colds/congestion

Question
Can rats get a cold? this morning when i went to see my rats one of them looked like he was coughing or something, just kind of twitching it looked like. When my husband held him he said that he sounded congested. So i thought he might have a cold. also he has been biting the past few weeks,so i was thinking maybe he just wanted to be left alone to rest and was just grumpy(as we humans can sometimes be when we get a cold or something. Any info you could give would be great. also do you know of any vets in the Greenville,NC area that handle rats?
Thanks in advance

Answer
No, rats are immune to the 200 plus strains of viruses that cause the common cold virus.

What he has us called mycoplasmosis pulmonis which is a bacteria that attacks the respiratory tract of the rat.  Pleaase read more about it here:

Sandyscrittercity.com

Go to the page on mycoplasmosis.


As for vets, here are names of great vets in NC near you.  I am in Charlotte and we are lucky to have many talented avian/exotic vets within our reach.   Check the link below for vets that see exotics.


http://aemv.org/vetlist.cfm