit: I just looked, and apparently there are no mods assigned to this forum. So people are going to have to police themselves.

I feel silly for having to say this, but STOP IT. All of this squabbling is tangential to the issue, a potential virus and needed vet opinion. Sniping at each other is not going to do *anything* for the situation.

I know, that probably came off harsher than i meant it to. My sister has exactly the same attitude towards the english language that Sky14 does - that they can spell it how they want and it doesn't matter. Nobody ever told my sister to learn to spell things the right way and now she's failing English at school :/ Maybe thats why what she said irked me so much *shrugs*

Thank you! I'm glad someone else thought that.

"We all have different ways of spelling things."

Yeah...the right way, and the wrong way. Don't try and excuse your illiteracy, just learn to spell things the right way!

Yeah, and you need to stop putting "u" in words that don't need it. Colour! Honour! What's that all about. And center spelled centre. Lunacy!

But seriously, I agree with you 100% here. I generally don't comment on people's spelling online (If I did, I'd have to make it a full time job), but I don't care for it one bit when people think that spelling is something like an art and everyone can interpret it their own way. It doesn't really work that way.

Ha!!!! :D Well, we created the language, you just made it easier to spell :p I must admit though, spelling through 'thru' makes a lot more sense. I mean, who decided to throw the unncessary 'ogh' in there? That's just making life hard for us Brits!

Ok I know we're just continuing to go off-topic with this, but I don't think it's actually "proper" to spell through thru. I know I sure wouldn't do it. I think "drive-thrus" just popularized it. Actually, it's a bit of a peeve of mine to see restaurants with "drive-thrus" when they have plenty of length to spell the word out.

I know, I take all this a bit too seriously. I used to be Editor-in-Chief of the ol' college paper, and I think that never left me.

I feel silly for having to say this, but STOP IT. All of this squabbling is tangential to the issue, a potential virus and needed vet opinion.

Do you really think she's going to take her rat to the vet? She's already proven time and again that she'd prefer to make excuses than to actually do what's right.

I'm still here.

And you want to know something? One of my moms best friends was a teacher (he's retired) and he spells stuff wrong from time to time.

Lets just stop this "pointless" arguement and except everyones horable internet spelling kay?

Do you really think she's going to take her rat to the vet?

Do you think you know everything?

Go to my post in -Over the rainbow bridge- to "inlighten" yourself a bit more before you blab anything else.

Bad spelling and grammer can definately lower an opinion of someone when that is all you have to go by >_> But that's the interweb for you.

I'm not going to talk about this anymore and if you want to go make your own post.

Do you really think she's going to take her rat to the vet?

Do you think you know everything?

Go to my post in -Over the rainbow bridge- to "inlighten" yourself a bit more before you blab anything else.

Okay, I went and enlightened (see that? with an "e") myself. What I see is someone who has already lost two rats, and then forgets to call and make a vet appointment for the remaining rats. By the way, that doctor is full of ****. Two deaths, and he thinks it's not something to be worried about? Any vet who has any experience with rats would know how delicate rats are when it comes to URIs, and want to get the surviving rats on antibiotics as a precautionary measure at the very least.

My vet wants my rats on antibiotics at the first sign of increased porphyrin production or sneezing. She's worked exclusively with rodents for years, and has a healthy respect for just how fragile their respiratory systems are.

Well if you know of any "good" docters in my area I'd be glade to talk to her/him.

You might want to call around. Look in the phonebook...internet. Your the only one who can REALLY find a "good" vet close to you. Just call around! Im sure you'll find a decent one. :)

Personaly I like that people speak their mind on here, I like this forum for that

I hate to come back to this but spelling quickly is one thing but posting something that makes people work to read it? Thats not fair to us as well. And yes as soon as I see a lot of mistakes and really atrocious spelling I think "young kid" or "adult who never learned how to spell" its sad but its an automatic response for us to lose respect on the intarweb for these people.

Back to the rat issue. No vet can diagnose over the phone, they just aren't allowed as you are not an existing client. He should've said bring them in, not "don't bother". So he is full of "sh*t. :( You should never forget to call a vet but remember to post on here all your woes. The forum can only support you with advice and emotional support, YOU have to do the work at getting the vet and getting your rats checked.

I'm not going to talk about this anymore and if you want to go make your own post.

