Rat urine in my cut!!!

Question
Hi, I am very new to the Rat world, I just got my first rat (it is a baby dumbo rat) on 2/13/09 from our local Petsmart.  Tonight while I was playing with her she was crawling all over my hands and urinated on my hand.  Well, I have a cut on my hand, the urine went into the cut and started burning.  I washed it with soap and water and then cleaned it with peroxide and now put neosporin on it.  Is urine in my broken skin dangerous??  Is there something I should do??? Thanks so much!

Answer
Hi and welcome to the world of rats!


For starters, you are fine.  Rats urine is not going to be contaminated with any pathogens that can make you or any animal sick so dont worry.  In fact, dont worry about any kind of disease that you may have heard horror stories about that is said rats can transmit. Most of it is just a bunch of hooey, and trust me, hooey is not the word I would normally use, but this is not my website and I dont want to sound unprofessional....lol......so I have to bite my tongue and say HOOEY instead of something else I am thinking of. Fill in the blank if you want! ________________

Fromm rabies to typhoid fever, there is NO CHANCE you will get any of that stuff from rats so fear not. Rabies is something rats have never passed to a human from a bite.  I tell people that try to argue this with me that if they use logic, it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE for a rat to incubate and carry the rabies virus to someone through a bite. The rat is a very small animal. Even in the wild, if a rabid fox or raccoon attacked the rat (and when an animal is rabid, they are crazed with aggression!) the attack itself will kill the rat so the rat wont even live long enough to incubate the virus and pass it on to anyone through a bite. There has never been a case of rabies in the United states that was documented, not ever.  Other diseases are species specific and we are talking a domestic rat anyhow that was born captive and did not come in contact with dirty garbage cans or germ infested, rancid water etc...that could carry germs that can make the rat sick.

So long story short, the fact your rats urine got in an open wound wont make you sick at all.  I have a nasty burn from an iron and my rats lick it....I dont like it but they still get a lick or two in when they are near me.  They want to make me feel better, I guess.LOL

So now that we have that out of the way.....

There is tons of things to learn about rats and their care in order to keep them nice and healthy so they live as long as possible.  Rats that are given the nasty seed diets off the shelves of pet stores and are kept in aquariums on litter with phenol oils such as pine, cedar, or if the owner uses corn cob bedding or cat litter, both can be eaten by the rat and cause severe complications in their stomach such as blockages in the intestines etc...do not seem to live past 2 years old and that is pushing it.

However, when a rat owner loads their brain with everything there is to know about rats from A to Z from proper diet (they need low protein and low fat diets which as said above, cannot be found in seed mixes) High protein can damage their kidneys and of course high fat can cause heart problems among other things.  Also, taking them out and letting them exercise and play is vital to their growth and well being too.  
That said, I am going to send you to my website, Critter City.  I made it a few years back in order to help new rat owners learn all they could about proper rat care.  When I started keeping rats many years ago, I only knew the basics and had to learn things on my  own since there wasnt much material on pet rats not to mention we didnt have the wonderful internet to turn to for a learning too, either.

Start at the HOME PAGE and be sure to check out each page, from GETTING STARTED which will tell you all you need to set up the proper living quarters for your rat and also how to make a play area that is safe for the rat and is "escape proof" too, so you dont have to worry she will take off and hide for hours.  This can be used for you and her to sit inside and interact daily.  Well you will see when you go to the site, its made out of cardboard and was invented by Robin of THE DAPPER RAT from the lovely UK !

Here is the URL to the site.  Please let me know after you check it out and if you have any questions please ask away!

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