New pet rat has little red discharge on nose

Question
Hello, my 13 year old daughter (& I) just got "Missi" 2-3 weeks ago (it's been a very stressful month for us for other personal reasons) from a petstore here in Austin. Missi was said to be about 3-4 months?? Anyways, she is so very cute, comes right up to us, likes to climb on us, ride on my daughter on her neck in the back inside her hair, crawls all around, samples different food from us, inspects the dogs and cat and has been generally curious and cute. She is not a big eater, nor does she use her wheel very much.  She likes me to hand her food pieces one at a time and she takes them and tucks them in special places in her cage. We take her out about 1-5 hours a day to be with us generally.  She has always sneezed a little since we got her - but had no discharge, or any other symptoms from the symptom list.  Missi uses a littler box in the corner of her cage and a few days ago we added a bird ladder of colorful wood up to a little platform for more fun. This last Thursday, my daughter insisted in trying to give Missi a bath, and she hated it.  I am not sure if she got a little chilled but she did get very stressed about it, and I stopped her from trying to continue to put her in a shallow pan of luke warm water. Also, I walked in my daughter's room 3 days ago and could smell the littler box, so had her clean it completely and put new stuff (pearl like balls in it).  Last night my daughter came to me a said she had red around her nose.  But when I went to get her, I saw nothing.  She was curious last  night, ate  from us, and visited like normal, climbing around. Again, she is a very small eater and not very active.  She did sneeze like normal.  My daughter insisted their was more wet congestion around her nose - so I said they get stressed easily, and they like things clean, so we cleaned her entire cage - washed every single thing in antibacterial hand soap (1 squirt to loads of water and rinsed with hot water for a very, very long time). THen dried everything.  Missi's bed has bedding like we used for our guinnea pigs - soft papery fluffs, with a corner litter box that we re-cleaned and disinfected and put it all back together. Mistakes we have made that may contribute to this:  We did not freshen her water - just let it stay in there for a week or longer (huge bottle), we did let the litter box get to where i could smell it from a few feet away - but her cage is an open air cag. We are feeding rat food from store (mixture of stuff including peanuts in shells and other stuff), we are using tap water that has been filtered through a PUR filter now, tap water prior to yesterday.  Today she has more wetness on her nose, and a little more red. But she behaved normal for her while we had her out tonight.  My daughter is very scared because of the increase in congestion on her nose.  We are in a tight financial spot plus I read all the scary things about vets and medicines.  

QUESTIONS:  Should we take her in tomorrow to a vet? Any suggestions of Vets in Austin TX?
With the bath, poor bed and litter and water bottle cleaning by us, could this be something that with better care from us, she could overcome and heal from?  Again, she has always sneezed sort of randomly once every 20 min or a little longer since we got her 3 weeks ago.

If I wait to take her in, what would be the warning signs to go right away? She has no permanent red around her nose, eyes look fine, ears fine, coat fine.  Just looks like her nose got runny like a tiny cold or allergies if she were a human.  Her eating and pooping all look normal for her (light eater). Still social and curious.

Thank you so much for your time to answer all this.  We lost my daughter's dad this year, and we are really struggling emotionally so I just wanted to check specifically with you about our situation for your opinion.  I need to balance this with the fact that I cannot afford to run off to Vets without something being serious. Even my poor dogs have to wait a while now, where as in the past, I always took every pet in for any issue. It's a hard line to walk now.  Again, Thank you so much, Anne Marie  

Answer
Please refer to my website, sandyscrittercity.com and please go to the page called "Bloody discharge from eyes and nose" and also refer to the page on rat ailments/illnesses and refer to the page on mycoplasmosis. I think this will give you many answers.  Let me know when your done reading this so you will have a better understanding of what is going on.