Hey YOU'RE the one that dished it out. If you can't take it please stop dishing it out. And that was a comment in general, adding to the conversation that poked up from YOU starting it. So yeah please don't tell me what I can or can't write, I have the right to put my 2 cents in just as everyone else. I don't care if you won't talk about it anymore frankly but give me a chance to make a quick post on my feelings to the conversation YOU started.

geeze, this thing has gone WAY off topic. 2 nearly three whole pages on spelling in a rat health section? i know we don't have mods here but really people, is it so hard to see that we've greatly deviated from the topic? can we not stop ourselves from continuing to spam the thread and continue (if we must) it in its own thread under the approiate section? picking apart someone's spelling on a forum not meant for english buffs is immature, continuing to do so is just as immature. if you want to make fun of the way people in general spell or believe this to be a interesting topic then go to the right section and post about it. i came in here to read about what sky was doing with her rats not read 2+ pages of grammer.

so as not to be a hyprocite, sky, how are your rats doing now? any signs of illness? how long has it been since you first rat got sick, its death, th second rat and its death and now? i may get flamed for saying this but i would watch for signs of illness before taking my rats in too. mind you SDA and sendai have not made it up into canada yet either. your two that passed were fairly old for rats so they may have caught something that your younger rats immune system were able to fight off. on another note i would take this opprotunity to do some vet shopping. get the phonebook out and call every clinic in the yellow pages. ask if any of the vets deal with rats and if they do ask if they can give you a call so you can ask them on their experience and such. you should be able to get a pretty good hang of which vets to trust with your rats and which are just full of it and looking for the money. edpending on the community this can take anywhere from 20 mintues total to 20mins a call. remember to keep a pad of paper to mark notes on the vets on so you can remember exactly who said what when looking back on it later for your decision on which vet you want.

Ohhh Twitch,
There have been reported outbreaks of SDA, escpecially in BC (no idea where you live. I am Toronto, Ontario). SDA is everywhere sadly, we may not have to worry about it as much but its a'coming. In BC a lot of the petstore rats are supplied by U.S. breeders/ratmills and they are infected and come into Canada that way.

And then there's the people who don't realize they have SDA or a possible outbreak, or don't bother to put it on this tracking site.

http://www.rmca.org/Data/#on

from www.petratscanada.com

SDA in Canada

SDA outbreaks in the United States are becoming alarmingly common. (See SDA Outbreak Tracking Data) Our close proximity to the States and easy trade relations have allowed infected rats to cross the border. I have been informed that suspected SDA infections have been observed in rats in southern Ontario and in British Columbia. It is often irresponsible breeders for the pet/feeder trade who get these infections in their rat colonies and they are never responsible enough to get it confirmed by a vet. One rat breeder in Ontario apparently had to stop breeding after an SDA outbreak. SDA is certainly not as common in Canada as it is in the United States. Let's help keep it that way. If you bring a rat from the United States into Canada, please please please make sure you quarantine in a separate facility for 3-4 weeks. Rat owners in areas of Canada where SDA is known to have occurred should be aware and take precautions as well.

i didn't realise it had spread so far already. i keep a fairly observant eye for outbreaks in my area but admittedly i've been lax recently due to moving and exams. mind you i always kept a closer eye on my area then the other side of canada. i live in the maritimes and as far as i know there has been no outbreaks. last i heard it was only rumored to be out in the BC area but nothing was confirmed. but abvisously that info was dated. i didn;t realise that it had made it into ontario.

picking apart someone's spelling on a forum not meant for english buffs is immature, continuing to do so is just as immature.

Wrong. I absolutely hate it when I see this argument. "Omg, dis iz a rat forum, not a grammer forum! hur!"

No. When a method of communication is entirely text-based, and the person on the other end relies on correct spelling, puntuation, etc. in order to understand you, it is rude and disrespectful, not to mention highly annoying when someone doesn't bother to make themselves easily understood.

I know, I take all this a bit too seriously. I used to be Editor-in-Chief of the ol' college paper, and I think that never left me.

Really?! I was the Editor of my Highschool newspaper, too. Maybe that's why we're both so finicky about spelling :wink:

I know the spelling thing was very off-topic but i wasn't having Sky14 pull Night up for a typo when her spelling is atrocious. Her petty jibe at Night was what started this whole debate. It's not that we expect everyone to be perfect spellers, but when Sky14 then came back and said that it didn't matter how things were spelled we all got a bit riled at her immaturity. It seems petty now, but spelling things that badly doesn't only reflect badly on Sky14 's intellectual capacity (and therefore our opinion on her) but also (as other people have said) makes reading her posts really hard work.

