Found rat with growth - how can I help it?

Question
QUESTION: Hello -

I work in an outlet store mall, and after work last night, I saw a rat running straight towards me.  As I backed up, it followed.  I backed off the pavement and onto a grassy/dirt area and it followed me, then began turning over rocks and looking underneath. I noticed that she had a little hair missing on her back and a rather large growth on her entire hind leg.  It didn't seem to impair her gait.  I assume it's a tumor. She responded to me immediately, so I knew she was an abandoned pet.

It was cold and rainy last night, and I couldn't leave her to die.  I gave her a cheddar wheat cracker, which she accepted readily. I found a shoe box in a nearby trash bin and set it down beside her, and she went right into it.  I have an empty cage here at home, so we got it out and set the box inside.  When I filled the water bottle, she went eagerly to it, drinking quite a lot and washing herself. My husband was very worried about germs, fleas, etc, and when I opened the shoe box, she jumped at us immediately so my husband will not allow the cage in the house.  She is on our heated enclosed porch right now.

I worry that if I take her to the animal shelter with a growth on her leg, she'll be euthanized.  I am upset that someone would abandon an ill pet..  if treatment cannot be afforded, then this pet deserved a safe, warm, familiar environment to spend her last days. She seems very sweet. She ate some carrot sticks overnight and there was normal stool in the bottom of the cage this morning, so I think this is a good sign.  Her eyes are bright and clear. Her coat is not shiny, but seems dusty and dirty, which is understandable considering where she's lived for an unknown period of time.  She was not starved looking, but definately hungry and thirsty.

I am not familiar with rats, so I don't know if the growth is a result of cancer or diabetes, which our Guinea pig had before she passed away.  I don't know what the bare patch could be - it is simply missing hair, not raw or weeping.

Thank you so much for attending to my inquiry!!

Sincerely,

Susan


ANSWER: Thank you so much for saving her! People amaze me...they let this rat loose to avoid treatment.  She may have an abscess...
You can clean the area with warm soapy water and see what this lump looks like..if she has sores, you can apply antibiotic ointment.Is it on the outer or inner part of her leg?  Under her belly or on her back ?

I will tell you now rats like her do NOT carry any disease that you can catch, esp rabies. Rats are not known carriers of rabies and in fact if bitten by a rabid animal would no doubt die from injuries sustained before even incubating rabies since they are so small. This little rat jumped at you when you went to see her to get attention.
Rats are super smart, like dogs, and bond to their owner like you would not believe. She has the will to survive obviously...so you should decide if you want a pet rat or not because if so, she should be seen by a vet for a check up on that lump. If not, I can find a rescue for her that will NOT put her down, but any other place will, or else use her for snake food. This rat wants a family, its obvious.

What you can do for her now is keep her warm, give her water and good food.  Just food from the house is ok for now such as vegetables like peas, corn, carrots, dried unsweetened cereal, even scramble an egg for her. She would love that.  Pet store foods should be avoided except for the rat blocks or logs. The seeds are garbage for rats.
As for cancerous growths on rats, usually the are benign and can be removed easily.

What type of litter are you using?
There is so much to say about rats its impossible to get it all down here so I will send you to my website starting with this page for rat care. You will fall in love with this rat, I can tell you now, so beware. LOL

Oh and you can give her a bath also once she is calm and rested.
Just a bit of water in the tub and you can suds her with baby shampoo and dry her well.

Tell me about the lump...is there a hole in it or drainage at all? Any odor?

Also, bring the cage inside...she wont give you rabies or disease, I promise. SHe will, however, get sick with so many changes in temp. Rats do not do well in cold nor do they do well in heat either. Tell hubby I Promise that she jumped from the shoe box either because she was scared or just wanted held. Not to attack. Rats dont attack, they run and hide.


What color is she and how big do you think she is?  

If you do notice any red from her nose or eyes, it will look like blood but its not. Its  a mucus that is produced by a gland behind their eyes that occurs during stressful times. I am shocked she doesnt have it. IT is called PORPHYRIN.  She must be laid back as ever!

Also, if you hear a chattering from her like a grinding sound, this is called bruxing and they do this when content and happy, like a cat purrs. Scratch behind her ears...message her head and back and she will brux her heart out. Also, never stick fingers in bars to feed because they are near blind and may bite thinking its food. I promise you she isnt going to hurt anyone, tell hubby this is far from a wild sewer rat and in fact they get a bad rap too. I raised one and she was the best rat I have ever had!

Here is the link to my site:

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

Check out the next page, GETTING STARTED for info on proper care such as litter (no pine or cedar or corn cob) and housing etc....

