Is my rats sick?

Question

My rat normally sleeps on her hammock with a little bit of tissue. When i looked on teh peice of tissue it had small blotches of blood and there were small blotches of blood on the hammock as well. Apart from that she appears to be just the same as she normally is or even better! She does sneeze allot but i have noticed all the rats I have seem to have sneezed as much as she does and I think most of the time she is like that. I have read in different sources of imformation that they rarely sneeze! My rat sneezes about 15 times per 10 minutes. Is that ok?

Details:

She is a black hooded, female.

We got her last year sometime in August so she`s probably about 1 years old.

She is always a very energetic rat, loves attention and play

Not fat quite a small looking rat compared to our other ones

and is a nice size.

Answer 1

if there's no cuts or it seems like she's bleeding from her nether regions then take her to the vet. they normally only bleed if getting ready to give birth, and if you can rule that out then i'm not sure. vet would know better though. hopefully she's okay!

Answer 2

Sneezing that much is not normal, what type of bedding do you use? It is really best to use a dust free bedding. I use aspen which his hyperellegernic and shredded paper, you should also have an igloo or house for her rather that just a hammock. It might not be warm enough. A tiny bit of red comes out of the nose and eyes and if she's sneezing this might be what the cause is. However sneezing is a sign of resperatory illnesses which are very hard to treat and once start reoccur. Also, one of our rats started to bleed from the a**s after she got cancer and she had to be put to sleep, so take her to the vet. A rat should only sneeze occasionally, like if they burrow into their bedding or get something up their nose but otherwise it shouldn't be constant. So yeah vet. and soon.

Answer 3

I'd take her to a small animal vet for a checkup if she's sneezing frequently. The red you see is likely porphyrin, not blood. Rats have a red pigment in their tears. Excess amounts of it can indicate stress or illness.

Answer 4

Actually, rats sneeze a red liquid that looks like blood. My daughter helped me with that early on. It scared me too. Their 'tears' can also appear red.

I do not know the reason behind this anymore, but if your little one appears healthy, it probably is. Check just to see if it is its nose, but I suspect your sweetie is just fine. :-)