what causes pnemonia in rats?

Answer 1

All rats are born with mycoplasma which can develop into something worse. Stress from moving cages or house or any number of things can be a factor. So can being in draughts or cold air. Equally hot dry air or dusty air can be a problem. Smoking in the same room as them is an obvious problem. Not every rat will develop pneumonia or breathing problems as a result of those things. Genetics plays a huge part. I had one rat that was dumped in an alley behind a pet shop and was there for at least 10 hours in the cold pouring rain, yet he never sneezed or showed any other symptoms and remained fully healthy until he passed away a year later. On the other hand I currently have a rat that is very weak. He was fine but once he hit 6 months it went downhill. Everything stresses him and if I'm not careful he gets really bad and needs antibiotics. He has improved a bit since I got an air purifier, but any loud noises still get him.

Answer 2

Rats have a tendency to get respiratory infections no matter what you do. The stress of moving to a new home, being bored, or bad bedding are all things that can make your rat sick.

They should never be on wood shavings, there are oils in the shavings that irritate their delicate respiratory systems.

There is some really great information at http://www.goosemoose.com and there is a great chat feature that you can ask ral-time questions.
Good luck with your furfriend...

Answer 3

sometimes being near a window or door that leads to the outside. the draft from under a door or window can drop the temperature up to 20degrees around that particular area. so be careful and keep rodents, birds, and fish away from all windows and doors. It can also be exposure to water. if she was swimming and was in there for a long time, then the water can drop the bodies temperature.

Answer 4

To evaluate the role of complement in pneumococcal and staphylococcal pneumonia, we decomplemented rats with cobra venom factor and inoculated them intratracheally with Staphylococcus aureus or type 25 pneumococci. S. aureus produced a patchy bronchopneumonia in normal Sprague-Dawley or Lewis rats, and decomplementation did not increase the severity of staphylococcal infection in either rat strain as judged by quantitative cultures of the lungs and blood at 6, 24, and 48 h after inoculation. In contrast, decomplementation markedly increased the severity of pneumonia caused by type 25 pneumococci in Sprague-Dawley and Lewis rats. In Sprague-Dawley rats, decomplementation significantly increased the number of bacteria in the lungs at 3, 6, and 24 h of infection. Bacteremia developed early in decomplemented Sprague-Dawley rats, but the higher pulmonary bacterial counts did not appear to be caused by bacteremic seeding of the lungs. Decomplemented Sprague-Dawley rats inoculated intravenously with pneumococci failed to develop the very high levels of bacteria in the lungs that were observed when the rats were inoculated intratracheally. Moreover, decomplemented Lewis rats inoculated intratracheally with pneumococci developed significantly increased numbers of pneumococci in the lungs early in infection (3 and 6 h) when they had no detectable bacteremia. These data indicate that in murine models complement plays a major protective role against type 25 pneumococci in the lung, whereas complement is not important to host defense in staphylococcal pneumonia.

Answer 5

well the cold would be a factor, if its in a cold area and drinking cold water that's not good. sometimes they just get sick. my ray died last year, she was only 2 but that's OK i guess for a runt of the litter. she had pneumonia just before she died, i dunno how she got it

Answer 6

cold ,wet and draught I guess