small red bugs

Question
I HAVE A PET RAT AND NOTICED YESTERDAY THAT HE HAD A COUPLE OF SORES ON HIS BACK. I GOT TO LOOKING AT THEM MORE CAREFULLY AND NOTICED THAT HE ALSO HAS LITTLE RED FLEA LOOKING BUGS ALL OVER HIM. I DONT KNOW WHAT THESE ARE OR HOW TO TREAT THEM. CAN YOU HELP ME IDENTIFY THEM AND FIGURE OUT TO GET RID OF THEM? THANK YOU SO MUCH


Answer

Your rat has tropical rat mites and needs to see a vet in order to get rid of them.  The vet will give him a safe medication to use or he may apply it there at the clinic that will kill these mites.  You must clean the cage and freeze any litter for 24 hours to kill off any mites and eggs before putting it in the cage again.  Nothing over the counter is safe to use on your rats for this or it could possibly poison him.  If you need names of vets that treat exotics please let me know your location and I will give you names of vets to call for an appointment. Failure to treat these bugs will result in serious anemia from blood loss since mites live off the rats blood. They do not get on humans so dont worry.