Help! Is pneumonia contagious from rat to rat?

[cheezle]

Hi all,

I had 2 rats, one of which died a few days ago of pneumonia. I have bought 2 new rats and would now like to know if it is essential I quarantine my original rat before I introduce her to the new ones? I posted this query on a different forum and was advised that pneumonia is not contagious and is less of a problem in Australia than it is in America. All the websites I have searched on this are American so now I'm really unsure what the right thing to do is. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Kim]

Personally I would keep the original rat away from the new ones for at least 2 weeks just to be sure.

As you saw with the loss of one original rat pneumonia can be very serious.

If you do decide to quarantine the original rat, just remember to give her/him a lot of attention while he/she is alone...

But be sure to change your clothes and wash your hand and face to get rid of anything that might be transmitted to your new rats when you go to interact with them.

That way you can also be sure the new rats are healthy and dont transmit anything to the original rat as well.

Unfortunately everyone has different views on subjects relating to rats.. and much of the time there is no right or wrong answer..

As I said view is that its better to be safe than sorry...



Good Luck with your ratties..