We’ve had our new rat (Jennifer) since Saturday the 13th, so we’re coming up on two weeks since she’s come home. She lives in a quarantine cage in the living room (our two other girls live in our bedroom) temporarily because she’s had some sniffling/sneezing/weird noises, which makes sense because she was living in a breeder bin at a pet store for the entire first 7 weeks of her life until we brought her home.

We know that rats are super prone to respiratory infections, so we don’t want to start introducing her to the other ladies until we know we’re in the clear. At first we were sure it was an URI, since she had a bit of clicky breathing and a LOT of sneezing fits. We managed those symptoms with trips to the bathroom with the humidifier or someone showering a few times a day, and tiny little pieces of dark chocolate. She has consistently been eating (Oxbow mouse and young rat pellets whatever greens/fruits her sisters are having the occasional treat) and drinking without issue since she came home, and her poops (which looked horrible when we first got her) are now completely normal rat poops.

When she seemed like she was getting worse, we reached out to the local exotic vets (most were closed because it was a Sunday) and planned on calling back on Monday. But since the worst symptoms she’s had on Sunday (LOTS of sneezing and a bit of laboured breathing), she’s drastically improved. Since we’ve taken her home we spend most of our time in the living room to keep an eye on her, and completely changed out her bedding every 1-3 days to make sure the ammonia won’t irritate her. She sounds SO much better. Sneezes are small and very infrequent now, and she does a lot of happy hopping while she builds her nests out of paper towel or plays with her willow balls. She is always desperate for human interaction when she sees us or hears us and we really hope we can get started on bonding her with the other girls soon so that she’s not alone any longer.

I guess my question is: what are the chances this is a URI vs. adapting to her new environment? I know URIs can be tricky but iirc they usually get worse, not better, without intervention. Our current plan is to wait until my boyfriend gets back from visiting his family (probably this coming Sunday, which is 15 days since bringing her home) and seeing how she’s doing then. If she is still sneezing we will take her to the vet. But if she’s NOT still sneezing… are we clear to bring her in with the other ladies? Or should we plan on a vet trip either way?