Rats causing child to be sick

Question
My 14 yr old daughter has had diarreha for 3 wks now and they tested her for e coli, c diff. They can't seem to find out what is causing it 3-4 times a day. She has had her stools checked as well. We got our pet rat about 3 mths ago, could she be causing some sort of illness? We do let her roam free sometimes and she does tend to pee on us. What illness if any can they cause in humans. She is our first and we love her and hate to get rid of her.

Answer
I am sorry your daughter is sick....but I can pretty much assure you that your rat is not causing her illness.  Rarely do pet rats pose a health risk to humans because most of the illnesses that pet rats have are species specific.  Can you tell me what the test results were for your daughter?  Cdiff is very very common and in fact, sometimes we have it and dont even know it and e coli, she would be super sick if she had it, probably would be in the hospital if she had e coli.  My sister had c diff after being in the hospital for a month due to complications after having surgery for an intestinal obstruction. (Your daughter doesnt even match the stats for being at risk for developing c diff to be honest)  

Do you have any other pets in the house?

Please see my site, sandyscrittercity.com and refer to the page on fears of disease from rats. The only thing that we can give our pet rats and they can give us is ring worm (which would not cause loose stools) and thats about it....oh, wait, I lied, pink eye can be transmitted to our pet rats if we had it.