Diseases of pets >>>> Diseases of home rodents

Diseases of home rodents.

Good nutrition and good pet rodent care is the prevention of many diseases in home rodents. A domestic rodent can get sick for several reasons:

Poor food, insufficiently varied and not enriched with vitamins;
Poor housing conditions, rare cleaning of the cage, cramped cage;
Overfeeding leading to obesity;
Poor drinking regime (tap water or not changing regularly);
Parasites and insects (can be brought on clothes by the person himself and accidentally get into a tame rodent);
Accidental poisoning with a poisonous substance (for example, during disinfection and cleaning of the premises and independent walks of the rodent in this room);
Hypothermia of home rodents, when the cage is placed opposite the opening windows;
Overheating of a home rodent in conditions of heat or elevated temperatures due to heating devices;
Accidental injuries (including from the careless handling of the owner of a tame rodent).

And no one is immune from infection of a home rodent by wild rodents, if they live in household premises and can accidentally come into contact with a tame rodent. A source of infection for a rodent can be a dog or cat living next to it and going for walks. These animals can infect a home rodent with fleas, shingles, ticks, scabies, head lice.

Signs of poor health in a home rodent:

Refuses to eat,
Sits motionless, as if freezing, hunched over,
Does not react to the actions of the owner,
Coordination of movements is impaired,
The fur fades, becomes wrinkled, does not spring,
If the smooth coat of a rodent becomes tousled, this also indicates a poor state of health.

In addition to these signs, home rodents may experience diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, fever, chills, shortness of breath or heavy breathing, signs of acute respiratory infections (as in humans: coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge, eye discharge).

To protect a home rodent from diseases, it is necessary to regularly conduct a preventive examination and vaccination at a veterinarian, to prevent communication of a tame rodent with street animals, to pick up a rodent yourself, only when street clothes are removed and your hands are washed. The owner of a home rodent needs to be interested in the quality of food and its variety, to give feeding according to the advice of a veterinarian, pay attention to the quality of the water and the cleanliness of the feeder.

The owner of a pet rodent must develop attentiveness to the details of his pet's behavior in order not to miss the onset of the disease and provide timely assistance to his little friend.