death of one rat ,concern for others

Question
QUESTION: hello, i have kept rats in twos or threes for a few years now, purchasing the rat kits from a local reputable pet shop. Unfortunately we seem to have been very unlucky with respiratory illnesses so instead of replacing our rats as they died i decided to wait this time until our last old rat sadly died before getting any more. we bought a bigger, better cage with three levels a added lots of ropes ,tubes etc. over the past six weeks we have bought 5 new kits. 2 from a the original pet shop and 3 from a breeder (2 dumbos and a husky) . one of the baby  dumbos was rather unsettled at first and i did get a little concerned at her lethargic behaviour and her laboured breathing but this cleared in a few days and she has become a lovely happy pet. sadly last week one of the pet shop kits started to display similar traits, very lethargic, laboured breathing, red discharge from nose. she continued to eat and drink well and did pick up a little over the weekend. i decided to take her to the vets  anyway for my own piece of mind. she was examined and the vet said she had a bad respiratory disease and prescribed Baytril. he suggested she may have permanent scarring to the lungs due to the infection but should be ok. Sadly when we returned home i offered her the first drop of Baytril but she got anxious and i decided to let her calm down from the car journey etc, within a few minutes she had some sort of fit and despite my best efforts to revive her died in my hands. The vet advised us just to monitor the others closely in light of this event but i just wondered if you can give me any other advice as to how i can try to prevent the same thing happening to any of the others. i am devistated as i really tried to do things correctly this time and i am already really attached to our little gang, please can you offer any assistance? sorry i have been so long winded, i wanted to give you the whole picture, thankyou, Lisa
ANSWER: I have been hesitate to answer your question because it's so hard to talk about Mycoplasmosis, the number one killer of our pet rats.

I read your post over and over again, trying to come up with a short answer, and I could come to only one conclusion from the readings; both your respectable pet store and the breeder are breeding a line of rats that easily get Myco flare-ups. A flare-up is what you described as, "lethargic behavior and her labored breathing but this cleared in a few days and she has become a lovely happy pet". Each time they have a flare-up and get over it, the disease has already damaged a bit more of their lungs. It's like these rats have no immunity to the affects of Myco. They are too young to be sick with Myco, and a rat has to be sick for a long time to show symptoms.

All of our pet rats are born with the Mycoplasmosis bug in their lungs......... You know, Myco is a difficult disease to explain, please allow me to to give you some links from people who have both a better understanding and a better way of explaining it then I do:
http://search.sympatico.msn.ca/results.aspx?q=Mycoplasmosis+in+rats&FORM=MSN6B&l

Were any of the babies sneezing when you brought them home? Were they making "piggy" noises? These are the first signs of Myco. If they weren't then in all likelihood the rats were already well into a Myco Flare-up when you bought them. Some schools of thought believe that the myco bug, that starts with symptoms in the nasal cavity, is passed from one rat to the other through sneezing.

All of your rats should be on a combination of Doxycycline and Baytril to prevent any secondary infections that you might not be aware of at this time.

spazrats
http://spazrats.tripod.com

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

QUESTION: Hello again Sandra, i have been back to the vets a couple of times since i last spoke to you. I passed your advice on to the vet and following my second visit he prescribed Baytril for all 4 of my rats even though it was still only the little dumbo that was displaying any signs of illness.Over the past two weeks the 3 'well' rats have continued to thrive wonderfully as i would expect and are happy, lively pets, even beginning to respond to their names and responding well to petting and handling. The little Dumbo , Sky, eats drinks and moves around the cage well but apart from sleeping with the others, she does not appear to join in with their games or play like they do. She has not grown at all either and is half the size of the others. Her breathing seems to have good days and bad days but she has never stopped eating or drinking including taking treats when i fuss her. My vet thinks that she may have some defect that she was born with but to be honest i'm not sure he really knows alot about rats,I do not mean that to sound rude but he is a little bit dismissive of my concerns. Do you think she just keeps getting the flare ups you refered to? Can they happen that frequently? The Baytil is due to finish very soon and i'm still worried about her, Should i continue to give it just to her or do i take the risk and see how she manages without it?  My feeling is that she has got permanent lung damage due to that initial respiratory infection and that is why she is not thriving like the others, do you think this is the case and in your experience do you think she will ever 'catch up'. I'm happy to continue as we are but i worry that the repeated bouts will weaken her further and i dont want her to have a life of suffering, am i doing the right thing? ...I've just read my question back and i realise i'm asking a lot of you when you haven't even seen her, but any advice would be very much appreciated, thanks for your time again, Lisa.

Answer
Print this out http://www.rmca.org/Articles/dchart.htm and take it to your vet so he knows what drugs can be used for rats and what dosage is the most affective for them. Baytril AND Doxycycline is the favored antibiotic combination that will keep the Myco flare-ups under control. You are correct, sadly, the lung damage has started, I am so sorry :(. It sounds like she will need this medicine off and on for the rest of her life. In her favor, I have kept 4 out of 7 Myco boys alive for close to 2 years by just giving them 2 weeks of meds when their Myco flares up. The entire 2 litters, while still at the breeder's home, came down with active Myco when they were very young. A rat can live a long time with Myco flare-ups, you just have to be dedicated to giving her some extra care for all time.

We can be there for you, all of us, at Holistarat, if you want to stay in contact with other rat-keepers for the sake of your little girl and her "sisters".
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/holistarat
We've all been through what you are going through now. We can relate.

spazrats
http://spazrats.tripod.com