I just got this emailed to me and i thought anyone here who lives in california may need this information. If you do live in California and your rats are experiencing any of this print a copy of it and take it to your vets office with you
To: Whom it may concern
From: Rattie Ratz Board of Directors
Re: Potential health risks to rats adopted at The Wonderful World of Rats 2007
Posting Date: Tuesday, April 10, 2007
San Francisco Bay Area
March/April 2007
Illness Outbreak Warning
It was brought to our attention on Saturday, April 7th there have been several rats that have fallen ill/passed away after the event on Sunday, March 25th, 2007 at the Peninsula Humane Society in San Mateo. Unfortunately, we were unable to collect information on Sunday, April 8th as it was Easter, but we spent all day collecting information on Monday, April 9th to formulate this announcement.
Origin: Unknown
Transmission: Unknown, but The Wonderful World of Rats 2007 suspected
Illness: Unknown, but SDA suspected
Symptoms may include ANY of the following in varying degrees of severity. If your rats exhibit any of these symptoms, please begin treatment immediately:
· Porphyrin (rust colored) stains about nose and/or eyes
· Wheezing, small coughs, congestion, sneezing, increase in rapid breathing, labored breathing, use of abdominal muscles to breathe, and gasping
· Hunched posturing, rough coat, lethargy
· Poor or loss of appetite
· May hear Rales (crackling, often sounds like Rice Krispies in milk) when listening to chest with stethoscope
· May hear Rhonchi (rumbling indicating presence of thick fluid) when listening to chest with stethoscope
· If significant consolidation present in lungs, breath sounds may be diminished even when listening with a stethoscope
· Presence of head tilt if otitis media/interna (ear infection) is present
· Presence of secondary illness, eg: tumors
· Panic type movement related to inability to get enough oxygen into lungs
· Feet and tail tip cyanosis (as oxygen in blood decreases) may be a late sign
· Swelling around the neck and cervical nodes
· Bulging of eye(s)
We will be having blood tests done on some of the rats showing symptoms to determine what the virus is. The first rat will be able to provide blood on Tuesday, April 17th and we should have results in 3 weeks. If the first rat tested comes back with a positive SDA result, then we'll assume the others have SDA also. However, if it comes back negative, we'll keep testing. As referenced on ratguide.com, the delay in blood testing is for the proper antibodies to develop avoiding a false negative result.
Please refer to the following sites for more information and treatment suggestions:
·
http://ratguide.com/health/lower_respiratory/pneumonia.php
·
http://ratguide.com/health/viruses/sda.php
As a precaution, until we have positively identified what is going around, Rattie Ratz has cancelled all of our bay area adoption events until further notice. We have also set quarantine in place for all of our exposed foster homes. We are going to get the E.L.I.S.A. testing done as soon as we possibly can in an attempt to rule out SDA exposure BUT we advise that you take proper measures to keep your rats as healthy as possible. We would also like to identify and track all affected rats. If you believe your rats are sick, please contact us. We would like to know who is sick, when they got sick, and where they may have been exposed. We will post updates as they become available to us. We send our condolences to anyone who has lost rats during this illness and we will remain available to anyone faced with ailing rats.
Sincerely,
Rattie Ratz
[email protected]
