Pet rat lets her human cuddle her

Chancy lets me cuddle, belly kiss, and snuggle with her. Rats like their feet supported so your rat needs a lot of practice with this to feel comfortable. www.joinrats.com

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Pets & Animals

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• pet
• rat
• joinrats
• snuggle
• cuddle

[hamali1975]

Adorable! I do that with my 4 rats, too. For some reason rats in America seem to live longer than here in Finland. I´ve heard of several 4 year old rats in the US but here if your rat lives to be 2 it´s really good. 3 years is the oldest I´ve heard of in Finland. Different genetics I guess since we take very good care of them.

[gwenlbzd]

@hamali1975 Thanks! Chancy lived to 4 yrs, 3 mos, and 2was euthanized just a few months ago because a tumor was too large and affected her quality of life. She was on Baytril and Doxy for over 2 years as an offensive strategy for myco pulmonis, even though I almost never heard symptoms. I wonder if aggressive treatment for myco helped with longevity. At what age do Finland rats show signs of myco, and do you have an aggressive approach to treating for it? Thanks for visiting Chancy.

[hamali1975]

@gwenlbzd Finnish rats may show signs of myco at a very young age, when they are just a few months old. I don´t think this is very common, though. I had a rat who started having severe symptoms before he was 6 months old but they stopped on their own. The myco progressed "silently", however, and he died at 2y 4mo. He was on medication only during the last 2 weeks of his life. We don´t have an aggressive approach to treat myco and usually medicate our rats only when severe symptoms appear.

[gwenlbzd]

@hamali1975 Very interesting... is the non-aggressive approach enforced by vets, or, do you think it's a matter of education? The best vet guidance here (Ratguide) is to treat aggressively and offensively. Myco begins in the nasal passages, so any snotty noise can be considered myco. I also use an extra-strong air purifier 24 hrs/day. It sucks all dust from their cage and room. Avoiding dusty beddings is important also. Rats are "bubble kids" who should live in an oxygen-pure plastic tent. :(

[Gmancrap]

Awww! She loves you! You're one lucky owner! 

[gwenlbzd]

@NoonJoon It's hard to know. Perhaps her genetics helped. I kept an air purifier on 24/7 to control dust (Myco pulmonis disease), I kept clearn cages. Fed good. Chancy was amazing: she got a serious cancerous tumor at 18 mos; had it removed; it returned; had it removed aggressively (wide margins), and it never returned after that! Then a benign tumor on her side grew too large, which was why she was euthanized. I gave her tons of hospice care and attention to the end of her days.

[Mooimacat1990]

N'awwww what a cutie! Boys are so relaxed compared fo the girls.

[rabbitsarecuteable]

Aw so cute !!! Looks like my Monty <3

[GrlWhoLoves]

HAHAHA SOO TUBBY. :)

[hamali1975]

@gwenlbzd I think it´s a matter of tight regulations in the use of antibiotics, both human and veterinary. Even if someone would want to treat the rats offensively with antibiotics it would be forbidden by law. This is to minimize the risk of antibiotic resistance, not in the rats that are treated, but on a larger scale. Breeders do a lot of work trying not breed rats with poor immunity. So even though 99%of rats carry myco in their system they would not get really sick. Nice to meet you BTW :)

[hamali1975]

@gwenlbzd cont. I´m not aware of anyone who would have used antibiotics for myco for more than 1-2 weeks at a time. We don´t use profylactic/offensive treatment at all, I don´t think any vet would agree with such treatment. I think this could be the biggest reason that explains the shorter life span among our rats. One of my current rats is showing signs of myco and it may claim his life one day. However, we try to enjoy every day with him and the others, they are so precious to us:)