sick rat

Question
I have a Question about my rat peaches shes an albino.I believe she has upper respitory desease I cant take her to the vet because i'm broke and my parents dont want to pay fifty dollars for a five dollar rat. Anyways I got her at petco and I really should have waited to go to a breeder so now I have a rat that sneezes a lot and she's not that playful so she pretty much sniffs and sneezes around on my shoulder all day I clean out her cage and try to keep it insulated. I use aspin for the bedding so what should I do to make her more playful and help fight off the desease?

Answer
The only way to clear up a respiratory disease is antibiotics, these are not expensive and neither is a small animal consult for a rat. If she has a respiratory disease and doesn't get the medication she needs she will probably die and its not a nice death, its slow, painful and can take weeks. It's not a nice way to go. Maybe you shouldn't get pets if you aren't prepared to pay for the vets bills, or your parents aren't. It only means that the animal is made to suffer. She won't be able to fight off an infection without antibiotics, maybe you should rehome her to someone that will take her to the vets, or a sanctuary where she can get the treatment she needs. Even a rat from a breeder can become ill, rats are not very healthy animals. My own rats have cost me about 300 times the price I paid for them in vets bills. Also aspen bedding causes liver disease so its not really recommended for small animals, neither is pine wood shavings. I hope that you can get her to a vet or give her to someone who can take her to a vet. Please think about the costs of vets bills before getting a pet, if you can't afford them, you can't afford a pet.