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4 Posts
Sigh. This is gonna be a long post 
I picked up 4 baby rats 3 weeks ago from a shelter. They were scheduled for euthanasia, which I thought would be senseless, and I took them in as rescues to be adopted out at a later date ( I have a very small, small animal rescue) . Well, needless to say, I really got attached to the little boogers...I haven't owned rats in over 15 years, and I discovered just how much I really enjoy them.
Well, the cage that they were kept in was very dirty, very ammonia filled and watered my eyes. The smallest female (considerably smaller than the rest) sneezed the whole 3 hours home. By the next day of being on clean bedding, though, her condition was much better and virtually stopped after another day, so, naturally I assumed it was just from the ammonia. A little over a week ago, the sneezing returned. No porphorin staining or anything like that, and she seemed active. She still lagged behind in size compared to the siblings. So, I took her to the vet last week, and her exam didn't go as well as expected...the lungs sounded 'coarse' and we discussed myco, as well as the possibility of her having lung scarring because of the conditions in the shelter cage, and the possibility of chronic respiratory illness. Anyway, after she worsened and couldn't even move without sneezing and looking and feeling absolutely pitiful, I made the decision to have her euthanized.
I have to say that I was a vet assistant for several years and this was a very difficult decision for me and I cried all the way home, thinking about it. She was such a sweet and loving little personality, and loved to be cuddled.
Her sister is now alone. She seems perfectly healthy, and I know that she is very lonely. My question is: in this situation, would you go ahead and adopt a couple of rats to quarantine to be later added to the remaining sister? Or, should I just wait to see if any symptoms arise in the sister first? What would you do? And, (I haven't read any posts yet) but is quarantine typically about a month for rats?
Thanks,
a
I picked up 4 baby rats 3 weeks ago from a shelter. They were scheduled for euthanasia, which I thought would be senseless, and I took them in as rescues to be adopted out at a later date ( I have a very small, small animal rescue) . Well, needless to say, I really got attached to the little boogers...I haven't owned rats in over 15 years, and I discovered just how much I really enjoy them.
Well, the cage that they were kept in was very dirty, very ammonia filled and watered my eyes. The smallest female (considerably smaller than the rest) sneezed the whole 3 hours home. By the next day of being on clean bedding, though, her condition was much better and virtually stopped after another day, so, naturally I assumed it was just from the ammonia. A little over a week ago, the sneezing returned. No porphorin staining or anything like that, and she seemed active. She still lagged behind in size compared to the siblings. So, I took her to the vet last week, and her exam didn't go as well as expected...the lungs sounded 'coarse' and we discussed myco, as well as the possibility of her having lung scarring because of the conditions in the shelter cage, and the possibility of chronic respiratory illness. Anyway, after she worsened and couldn't even move without sneezing and looking and feeling absolutely pitiful, I made the decision to have her euthanized.
I have to say that I was a vet assistant for several years and this was a very difficult decision for me and I cried all the way home, thinking about it. She was such a sweet and loving little personality, and loved to be cuddled.
Her sister is now alone. She seems perfectly healthy, and I know that she is very lonely. My question is: in this situation, would you go ahead and adopt a couple of rats to quarantine to be later added to the remaining sister? Or, should I just wait to see if any symptoms arise in the sister first? What would you do? And, (I haven't read any posts yet) but is quarantine typically about a month for rats?
Thanks,
a