rats skin allergy

Question
QUESTION: hi sandra
we have an 18 moth old buck who has perfectly healthy looking fur (no scabs lesions or dandruff/scurf)yet he scratches quite a lot and when we handle him it leaves us with itchy small rash areas where he has contacted us.We do not get this from any of our other three rats. We have tried the mini-tubes of topical ivomectin based treatment but this seemed to make little improvement
thank you
steve

ANSWER: What type of diet does he eat?  Also, if he did have mites, the best treatment is revolution. Ivermectin has been said to be immune to tropical rat mites, which are the most common type of mites that our rats get.

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QUESTION: hi
he has a mainly vegeterian diet with very occasionally small pieces of fish or sometimes egg. We never give dairy  milk based , but he does have small ammounts of soya milk  with cereal.Basically the same food we eat .
No dried rat food at all.
we did ask the vet for revolution , but were told it is not licensed for rats in the u.k
thanks for your reply
steve

ANSWER: If its not mites, try adding olive oil to the diet.  Sometimes its nothing more than a problem with dry skin.  Thats a drag that revolution is not licensed for rats in the UK.  It works wonderfully on mites.

However, it may not be mites at all. It sounds like the diet is good, as long as the protein content is not more than 14 to 18%.  

One of my readers suggested the olive oil.  I am a skeptic about home remedies but I took a chance and suggested it to a few people to use on their rats and have heard all positive feed back.  I would try a drop on a cracker a few times a day.  You can rub any sore spots with antibiotic ointment and help the itching using 1% cortisone cream.  I am not sure if you can get it over the counter in the UK or not.  I should really brush up on what is what in the UK since I do get alot of readers from there.  Thanks for letting me know about the revolution. I will make sure I do not suggest it to my UK readers for their rats from now on.

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QUESTION: hi
thanks for the info,  our vet refuses to offer revolution , but  we do have some selenium sulphide shampoo 2.5% which we have used to treat skin problems on guinea pigs ,do you know if we could use this product?
we are concerned that the problem is becoming worse as are our own skin reaction is more severe when we handle the rat
kind regards
steve

Answer
Hi there

What type of skin problems are you getting when you handle the rat?  Red  hives? Itchy?

If so, let me know....I can help you and tell  you what is wrong for sure.

I  would like to see you use the cortisone on the raw itchy spots rather then the selenium sulphide shampoo.  This is more or less for dandruff but it also can treat  tinea versicolor, which is a fungus that creates disclored skin lesions. This type of fungus is non pathogenic to rats so it probably wont do a bit of good.
Try the cortisone and also, although your rat diet seems ok, be sure your not giving more than 14% daily protein. This can cause skin problems as well.