Rat Scratching & Causing Lacerations on himself

Question

Whiskers   QUESTION: My daughter's rat, Whiskers, is scratching himself to the point of bad lacerations.

As directed, I bathe him and clean his cage completely every other weekend.  I use the critter shampoo on him and a mild dish liquid on the cage and accessories inside.  I rinse both him and the cage until the water is clear of soap.

I haven't been able to find a compatible rat buddy for him as he is not very aggressive and has been hurt quite badly when we have tried to find him a buddy.  Once, he got beaten up so badly that one eye was bulging from its socket.  Soooo, I hold him and love on him every evening and he just chatters up a storm to me.

I just love the little fella and want to do anything I can to help keep him from hurting himself.  He no longer has mites (per multiple vet visits) either.

Should I put a little Vitamin E oil in his food?  Should I put a file of some sort in his cage (like a bird uses to scratch its beak) to see if he'll use it?  I have a fear of the file being used because I don't want him to make himself raw on anything either.

That reminds me - he also has a raw or sore-looking spot on his back leg just behind his paw.  I'm not sure what that's from either - I already put about 1/2" bedding down all over the bottom of his cage plus some softer stuff for bedding (all rat friendly).

Your advice is grealy appreciated!

Cyn

ANSWER: Hi Cynthia  
*I have a sister, Cindi...1960s names I guess, Cindi and Sandy:)

Ok so that has nothing to do with Whiskers, who, may I add, is so darn cute I chuckled at his photo.

You said you bathe him as directed, every other week.  Whos direction are you following and why, is it due  to the itching?

Normally, there is no need at all to bathe a healthy happy rat that often.  They spend more time grooming themselves and each other than cats do. Maybe a few times per year if they enjoy the water, but other than that, there is no need to do it.  It can contribute to dry skin which can cause itching in itself.  

Also, i wanted to ask about his diet and what he eats daily, what is his protein intake on a daily basis?   High protein in excess of more than 18% with the ideal levels between 12 and 15% can cause skin problems as well.  High protein is found in commercial seed mixes as well as some lab blocks sold at pet stores.  

Let me know about the diet and also how old is Whiskers?

For the time being, you can use olive oil. Give a few drops on a cracker (salt free) several times a week. You can also rub his raw spots with both olive oil and also neosporin ointment to prevent infection. You can also safely apply hydrocortisone cream to the itchy spots as well. All of this may cause his fur to get funky so be prepared for a bit of a greasy rat. Once he is on the mend, thats when a nice bath would be warranted for sure!

Hope to hear back from you soon so we can try to narrow it down and figure out what is going on.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: LOL - Well, I was born in 1969, so there ya go - Cynthia (no middle name) Owens was my maiden name.  I have a cousin Sandy who was born a year after I was born.  Guess those were pretty popular back then.  :)

The PetsMart rodent and reptile representative (who also has 3 rats at home) said for me to bathe him and clean his cage every other week.  He did have a case of mites and the vet told me that was because he wasn't clean enough or had a dirty cage.  His cage has never gone more than 2 weeks w/o being cleaned (all things - thoroughly) and there are no other critters around him that would give him mites.  She admitted not knowing much about rats, but kept having me come back in for one thing or another every single week and runnning the bill at $100 each visit.  I stopped after the first 3 visits because she kept contradicting herself.

He was having nose bleeds but that has stopped.  She said that was, again, due to a dirty cage full of urine or stress.  I figure it had to be stress since he's the only occupant in that big cage and, again, it's cleaned regularly.

Here's what Whiskers has been kept on since Santa Claus [ :) ] brought him to Jordan (daughter) on 12/24/08.
Nutriphase: Crude protein 16%, Crude fat 7%, Curde Fiber 10%, Moisture 12%

I'm not sure how old he is - they didn't know when I got him.  I'm guessing he's about 1 year old.

I did more hydrotherapy on him last night (no soap, just warm water sprayed on the cuts to try to help it heal...as instructed by PetsMart rep).

