his name is itchy and he 4 years old
most of his backside is covered in scabs
its been going on for about a month
he apprears to be in no pain but i am concerned
any ideas on what this could be?
Answers:
Well, part of it is probably his age. He's very old for a rat, so you must take excellent care of him.
It's probably a parasite or allergy. Have you recently changed his bedding or cage cleaner? If you haven't changed his bedding, you might want to think about switching to a more hypo-allergenic type of bedding. I use CareFresh Ultra (the white kind) and my girls seem to like it more than anything I've used. It's also easier to see what's dirty.
I know my dog (15 year old Yorkie) has problems with irritated skin if she isn't bathed often enough. He's probably slacked off in his grooming as he's gotten older like many rats do so maybe it's a skin infection from poor hygiene. Gently wiping him with a warm, damp washcloth might help and it would probably feel nice too.
Does he have any cage mates? Rats are known to sometimes get a little overzealous when grooming others, so maybe his buddy took it step beyond barbering to straight up skin irritation.
You should definitely get him to a vet because if nothing else the vet should be able to give you some type of cream or ointment to put on the wounds to keep them clean and not as sore. Also make sure he's getting enough water because dehydration could make his skin condition worse. I've heard apple sauce is good for rehydration, but you could also try sugar water or a little juice (not orange juice though, something in the peel can harm male rats and it gets into the juice from the squeezing process; try apple).
But don't worry about cancer. Cancer doesn't cause open sores, I don't believe.
He could have a bad skin condition. He is a rat but if he's a special little friend to you you should take him to the vet.
My hamster was like that for about 6 months before she died. She had cracked skin and was losing all of her hair. She had a lot of scabs as well. I looked it up and the website I went to said it can be caused from old age, or a skin infection. I can't remember the name of the site, but it said it did not cause them any pain.
It's probably a form of a mite. Like the mites on a dog is called mange. We had that problem with our guinea pig. It was so itchy, dry flakey skin and scabs. At the vet they took a skin scraping and looked under the microscope. He even let me and my kids look at what was crawling. Itty, Bitty, Tiny little mites. We had to give it three doses of a liquid med. It cured it.
My suspicion is mites/lice. They're hard to see with the naked eye, and you may need a microscope to see them well. A vet does a skin scraping -- a sample of dander and anything against the skin. Your vet can verify what the problem is.
Other causes can be -- contact dermatitis, food allergy, extremely high protein in a sensitive animals
He is old for a rat! You must love him a lot!
Try taking him to a good exotics vet %26 they should be able to help him. :)
have him checked by the vet for fleas or mites
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