If you had a GP before you know about rodents....and rats, although I love cavy, are smarter than cavy in many ways.  They can read you and if you have negative energy they pick up on it.
I just cant believe someone tossed this rat....yeah, wait...yes I can. If they toss puppies and kittens why not rats!  

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SAVING HER!  Again, if you do not want to keep her, let me know where you live (city and state) and I can try to find a rat rescue that will place her in a foster home. Yes, they really do exist if you can believe it!  Last year I saved two rats from the dog pound. They do not even bother finding homes for rats in many shelters like this so I was lucky they kept these boys for a bit. I took them home just hours before they were scheduled to be euthanized. They were starving, thirsty and filthy and now they are old men...clean, happy and fat!   LOL

Looking forward to hearing from you!


Sandy

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

QUESTION: Hi again -

Unfortunately, I ran out to the grocery store after work tonight and bought pine shavings for bedding. She sniffed it and bit a piece of it, so she seemed to recognize it.  I will have to find something else for her tomorrow.

Okay, the lump is entirely on the outside of one of her hind legs. The bottom of it looks wet and kind of yellowish, so it could very well be an abcess. The lump itself is purplish with visible veins in it. I held her tonight wearing gardening gloves and she was very docile and calm.  She allowed me to look through her fur for critters, and examine the lump.  I didn't press my luck, though, because I was afraid of hurting her. I didn't see a hole, and there is no smell at all.

She is a brown and white rat, with the brown mostly on her head like a "hood".  She seemed light, and about as big as the palm of my hand. I could not begin to guess at gram weight.

I noticed no red anywhere near her eyes or nose. She is sweet tempered and very inquisitive. I can easily see that she is a very loving creature and I would love to keep her! But..

At this point, my husband is feeling much more favorable towards this little one, but we do already share a home with a largish Golden Retriever and two house cats. I am concerned also that I could not afford a vet for the care of her in addition to these, so if there is someone nearby that could care for her better (without arbitrarily killing her!) I think that would be best.  I live in Fryeburg, Maine and work in North Conway, NH.

If there isn't anyone nearby I would probably try to find a vet that can help her and keep her!

Thank you so much for your information and support!

~Susan



ANSWER: I have just the people to help you.  You may have to email them a few times but they will help you.  They are fantastic!!!!

Not long ago someone wrote me about a rat that had escaped a pet store next to her cafe and began to live within the walls of the cafe. For months she waited for this rat to come out but the rat came out only when everyone left to get the food and water they left out for her. Finally they trapped her and kept her. She was a "feral rat" by that time and totally terrfied of everyone. Another problem: turns out she was pregnant from a wild rat and to top it all off, this wonderful lady was seriously allergic to rats and had flu like symptoms every time she touched the rat. I had to break the news to her that in order to be able to tame the new babies she had to handle them at least daily to get them socialized so the poor woman had her self so sick trying her best to handle and tame the babies. I knew this wasnt fair to her or the rats so I gave her the name of Kims Ark. They came to her rescue and between several rat lovers they adopted the feral mother rat and her half wild babies and everyone was happily ever after!!

Here is the website:

http://www.kimsarkrescue.org/content/view/17/32/

They are based in Massachusetts and Kim's Ark also works hard to provide transport throughout New England (MA, NH, RI, VT, and ME) and the Mid-Atlantic states (NJ, NY, CT, PA)so this is the place for you for sure!!

All I ask in return is a follow up to let me know how it goes! My email is: Askcritterkeeper@yahoo.com

Thanks so much and GOOD LUCK!!!!

Sandy

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

QUESTION: Hello -

Back again!  I did e-mail Kim's Ark, and am awaiting a reply.  I have to say, though, you weren't kidding when you said she'd winnow her way to our hearts.

I gave her a warm bath yesterday, which she didn't really like but she submitted to (lots of poop in the water!), and she looks shinier and smells better today.  She absolutely adores rat blocks and her new cotton fluff bedding. She stuffs all her blocks under her bed, in fact. I think she is a young rat.  She is thin (possibly from the growth?) and sleek looking. She's grooming and scratching a little, so I worry about mites.  Is there any way to tell if she has mites?

She has bitten us a few times, mostly short nips, but she bit into the end of my nose like a peach. Maybe it smelled good. She nipped my hand only after I had applied shea butter hand lotion, so I think I smelled like food!

She absolutely adores my 8 year old son, and it is mutual. She is grooming him and allows him to carry her around on his shoulder and in the big "kangaroo pouch" on his sweatshirt.  He wanted to name her and did not like "lady" names, so we settled on Gidget. His brothers are much older than him, so I am not surprised that he is the one who latched onto her the moment he found the cage.