I'll go back to what I did on my own with the neosporin "massage" - he likes those.  I stopped for fear of trouble with him ingesting it from grooming.

I gave him some sliced almonds and pine nuts (no salt) last night - with 2 yogurt drops.

TTY Soon, Sandy!  :)

Cyn

Answer

For starters, your rat did not have nose bleeds. what you saw was called "porphyrin" and if you check my website, you may see the photos of other rats with it and agree this is what Whiskers had.  It is produced by a gland behind the rats eyes and yes, it is seen when there is stress or stress from illness.  It can be seen sometimes in spatters all around the cage when they sneeze. Some is normal, just like it is normal for our noses to run clear mucus sometimes when we first wake up etc....

As for the mites coming from dirt?  The vet is totally incorrect. Mites can attack even the cleanest animals.  I have had them in my cages and my rats are trained to use a litter box in the cage and have fleece linings on the floors of their cages. They are super clean.  Mite and lice can lay their eggs in the litter that comes from pet stores.  If you use that litter, BOOM! PARASITES!  The best way to treat them is to have kitten strength revolution applied between the shoulder blade, once per month dosed according per weight. THe vial is about $15 for one and you only need a drop from that vial. I would love to know what that vet was doing to Whiskers. Maybe ivermectin?   To clean the cage for mites, once treated, its not worth it to freak out over it. Freeze the bedding/litter for 24 hours, toss out any cardboard toys or wooden toys since mites live in these objects, not the rat. They get on the rat long enough to feed off their blood and back in the cage they go.  Once Whiskers is on the revolution for a month, any eggs already hatched and those baby mites were destroyed as well.    

As for the diet, nutriphase, is this a seed mix or a big rodent pellet?  if its the seed mix, its not nutritious enough for the rats at all and chances are, they pick out their favorite pieces and leave the rest for waste.  You also want to avoid the dried hard kernel corn pieces and anything that has the first ingredient listed as corn, corn meal, cracked corn etc.... if its listed third, its better, but not first.  You do NOT want this to be the base ingredient.      


The small animal rep at the pet store?  These people are not professionals and in fact, Petsmart follows only the protocol that the big boss allows, thats all.  I have gone in there and gone wild over the hermit crab tank before. They wonder why half the hermit crabs are dead and yet they are not doing one single thing RIGHT to keep them alive. Not one thing!  I wrote letters, made phone calls, and when I went back a few months later, I found a brand newly designed hermie tank complete with the proper substrate, the proper food, the proper temp and humidity readings and more living crabs than dead, although they still refused to give them a dish for salt water and a dish for chlorine free water and used just a sponge for their water source which is a joke, crabs dont get water from sucking a sponge! LOL!  Oh well, my point is, the information they give for the care of the animals they say are often inaccurate.  Bathing every two weeks is too much for rats and will dry their skin out by stripping away their natural oils.  I can see if he lived with four other males and they all pee on each other, but he lives alone, nobody pees on him! LOL

The ideal environment for a rat is an environment that will provide open air circulation with very little dust in the bedding.  No candles, air sprays, cigarettes (of course they are not good for anything with a respiratory system!!!!!!) no powders, no incense, nothing that smells at all ever.
Their diet should be low in fats and proteins and consist of alot of vegetables, fruits, some animal protein but only a good source of it from say, white chicken meat or cooked beef livers.
Male rats should never be given oranges due to the fact the juice can cause cancer to their kidneys.
d-limonene in the skin oil is the culprit.  

The diet can cause alot of itching complete with sores and bloodied scabs.  Check out my site on this and let me know if this is what you see on your rat as far as itching goes etc....

Here is the URL to my site.


Check out the page on diets, and also the page about the rats nose and eyes bleeding etc....I think you will find alot of info that you are looking for on proper care.

Let me know what you think:

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/skinproblemsabscesses.htm

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/ratsandahealthydiet.htm

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/bloodynoseandeyes.htm