Do all rats have Myco?

Question

so many people tell me yes, yet i dont see all rats sneezing and having trouble breathing and not all rats i see have discharge. or do they...... i have no idea.

Answer 1

Yes all rats, except those born in sterile labs via c-section have Myco. they just dont all show the signs. its when the imune system gets compromised that they have a "flare up" some rats just have a genetically stronger imune system.

Answer 2

Get your little guy/gal a buddy!  Rats need to live with a friend--they are extremely social animals!  It will improve his/her quality of life!

Answer 3

Froggy explained it quite well. Yes, all or almost all rats have myco in their systems. They get it from their mothers when they are born.

The disease is one that progresses slowly and anything that lowers the immune system (stress, secondary illness) can care a "flare up" which requires medication to get under control. Some rats are more resistant to the myco than others.

She should have a friend! It does not mean that the other rat will be sneezy too. It depends on the state of her immune system and has nothing to do with being housed with another rat who has myco.

More on mycoplasma pulmonis:

http://ratguide.com/health/bacteria/myco...

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

http://www.ratfanclub.org/resp.html

Answer 4

Almost all pet rats have myco.

It lives in a rat's respiratory system, and it also lives in the vaginal tract. Most rats catch the disease from their mother during birth, or shortly afterwords when they breath it in the air.

The only rats who are known to be myco free are some (not all) laboratory rats.They have been surgically removed from their mothers body at the time of birth, and are then placed in a myco-free environment. If they leave that environment, they can no longer be considered myco-free, as they can catch it any time.

There is some controversy about wild rats and whether they carry myco or not. Some people speculate that wild rats are resistant to myco, but I don't think this information has been verified.

Most rats will go through their whole lives without having a myco flare-up. The disease lives in their system without causing any harm. But if a rat becomes sick with a different disease, or stressed out, or is living in filthy conditions, or isn't properly socialized, or is forced to live alone, their immune system becomes weak and the myco takes over. That's when it causes symptoms like sneezing, red discharge from the eyes and nose (red snot), coughing, rattly breath, etc.

Most of the time, myco symptoms can be treated with antibiotics. Usually Baytril is successful and will get the rat back to normal in a few weeks. Sometimes, a stronger antibiotic, or a combination of several different antibiotics is needed.

It's important to treat myco as soon as possible because the symptoms can cause permanent damage to the respiratory system, which causes that rat to have chronic respiratory troubles. It can also cause vaginal bleeding in females which can lead to complications in the s*x organs.

Unfortunately, there aren't many vets who are savvy about rat diseases. Another person who posts here has a vet who is telling her to keep her rat in solitary confinement for the rest of it's llife because myco is "highly contagious and incurable". Yes, it is highly contagious, and it is incurable, but since ALL pet rats have the disease, as soon as the rat is finished showing the worst symptoms, it's safe to be around other rats. Usually, even a rat with chronic problems isn't a danger to other rats, as long as they are all otherwise healthy and in a clean, stress-free environment.

But just so you know, chronic heart failure often has very similar symptoms to myco, but can't be helped with antibiotics. CHF sufferers are often misdiagnosed as having resporatory problems and end up dying because the treatments wont work. We are learning that this happens a lot more often than people think.

Hope that helped! For more information about Rat Health, I HIGHLY recommend the Rat Health Guide by Debbie Ducommun. I use it here at the rescue, and the information contained within has saved countless lives here. It's only $15 on her website, the Rat Fan Club.