What killed my sons rat?

Question
I bought my son 2 rats from Pet-Smart about 4 months ago and they had been healthy and happy until the past few days. The smaller rat developed a bald spot on his head, but seemed to be doing okay until this morning. He seemed kind of listless. This afternoon my 10 year old called me in tears because his pet rat was dead in the cage. The other rat seems find right now but I'm wondering what I should do. I can't get another rat until I find out if this is contagious. What do you suggest? Thanks

Answer
Hi Leeann

I am really sorry about your sons rat. Unfortunately, when you buy rats from petstores there is no telling what kind of line they are bred from and often,the breeder that breeds for petstores probably doesn't keep track either. They are often known as "breeding mills" which means the animals are not bred for health nor temperament. What happens with rats goes like this: Rats are bred with the intent to be used as feeder rats to supply to stores that sell rats and mice as feeders. Petstores usually pick out the more unusual looking rats rather than just selling plain white rats with the red eyes or black ones (both happen to be my favorite color of rats as a matter of fact!) The more unusual looking rats are sold as "pets" but they usually come from the same litter as the other rats that were unlucky enough to be left in the feeder tank. :-(   Most Petmarts do NOT sell feeder rats but that doesn't mean that the breeder isn't pulling out the unique looking rats from the feeder stock, which is often the case.  There are a handful of petstores that have breeders that are indeed breeding better quality pet rats, mice etc...with the intent they are sold as pets only, but its not real common.  The moral of the story is, your sons rat probably was born with a congenital abnormality that took his life early on. Death that is sudden like that is almost always caused by heart attack, blood clot to the brain, heart or lung, but chances are that the poor little guy had anything that is contagious is pretty slim. Usually when they have something contagious, they are sick at least 12 hours before death. This is true with Streptococcal pneumonia and if your rat had it, trust me, you or your son would have seen symptoms of illness prior to his death.
The fact he was listless first and died suddenly is leading me to believe it was indeed his heart and he probably was born with some type of heart ailment that went undetected until it was too late.  

I am going to assume that your rat did not take a fall from any high places or had any type of mishap such as someone accidentally stepping on him or shutting the door on him and it was just assumed he was OK afterwards since you did not mention anything like that in your post...so internal injuries do not sound like a possibility either.

Since I can see your anxious to get the surviving rat a cagemate, which of course is a wise decision since rats are highly social and intelligent animals that do not enjoy flying solo unless of course they make that choice on their own (which is not common, but it happens) I would be sure to get a buck a tad younger than the one you have now, but not too young since adult bucks, especially intact bucks (unneutered) have been known to kill very young ratlets.
If your buck is 6 months old, find a buck that is around 4 months old so he will not mind so much allowing the existing rat to be alpha.
Also be sure to follow strict quarantine measures before introducing the two rats, regardless if you buy the rat from the same store or even if the rat was from the same litter. You never know what kind of contagious viruses have been brought in to the store around the rodents. Deadly viruses such as SDA are very contagious and common among pet store rats.  If your not sure how to go about proper quarantine, I will provide you with a link that talks about proper quarantine and also will answer questions if you are wondering why it is so important that you follow the guidelines.  If you are not sure about going back to the petstore for your next rat, you can also try looking for a breeder in your area, or I can also assist you in finding one. A reputable breeder breeds rats from lines that have a history of good health and even temperament. Most good breeders will take out any breeding rats that are linked to any history of cancerous tumors, megacolon and other ailments that are inherited. Although there is still no absolute guarantee your rat will never fall ill other than the usual ailments associated with old age, the chances that they are more healthy are much much higher when buying from a good breeder.  I have also had luck with petstore rats so I hate to say they are ALL bad, because they aren't....but with the demand for pet rats rising because of the recent movie about rats (the name escapes me now...sorry) more rats are being bred back to back which only tells me that more rats are inbred and more ailments are imbedded deeper into these poor critters than ever before.

I did not mean to write a small novel here, so forgive my lengthy response. I just wanted to be sure I covered all bases.

Oh, and the bald spot on your rats head? Sounds like it was totally unrelated to his death. His cagemate probably groomed him a little too aggressively or he may have done it himself from scratching, but again, I doubt this was in any way related to the little guy's death.

It is probably too late now, but what I advise people to do when there is an unexplained sudden death of their pet rat is to carefully wrap the deceased rat in a towel etc...and put him in a bag or box and keep in cold in the refrigerator until you can take his body to the vets for a necropsy. Never freeze the animal prior to necropsy as this will damage the tissues and render them useless to be used for the necropsy. 24 hours or less is best. Also, if you do not have a vet that is either a certified exotic specialist OR a traditional vet that has a special interest in exotics with experience working with rats and other pocket pets, I would find one now before your rats become ill and need to be treated. It may be a bit of a hassle to find a vet for your rat and if its an emergency, you will be pulling your hair out in frustration trying to locate a vet for your rat and meanwhile, the rat is in dire need of a vet. If you need help in locating one, just let me know and I will do my best to find one for you.

Feel free to follow up if you need any more advice.
Hope this helped!


Good luck

Sandra Todd