We have a milk crate that we keep mismatched socks in for cleaning and it is her favorite playground, poking her head in and out of the holes and the socks.

I have called three local vets but due to the holiday weekend we probably won't hear from them until Tuesday at the earliest.  

I wonder if Kim's Ark is going to call with a foster home in time - my husband is already talking about a trip to Home Depot to buy PVC piping and L joints to make a home-made habitrail.  And, he came into the livingroom where the boys were playing to tell me that rats take baby aspirin for pain and metabolize food and chemicals much like humans, which is why they are used in labs.

I think he likes her.

I have to also add that he really liked your reply. He said that your reply obviously took some time to write and you knew a lot about the subject, so he felt at ease with the information you provided.  

:)) Thanks again -

Susan  

Answer
Hey Susan

Here is another rat rescue link and they are located in Maine.
www.mainelyratrescue.org


I have a feeling that if you dont surrender her soon, you wont want to do it. I told you so.....:)

Rats are the sweetest pets to have, they are just misunderstood and get that bad rap due to their wild ancestors and even they are just as sweet as the domestic. Like I said, I raised one and she was the best!

About mites:  Rats are super clean and groom alot. They also scratch alot too....often making us think something is wrong.  If she had scabs and sores and loss of fur in areas it could be parasites or it could be high protein  in her diet. Often you will see the mites on  the rats skin.  Have you seen any tiny critter running across her scalp during her bath?

Your husband is right about the rats body being very close to humans which is why we use them for testing.  In fact, when a female rat develops a mammary tumor, once it is removed, they can take the same drugs human women take to treat breast cancer and it prevents it from spreading or returning.  Rats can take advil, most anitibiotics although there are special ones used for one specific bacteria they are born with that causes respiratory disease and since this bacteria lacks a cell wall, most drugs wont touch it so they use baytril often for respiratory disaease.  Rats can take valium (I have used it alot) and even heart medications. They also can be given certain narcotics for pain relief after surgery. IF (I know you say no but this is IF...LOL) you plan to keep her and she needs to see a vet, just like when you had your cavy, you will need a vet that is an exotic specialist. They are no more expensive or INexpensive than regular vets and in fact its almost a waste of money to see a vet that is not well versed in rat care because you will keep going back with a rat that is taking forever to recover because the vet is doing it by trial and error and the rat is the one that suffers in the end.  On my website I have a page about VETS and have a link to all of the doctors in the world that are board certified exotic vets.  I dont know if you used that link or not to find any vets but here is the URL:

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


I am glad hubby trusts my opinion. I have been working with rats for years and also work along side vets in my area, some of them call on me for back up help when dealing with the owners. My job is to come in and discuss proper care and treatment with the rat owner. Sometimes in a busy vet clinic its hard for the Vet to sit and go over and over things with pet owners to their satisfaction which is where I come in. I do alot of "talking" so when I found allexperts I knew that I could simply do the same thing online that I do in real life without audio and instead, take it to the keyboard.  Some of it is rewarding, other times it can be heartbreaking but my job is to help the rats and to help the rat owner understand the rat and their duty as a pet owner in general.  Its just something in my blood, I guess because it all came very natural for me.

Anyhow, let me know when you hear something from Kims Ark. I would try them a few more times just in case the email was lost. I heard they are hard to reach. As for Mainly rat rescue, I know nothing about them but someone gave me the link to their website which I thought I would pass along to you.

How is your son feeling about having to give up Gidget? Has the cat noticed a rat in the air yet?  To make you feel better...I have 7 cats and a dog, 4 hermit crabs that I have had for several years (they were small and now they are the size of tennis balls!!) and a bunny on top of having five rats.  All of my rats are males. One is blind in both eyes, one is missing one eye (he had to have it removed due to serious infection) and the other three are just big fat black lazy 2 pound males.  I have had my fill of just about everything from A to Z as far as dealing with rats so there is nothing about them that will shock me.

Take care and enjoy Gidget....I am really curious to see if this little rat wins you all over hands down and you end up keeping her. If you do and you worry about the vet bill, depending on what the lump is....it may need lanced or even removed surgically and if that is the case depending on the vet, it isnt going to cost you hundreds and hundreds of dollars.In fact....paying for the gas to go to the clinic may cost MORE than the vet bill!!  No LOL there.  We are right at the $4 per gal. mark in Charlotte NC....not sure about your area but friends I know in CA are well over that and its scary!!!!

ANyhow keep me posted....have a safe holiday too!

Sandra