I picked up 5 unwanted baby rats earlier, they are about 12 weeks. They are all very friendly and ive had some lovely cuddles from them, there are 3 rexs and 2 smoothcoats, 2 of them unfortunaly have what im guessing is bad mites?, Im used to getting rats that have skin issues and buy bulk packs of xenex ultra spot on, this has always worked for me but havnt had any this bad before -

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and

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and at such a young age too

lady claimed this happened a few days ago hmmmmm

Does anyone know if its safe to use the xenex on them? Or wait till tommorrow and take them to the vets to be sure. It looks so sore i feel awful for them. The others are unaffected.

it looks like it could be ring worm.... i would treat them with a spot on for mites and if that doesnt help then treat them for ringworm, in my experience daktarin (athletes foot cream) is the best thing for ringworm

if it is ring worm its highly contagious to you and all other animals

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i didnt know rats could get ringworm! I did think it was weird they are circular patches with just a tuft in the centre on both of them. Right i will go treat them and the other 3 to be safe. Do u think i should move their cage out of the main room most of my rats are in?

i would deff pop them into a quarentine room until you can rule ringworm out, i would also make sure you only handle them with gloves on and wash your hands after too!

if it is ring worm though treating in 3 - 4 times daily with dactarin cream will soon clear it up

hopefully though it is just mites, if it is ring worm it hasnt been there long, it gets very scabby and nasty quickly

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Looks like im going to be clearing some space in my junk room/3rd bedroom lol

But seriously thanks for that, its better to be safe than sorry. Im going to treat them with the mite stuff, move them to a different room and im going to take them vets tommorrow for her opinion.

Im also already a bit of an obssesive handwasher and have boxes of vinyl gloves so will use them to handle them and also wash my jumper that i was had on when i was cuddling them earlier, thank you

thats my view too, i would much rather be safe then sorry

hopefully it is just mites though, good luck at the vets

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did you get a chance to get to the vets today hun?

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It's not ringworm it's Staphylococcus Aureus and quite transmissable to humans too, speaking from experience!

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Oh no really I am feeling extremly unwell today, headache, nauseous. I dont have any rashes though or sore skin so hope its unrealted to the rats.

Lil Miss i have a vet appointment today at 5.30 thats the only time they had available yday too but couldnt take them then as i had to sort out other rats.

They are in a seperate room though away from all other pets and i have been using gloves to handle them.

Back from vets who wasnt too helpful, the usual lady is off today so saw another who said she hasnt heard of ringworm in rodents but it could be that and dismissed staphylococcus aureus. She said as ive mite treated them just see how it goes. Ill keep an eye on them and take them to the usual lady if i see no change soon. Luckily she didnt charge me and she said she will read up on ringworm....