Finding a rodent vet

Question
I just recently got 2 baby dumbo rats about 2 weeks ago.  They seem fine until I had one of them out and he seemed to have a large/inflamed area around the base of the tail.  We tried touching it to see if it hurt and he had absolutely no reaction what so ever.  We checked to see if the other rat had the same thing on his tail and he didn't.  Based on what I have told you, is he sick? What should we do?

Answer
Dear Emily,


There are a lot of possibilities. The rat should go to a rat vet. He may need antibiotics to fight infection.

Regular dog and cat vets do not know rats. You need a vet who specializes in "exotics" or "pocket pets."

These links may help you to find a vet-- although they may be outdated:

http://www.ratfanclub.org/vetrefw.html

http://ratfanclub.org/vetref.html

Otherwise just call the vets in your area and ask if they do exotics, or rats in particular.

This can help:

http://ratfanclub.org/vetgood.html


Best of luck and health to the little guy.

squeaks,

Natasha