Sore on Minnies little foot

Question
My little rat Minnie is almost 2 years old and has developed a large sore on her left hind foot. I have been bathing her and washing the sore frequently as well as, trying to keep it bandaged. I have also tried different types of bedding; pine, newspaper, alfalfa etc. It continues to get bigger and bleeds sometimes. What should I do?

Answer
Hi Nellie

Minnie has a condition called "bumble foot" and it is a local infection caused by a few things I am going to discuss with you in a minute.

First of all we need to get her and keep her away from pine bedding and also alfalfa.  Pine and cedar bedding are very bad for rats. These litters contain phenol oils which can cause liver disease in elderly rats. Pet stores don't tell you this but there are plenty of articles even in the Veterinarians journal with warnings on these two litters.
Second, alfalfa is one thing rats cannot digest and can cause digestive disturbances.  I know you want to do what is best and meant well but I wanted to warn you since you probably had no idea.

Next, lets talk about Nellie. Is she on the chubby side by chance?

Bumble foot is often occurs when the rats food has a little scratch in it and they come in contact with bacteria. Its a pressure sore that becomes infected, so to speak. These sores develop on the back end of the foot and become large and sore and they spread and flatten out and bleed and cause discomfort to the rat. Sometimes the infection can become severe enough it can travel into the ankle bone and that could create some serious problems.
Keeping her in a soft, padded floored cage for now will help ease the pressure. You can buy fleece or even baby receiving blankets from the local Walmart and lay it down in the cage and put the litter (Aspen or care fresh only, no more pine) in a shoe box or something that she can use for a litter box. The goal is to keep her foot as clean as you can. It used to be thought that when the rats walk on wire floors this would cause bumble foot but thats not true since there have been alot of rats developing it when they live in cages with solid floors. If a rat piddles on the cage floor and stands in it after the urine has sat and bacteria has grown in the puddle, any skin on the rats foot that is open allows the germs to enter in. If the rat is overweight, this makes matters worse because the amount of pressure on the rats feet help the rat to sink even deeper down applying more pressure.
My rat Peanut had it and in fact he lived with it for a year. Oral antibiotics would not work either and topical medications didn't work as well. He would bleed from them and it broke my heart. I came up with a way to pad his little foot when the sores were angry looking and he actually left the gauze pads alone like he knew it helped the sores feel better. Infection is usually from staph but it can be from a fungus as well.
What to do aside from keeping her cage padded and as free from scattered urine puddles and rat raisins (poops!!) as you possibly can (its hard, I know!) rinse the area a few times a day and apply neosporin ointment, rubbing it in as best as you can and see if this works.  If you feel better, by all means, take her to the vet and perhaps she may respond well to antibiotic treatment too. If you dont have a vet let me know and I can find one that sees rats in your area.

Here are some links for you about bumblefoot and also about the dangers of pine and cedar just in case you would feel better hearing about it from another source.  Some people that have used pine on their rats for years and have had no problem often put the idea aside not realizing the damage to the liver is not visible until the rat is older, often posing problems during surgery if the liver is not working right and it cannot filter out the anesthesia properly. Be sure to tell your vet that she has been on pine for however long she has been on it just so he can make a note of it too.

Bumblefoot can be a real pain to control but take comfort in the fact that the bleeding may look bad but she wont lose alot of blood. It is just uncomfortable and sore. It should scab over and when it does it wont bleed but over time the scabs wear off and the bleeding starts again.

Hope this has helped you and please feel free to contact me again and in fact let me know how things go. Right now my rat, Templeton has bumbles on both heels of his little funky looking feet. He is on oral antibiotic now and I also use neosporin on his heels and also cortisone for inflammation (You can use that too, I forgot to add that) plus we see alot of cases come in the clinic with it and over the years I have yet to see a rat heal 100percent it. I myself, cringe when I hear another rat has it because I know what a pain in the neck it is to treat.

Info on pine and cedar:

http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/guineapigs/a/woodshavings.htm

http://www.afrma.org/rminfo2a.htm

http://thedomesticzoo.com/2006/02/15/wednesday-february-15-2006/

http://carawatha.tripod.com/article_2.htm

Bumblefoot information:

http://exoticpets.about.com/od/careofrats/p/bumblefoot.htm

In this last link, scroll down and there is a photo of a sweet rattie with bad bumbles on each foot, poor little guy! :(
You can use this photo to compare since of course I havent seen your rats feet but from what you describe, it is bumblefoot hands down.

http://www.rmca.org/Articles/qna3_97.htm






Good luck

Sandra