Sick handicapped rat

Question
Background: My male rat Linus (4 months old) was born handicapped in a litter of 9 (I bought the mom pregnant--she was quite young herself). At first I thought he was the runt, and when didn't seem strong enough to fight his siblings for mom's milk, I dropper fed him additional formula. He did well on it and grew, but soon I realized that not only was he still much smaller than his siblings, he also was late learning to walk. He never learned to sit or climb, but he can walk, run, and climb up low ramps. He eats regular food on his own (like a dog). He is very smart, outgoing and loving. He lives in a cage with his brother, who is very gentle with him. Linus seems to have some sort of dwarfism with his small size and short arms. His legs look as if they're fused at the hip. He has been growing and gaining weight, but is still not anywhere close to normal size. He also seems more susceptible to illness. (Perhaps because he cannot groom himself as well as normal rats can). He has had two abscesses and one leg infection, which healed well with help from our local exotics vet.
To his current problem: he has dark brownish crusty scabs on his ears and nose, which came on and spread very quickly. Our vet took scrapings and examined them under the microscope for mites, but couldn't see any. She checked for fungi with a purple sort of light, but no fungi showed up. So she thinks it might be vasculitis, as the tips of his ears look purple. She said an underlying auto-immune disorder may be the cause of it. She also gave me an antibiotic cream for his ears and nose, to apply twice a day for one week, then check back with her. She warned me that he might lose his ears.
I've looked all over the Internet for more info on this, but he seems to be a rare case with his handicap as well as this condition. I'd love to know if you've encountered this before, and whether you agree with my vet's diagnosis.
I could email pictures of Linus if that would be helpful. Thank you for your time.

Answer
Hi

Linus sounds like a real sweet heart and a tough little guy too. Its funny that we tend to feel sorry for them yet they are so determined and tough, they arent even half as aware of their handicap as we are. I currently have two rats that have handicaps. One had to lose an eye lastyear due to infection that destroyed his vision and the other rat is blind in both  eyes (severe ear infection that was hard to contain caused the bacteria to go to his brain which in turn caused some permanent neurological problems and vision loss. Despite their handicaps, both rats fare above and beyond our expectations!!!!

That said, it sounds like little Linus is not really allowing his handicap  to stand in his way much.

For the record, did you know that there are such things as "dwarf rats" that are bred to be just that: dwarf rats. However, I am not sure about the limb size as far as if they are in porportion with the rest of the body as I have not studied them much.

As for the vasculitis, it is  not common as you said and I have only seen it once before. I cannot disagree with the vet at all,  sight unseen, by from what you describe, my first guess would be Otitis Externa rather than vasculitis.  Otitis externa can be associated with many things, from infections such as bacterial, fungal, or even yeast infections, dermatitis or an autoimmune disorder too.
Can you send some photos of his ear etc??
My personal email is; Askcritterkeeper@yahoo.com

thanks


Sandy