rat sounds

Question
My rat had gotten hurt 2 weeks ago and had blood in his urine. I gave him the antibiotics and the blood seemed to subside and has seemed better. He still hides a lot but looks like he's coming around. Today I noticed he was bent over and looked liked he was licking himself. While he was doing this he was making a sound like chirping. It wasn't a screech like he was in pain but he's never done that before.  His private area seemed ok, no blood or cuts. Any ideas.

Answer
Hi David,
A rhythmic chirping sound is usually a sneezing jag caused by the mycoplasma respiratory infection. They do sometimes do it while engaged in some other behavior. Some people think the rat is having hiccups, but I disagree. The reason is because lab rats, who are myco-free, never do it.  If your rats only do it occasionally, you don't have to worry about it.  But if they do it a lot, or if they start doing it more often, then you want to treat it with antibiotics that work for myco. I recommend starting with doxycycline.

For more information see the article about Respiratory Disease on our website at www.ratfanclub.org and I highly recommend my Rat Health Care booklet which you can see on the Books page.
Deb