Rat's vagina looks odd; in heat (I hope)?? Help!!

[DorseyClairebelle]

So, my poor girl Claire who is always the one to be ill (see thread about her eye a few days ago). I had all the girls out and noticed that her vagina looks strange: slightly enlarged, and a darker shade than usual-- more purple-y than pink. There is no bleeding that I am aware of. No other symptoms. I'm praying that this happens when girls are in heat and it's something I've simply never noticed before. If this isn't the case, let me know and we'll have her into a vet as soon as possible. Over the winter (when I was away, she was staying with a friend of mine) she had a UTI, but as I wasn't there I have no idea if that can looks like this-- the only symptoms that I know of is bleeding. She was on antibiotics (I don't know what) and it cleared up pretty quickly. Could this be a reoccurence??
I've been over all of the RatGuide and can't find anything that looks like this.
THANK YOU.

[~*ChaoticSerenity*~]

it sounds like shes in heat! My girls fan their ears, nipples show big time, they leap around more, mount eachother (which was odd to me LoL), and the vagina was enlarged and bluish!

[DorseyClairebelle]

PHEW, I hope I get more people saying this! I was so worried about my little girl-- how have I never noticed this before??
So, really, this is normal?  Damn, I'm glad that doesn't happen to me!

[~*ChaoticSerenity*~]

I made a post about one of my girls doing this and the response i got was its normal, shes in heat, and there were quite a few people who never noticed their girls were in heat...after a few days past, she went back to normal...the next time i noticed her in heat her vagina wasnt as blue as the first time i noticed...if it wasnt seeing her fan her ears i would probably never noticed

[scout]

Yes, she's in heat. It's really a dramatic color change if you happen to have a hairless girl who's in heat. You can relax - she's fine!

[DorseyClairebelle]

  Thanks guys! I'm amazed I hadn't seen that before. This morning it looks perfectly normal. I guess I'm just an overly paranoid rat mommy.