respiratory illness

Question
I have a rat named Rocky, and went to the pet store to buy Manny, a new friend for Rocky.  As soon as we got Manny home I noticed he was sneezing a lot and making a clicking noise in his mouth.  I knew he had a respiratory illness, so I brought him back to the petstore for treatment.  About 3 days later, I noticed Rocky was also sick.  He was sneezing about every 10 minutes, and I had never heard him sneeze before (he's very healthy).  So I called the petstore, and after talking to the Regional Manager, finally was able to get the petstore to cover Rocky's vet bill, since the sick rat that they had sold me got my other rat sick.  I got Baytril for Rocky, in the tablet form and have a 14 day dosage.  My question is, now that Manny has been treated and is ready to come back home from the petstore, how many days should I wait before putting him back in with Rocky?  I don't want this cycle to continue.

Answer

Many rat owners have never heard to do this because pet stores fail to tell you this. You are supposed to quarantine all new rats from existing rats for 3 full weeks in a totally different room. It goes beyond that, too. The owner must also follow proper procedure such as washing up between handling rats, blowing the nose to rid the mucus membranes of any inhaled germs and even stay away from the rats between handling them if you dont shower or change clothes. The viruses live for three hours on fomites that we carry, even the bottom of our shoes. Pet store rats carry SDA SENDAI viruses that can wipe out an entire colony of rats so this is one reason for such strict procedures.

Because you were not told about quarantine, the new rat was sick and passed it to your existing rat. I am glad it worked out ok but next time you bring in any new rats, be sure to read up on my site the proper procedures.  You can also google quarantine of pet rats and find pretty much the same thing I suggest too.  

Since both rats were treated, you can put them together after your sure that the rats have both been treated for a full three days and are starting to feel better.

Here is the URL to my site and the page on quarantine:

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

Hope this helps!