"Super nipple" and lots of scabbies

[musichick2004]

*sigh*...everything seems to be happening at once...

Luna (our recently spayed female) went to live with her new man about a week ago.  Hearing about his past, and realizing that he may be aggressive towards other rats, we went through a much longer introduction period than we did with our other kids.  In all of their out-of-cage meetings, there were absolutely no problems.  Shan just seemed too slow and, quite frankly, lazy, to go after her.  Just after they moved in, however, we found a few tiny scabbies on her.  We figured that they were just from power-grooming or something.  None were large enough to cause concern.

Recently, the scabbies seem to be getting worse--much larger and a lot more of them.  The weird thing is, they're not bite marks, as far as we can tell, nor are they scratches.  And they're also not localized (like he nips her back or something)...I've seen them on her neck, belly, back, feet, face, butt, etc.  They look like puncture wounds--and no two are close enough together to look like a top/bottom set of a bite mark.  Also, they're both drama queens when it comes to challenges/fighting/grooming.  If someone from the other cage looks at Luna cross-eyed, she flips over and squeals like a piggy.  Shan hides from challenge by tucking his head under his feet and rat-grunting (what I guess would be the human equivalent of grunting...short little "ack!" whiney squeaks to himself).  If they were fighting to the extent Luna is showing, we would have heard it.  We never hear anything from them.

Also, last night, I was checking her over, I thought I saw a big raw scratch under her armpit.  Lo and behold, when I lifted her arm, the "scratch" popped out at me!  It is a piece of skin about 1/4" (around .5cm) long that looks...well, it looks like a long skinny nipple.  It also has dark red/black marks on it (couldn't tell if they were bite marks or scratches or something).  There is also a scab in exactly the same place in her other armpit.

She has a vet appointment, but the soonest we could get her in (because it's not an emergency) is next Saturday.  

Insight anyone?  She's acting fine, but she's also a bit more porphyrin-y.  She also has hyphemas in both eyes that seem to be getting worse with these scabbies...ack!  first her uterine infection, now this!

Thanks!

[tenthousandbabies]

I'm having a similar problem with Oliver.. all my other rats are fine, and they don't fight all that much, but he has scrapes and little wounds all over his belly. I haven't noticed any new ones, so hopefully he just got in a scrap and is now healing..

[Miranda]

Its isn't parasites is it? well good luck with Luna

[musichick2004]

The scabbies and just general skin issues look similar to rats that have too much protein, but she's been on the same diet for over a year and a half! (as have all our other kids).

Also, we're thinking perhaps mites--maybe someone at the vet last month had a case and gave Luna "a present".  Shan isn't showing any signs of...well, anything (they don't really interact, lol).

Luna's going to go to the vet Saturday (*sigh*...yay plastic money).  We don't want to give her ivermectin unless we're sure of what this is (we've treated for mites once before--bad batch of Aspen), mostly because of her age, and because we haven't seen her scratching at herself any more than normal (just a few itchies here and there when she wakes up).

If she has mites, EVERYONE gets treated...

The giant nipple is just weird, though.  It's kind of scabby now too (but not totally...just has a scabby on it).