Twitch, you're right that her rats are the most important topic in this thread, but we were just expressing our opinions. I'm not too bothered about what-topic belongs where if i'm honest. This thread started as a rat health topic, and has just gone off in other directions. I don't think it's a major deal that some of us are addresing issues that we have with Sky14 within this thread.

JulesMichy - couldn't have said it better myself.

For instence if i dont spel thins propperly and dont use gramer it makes things very hard and frustraeting to read doesnt it and it also makes me apeer quite ignerrant

[quote]
For instence if i dont spel thins propperly and dont use gramer it makes things very hard and frustraeting to read doesnt it and it also makes me apeer quite ignerrant

LOLOLOL...Welll sed!

hahaha that is great I know that i don't use capitilization here the way should but itry and make sure my spelling is at least 90% accurate though soetimes my kids make me look away before I get the chance to spell check my posts

Really?! I was the Editor of my Highschool newspaper, too. Maybe that's why we're both so finicky about spelling :wink:

High fives all around!

I use lots of shortcuts but they are easily understandable or poking fun at the others..hehe

thru - through
prolly - probably
kuller - colour or color for you Americans
pritty or purdy - pretty

etc, etc...

I am an educated 39 year old, but on the intarweb people relax a bit, which is just fine. :)

Im quite hurt that people think that poor spelling reflects intelligence

Im quite hurt that people think that poor spelling reflects intelligence

Its not a conscious thing, it just happens. Mistakes and not capitalizing are one thing, who cares, but repeated bad spelling over and over...

its human nature, all we have to know someone is what they write...

Yeah I suppose, I guess I have a chip on my sholder because of my own battle with words but that dosent mean Im daft-Im in the top 97% of the population for reading comprihention (but Id still be reading next week :) ) and I have a high verbal IQ (but Im ****ed if I want to put it into print!) eh I do OK Im not gona get upset :)

It doesn't necessarily reflect intelligence, i didn't mean to say that people can't spell are thick, that's not true at all. BUT, spelling 'doctor' wrong for god's sake is going a little bit far. And what made Sky14 look even worse was the fact that she thought it didn't matter that she was spelling simple words wrong all the time.

I'm terrible with numbers - i know some people who are freakishly good with maths, but can't spell to save their lives! Everyone's brain works in different ways i guess, but online spelling stands out the most as all inadvertently judge other people's intelligence on their SPG (as lilspaz said). I know spelling doesn't always reflect intelligence, but Sky14 has said/done other things that make us all doubt how mature and 'bright' she is.

If intelligence went on maths i'd have an IQ of about 12 lol!

Is it just me or is this WAY off topic. Again.

Okay then, lets get it back on topic. How are your rats?

It doesn't necessarily reflect intelligence, i didn't mean to say that people can't spell are thick, that's not true at all. BUT, spelling 'doctor' wrong for god's sake is going a little bit far. And what made Sky14 look even worse was the fact that she thought it didn't matter that she was spelling simple words wrong all the time.

I'm terrible with numbers - i know some people who are freakishly good with maths, but can't spell to save their lives! Everyone's brain works in different ways i guess, but online spelling stands out the most as all inadvertently judge other people's intelligence on their SPG (as lilspaz said). I know spelling doesn't always reflect intelligence, but Sky14 has said/done other things that make us all doubt how mature and 'bright' she is.

If intelligence went on maths i'd have an IQ of about 12 lol!

I s*ck at maths to :lol:
I think that pretending she dosent get it might make it easyer to excuse lack of effort but like I said before maybe Im just paranoid.
Give us an update Sky

please keep the thread on topic. if it keeps going off topic it will be locked.

All of them are doing as good as can be no sign of anything but slight boredom... ( I took everything out and bleached it cage,wheels,food dishes ext. ext.) I had my mom help me so I wouldn't miss anything and now they are back together 2 per cage and happy and healthy as can be that I can see. :)

Glad to hear everyone's still doing well :). Make sure to keep a close eye on them, and if they show any signs of what Sky or Bajha had take them to a vet ASAP.

This is a perfect chance for you to start looking for a good rat vet too. Look through the yellow pages and call each and every vet. Ask things like, if they treat rats, prices for different procedures, etc. Also, it would be a wonderful idea for you to start putting money away in a vet fund, just incase anything ever happens again.

Good luck with your girls :D.

Thanks!

Asap I get a job or somthing that gets me money I'll start saving it up. :)