Rat suddenly extremely sick and likely dying

Question
QUESTION: One of my two rats, Quinn, is always very energetic.  Just last night, he was climbing the bars near the cage door asking for a treat.  My fiance filled their dish for dinner, and said, "I don't see Quinn.  He usually comes running.  

Quinn was in his hammock, suddenly looking bone thin and not moving.  I put some baby food in the lid for him and he tried to carry it off, but cannot eat it.  Even when I use a dropper to put it in his mouth, he doesn't swallow.  When he walks (which is almost never), he stumbles as if the weight of his spine is too much for him to hold up.  He looks like he's been starved to death or is severely dehydrated, but he has been eating fine until tonight.  

After I tried to dropper feed him, I noticed blood near his penis that wasn't there when I first picked him up.  He also had a drop of blood near his mouth.  He is acting like a rat that got a hold of decon, but there's no possible way.

I honestly don't expect him to make it through the next hour.  I'm just wondering what may have caused this to know if it's something contagious that his cagemate might also have. Any ideas?

ANSWER: Dear Nicole

I am really sorry about Quinn and do hope he is still here today when you read this so he can be treated by a vet right away.  It is totally impossible to guess what is wrong with Quinn without an examination. I would need to listen to his lungs and heart also to rule out pneumonia. Often, strep pneumonia will be a sudden onset like this, out of the blue, and they do not always need to have any audible congestion that you can hear unless of course you use a stethoscope to listen. The blood may or may not be blood. Sometimes when rats are stressed they secrete a mucus type substance produced by an excretory gland behind the eye (the harderian gland. This gland produces porphyrin naturally but when the rat is stressed due to illness or other reasons such as change in a living situation or loss of a cagemate etc...this can also be another reason for excessive porphyrin discharge. Sometimes when the rat grooms himself he will get the red staining on his paws and rub it on his fur or other areas such as his face and chest etc....

Was your rat wheezing, gasping or doing any open mouth breathing at all?

Anyhow, it is pretty impossible to tell what could be wrong with him without me physically holding him and checking him out and it would not be fair for me to try to tell you otherwise.  

I know you want me to give you at least a general idea of what could be wrong and that is what I am here for so I will do that.  It could be a number of things but the most common ailments that affect our rats with such an acute and brutal onset would be strep pneumonia, stroke, or possible sepsis from an unknown origin which is more common in our pet rats than many folks realize.  Rats are prone to developing abscesses because of the various amounts of bacteria they come in contact with daily from their cage mates. Even a simple cut can turn into a nasty abscess. Nothing shocks me when it comes to these critters.
What he truly needs now though is a vet and fast. Most cities have an emergency vet clinic that you can hurry your sick rat to.  If you do not have a vet that is experienced with rats let me know where you live and what cities your closest to and I can help you find a vet.

Also, I hate to bring this up but if your little friend has already passed away, you can have a necropsy done (animal autopsy) and most vets do not charge you anything unless the need to send out  tissue samples to a pathologist if they cannot identify the problem right away without going further evaluation from a pathology lab.  Most things can be detected such as tumors or bleeding in areas internally, the condition of the vital internal organs such as heart, liver, lungs, kidneys and the health of these organs are noted just by the color, shape, size and texture of the organs.
This is the best way to determine what your rat had and to know if it was something contagious too.
Please keep me posted and remember, let me know if you need help locating a vet.  He needs to be seen today if he hasn't gone already.   Good luck and hang in there!

Sandra Todd

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

QUESTION: Thanks for your response.  He did pass last night, about 30 minutes after I posted this.  I did not hear any wheezing or gasping for breath.  His breathing was slow versus quick and shallow.  He didn't make any noise at all until just a few minutes before he passed.  At that time, he almost did what I would consider the rat version of a scream.  He squeaked very loudly and tried to roll over violently.  Once he was on his side, he quieted/calmed down and laid on his side for a few minutes before passing in my arms.

We are moving this weekend (which unfortunatley makes necropsy difficult - though I had thought about it).  I'm debating whether or not to get Ronin a new cagemate after we get settled in the new house.  Just in case Quinn was contagious, how long should Ronin be quarantined before getting him a new buddy so that he doesn't suffer from lonliness?

Thank you so much for your response. :)

Answer
I am so sorry this happened. I do suspect some sort of internal problems more than any type of viral or bacterial infection from the way you described his passing.
Again, it is so difficult to know what happened but your wise to quarantine before bringing in a new rat PLUS you need to quarantine the new rat. I would pick out the new rat now and they will be start a 3 week quarantine. Most ecto and endo parasites show up in about 2 weeks (lice, mice, internal worms) but it seems you and I are more worried about something much worse such as bacterial pneumonia etc..and some bad nasty viruses. In that case, 3 full weeks of quarantine is required to allow for incubation of diseases which would be around 7 to 21 days, depending on its origin.
Remember, separate air space too.
I lost a wonderful rat to loneliness. My beautiful rex boy, Griffin, lost his cage mate to chronic lung disease and so I wanted to also quarantine Griffin before adding another rat and the poor boy was so lonely without Dodger that his immune system became weak.  He passed from a simple flare up of mycoplasmosis that caused a respiratory infection and normally he would have probably fought it off fine but he was so depressed, it just depleted his immune system and he couldn't fight it.  I was devastated but believe now more than ever how much rats really love their cagemates.

Again, I am so so sorry for your loss. Its so hard to see them pass away and you just feel so helpless.