Critter City
By Sandra Conti of Allexperts.com
Rabies and other scary diseases
Rabies and diseases: Let me put your fears to rest!
That said, lets talk about disease and germs. I get alot of email from fearful parents or pregnant ladies worried that the rat may carry some terrible disease to their child because she let the rat lick her face or the pregnant lady is scared that the rat may carry disease to her unborn bundle of joy. I am here to tell you that you have nothing to worry about. In fact, a rats mouth carries less germs on it than a childs hands that had not been washed after a day at school!! Cats carry the dangerous TOXOPLASMOSIS bacteria that can harm an unborn babie, but this disease is not carried by rats at all. Worry about the pet cat, not the pet rat!
The Plague!
Lets start with the plague! I wont go into great detail with words as impossible to prounounce at they are to spell, but I will simply say that the plague bacterium is transmitted from one animal to another by the flea. What occured with the most deadly outbreak of the plaque hundreds of years ago occured when fleas infected with the plaque that came from infected dogs (notice I did not say rats?) that were infected with the plague changed hosts, which meant going from dog to the nearest animal, which was the innocent standbyer, the rat!! These rats were ship rats and came in on ships, carrying the deadly disease. Rats were quickly to blame as the host and from that day forward, rats were feared more than any other living mammal as a disease infested plague carrying monster.
Leptospirosis!
This disease has been linked to rats for centuries as well but there are also alot of myths about it too. For example, someone wrote and asked me if it were true or not that if rats were in a warehouse where soda cans are stored and the rats urinated on the soda cans and someone drank from them, they would catch this dangerous disease. The answer is of course, the big N-O! Yes, exposure to urine infected by ANY ANIMAL that is infected with leptospirosis can indeed contract the disease, but becoming infected by drinking from a soda can that had infected urine on it is so slim its safe to say its impossible. For starters, lept (do I really need to keep spelling this enormous word out? LOL!) this nasty disease needs constant immersion in water in order to survive, so if the surface is dry, this kills the bacteria, period. Also, soda cans are non pourous and if there was any moisture on them, they would dry right away thus in turn, dry surface, this particular bacteria dies and in no way can contaminate the contents inside. Big sigh of relief now, everyone!
And now for the biggie.....RABIES!
Really, if you think about it, we are talking about rats in captivity, right? None of the diseases I am talking about can possibly be a threat to the little ones we get from pet stores or breeders, but never the less, I will still cover the few diseases that seem to be the biggest concern to people, with rabies being the biggest of all. I think once I outline this you will actually see it just takes some common sense to see that rats, wild or captive, cannot possibly be the culprit of a rabies outbreak, but still, the rat has a stereotype and I am here to debunk it right here, right now! Think about it for a minute, look how small rats are. If another animal bit him, the rat is so tiny his chances of survival are slim to none anyhow. Also, rabid animals are pretty aggressive, so I would think not only would the bite or should I say "bites" from an aggressive crazed rabid animal would not only do a real number on the rat, chances are the rat may not even be in one piece when the animal is done with it, considering the chances the the animal will be three times larger than the rat, or larger. Rats do NOT carry the rabies virus and go without symptoms like the few that do. In fact, there are only four or five animals that can carry the virus and not be affected with it themselves. This would be the fox, raccoon, skunk, bat (although lately I have read some stuff that the bat is not even a natural carrier, but being it has been embedded in my head for years, that statement requires more research first) and uh....uh....the fifth one escapes me. I want to say opposum...but I am unsure. I will come back to this later, or if YOU know, feel free to write me and tell me which animal is a natural carrier that I forget to include at this email:Sandyscrittercity@yahoo.com! Anyhow, simple common sense really is what you need to understand this. If a rabid animal bit a small rat, the rat would probably die long before the virus had a chance to incubate simply because of the small stature of the rat. Oh, and not to mention that there has never ever been a documented case of rabies and rats in the United States ever!
Histopathologic features of rabies, brain.
www.vaccineinformation.org/photos/rabicdc001.jpg
Courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Preventio
Petunia says: hopefully now you will see us as we really are!
I have been asked the same question over and over again: are rats good with children? Usually the look I get back from a concerned parents face is that of utter confusion when I ask this: Are children good for rats? Usually, after a scowl or a frown or both, I hear this: "What do you mean? I am worried that the rat may bite my child or scratch him" and I usually fire back with something even better: "Well, I am worried that the child may squeeze the rat to death, drop it from heights that equal that of a 4 story building, forget to feed it, forget to water it, forget it PERIOD and you only have to worry about a little scratch or bite that will heal up in a few days without a scar!" Usually that ends the debate and the parent is either interested about hearing more or frustrated with my sarcasm and lack of compassion and walks away. If they stay, thats great. This means they are serious about owning rats and want to hear more. The truth is, no matter what kind of pet you buy for your child, its kind of ridiculous to buy any living thing for their child if they are under the age of.....geeze, I dont even know what age to say because each child is different as far as maturity levels go. I would say any child under the age of 14 should never be expected to be responsible for a living thing without a parents supervision, but on the other hand, some children, even 10 year olds, may be even more responsible for their pet than their parents are!! The only way to be safe about this is to say that the parents need to be accepting of the pet the child wants and not scared of it because if junior decides he is now bored with the rat, that means the rat will become your responsibility.
Rats are shy by nature, but once they bond with you, they are your friend for life. Rats are great pets for children as long as they are handled gently and not scared easily by loud voices etc.... The only problem with having rats for a childs pet is the fact they have a short life span and this could be devastating on the child when the rat passes away. It could be a learning experience for the child as far as learning about life and death, but the child will probably come to love the little rat with all her heart and the loss could be great. The good news is children usually move on rather quickly, their hearts healing fast, sometimes they handle things better than adults do.
Rats are shy by nature, but once they bond with you, they are your friend for life. Rats are great pets for children as long as they are handled gently and not scared easily by loud voices etc.... The only problem with having rats for a childs pet is the fact they have a short life span and this could be devastating on the child when the rat passes away. It could be a learning experience for the child as far as learning about life and death, but the child will probably come to love the little rat with all her heart and the loss could be great. The good news is children usually move on rather quickly, their hearts healing fast, sometimes they handle things better than adults do.
