Can rat wee or poo make horses ill?

SNORKEY

SNORKEY

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Tonight my boy refused to eat his dinner and looks tucked up and tired, and I found rat poo in his dinner! I made a fresh one and realised the rats have eaten through the bottom of the bin and got in his feed. He wouldn't eat the fresh feed either and i checked it first. I'm worried he's ill, he is pooing and eating hay but he's not himself :(
 
Yes it can. You need to throw out any contaminated feed and replace with new feed. Maybe buy a metal dustbin or get an old freezer to keep it in so the rats can't get at the feed. I'd also call in the ratman and eradicate the rats while you're at it.
 
Yes rats can make horses very ill . I think its quite rare considering how much exposure they must have. I would dump the feed and buy fresh.
 
As above, chuck out all feed that could have been contaminated and replace into metal bins. Wasteful and expensive but not as expensive as the vet bill you'll get if your horse contracts weils disease. (Which can lead to blindness amongst other things).
 
Certainly can be a risk to you anyway (don't know about horses I'm afraid).

We haven't had a problem with them since we took on feral cats from a rescue charity, apart from rat/mice corpses in inconvenient places at times!
 
Rat urine and faeces carry many diseases.
I know that Leptospirosis is transmitted by rat urnine and is included in innoculations given to dogs, however horses can contract Lepto.
I would not feed anything contaminated to my horses as certain bacteria's can cause colic and other internal problems.
Luckily we rarely get a rat problem but any signs of rats and its dealt with immediately due to their incredible population rates.
 
I know they carry Weil's disease which is dangerous to us, and lots of worms/fleas etc too. The council often offer rat killer services- ours costs £15 and they will come back as many times as needed for that. They are set up to kill rats without risking livestock so lend you traps and provide bait (which was £60 a tub on its own, so £15 was a bargain) as well as disposing of the caught ones
 
Izzyella said:
I know they carry Weil's disease which is dangerous to us, and lots of worms/fleas etc too. The council often offer rat killer services- ours costs £15 and they will come back as many times as needed for that. They are set up to kill rats without risking livestock so lend you traps and provide bait (which was £60 a tub on its own, so £15 was a bargain) as well as disposing of the caught ones
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This, very dangerous please try to de-rat
 
Thanks, il chuck his feed away and get more tomorrow. Annoying as I only opened the bag yesterday. I need a metal feed bin but they are about £100 from what I can find online. The old guy who owns the stables I rent has put traps down but no poison as none of us like the poison as its a slow death for them apparently. I saw one the other day and it was the size of a guni pig, probably from my conditioning cubes! Lol
 
Yes, Weils Disease and also my pony has just had an infection on his sheath from being splashed either in field or yard with contaminated water - vet thought either something leaching into the field with the high water table and recent flooding or from water that was contaminated by rats/mice/dead bird or something and she did query if he had had rats or birds in his stable. We will never know the source but was not nice for him - all sorted now though with antibiotics and a much happier chap. The bacteria in this case was salmonella so unlikely to be rat droppings/urine as source but I do sadly know someone who lost their old horse through Weils Disease and their yard owner ended up in hospital. Hope yours is OK, I'd chuck it all out and start again, disinfect containers/feed bowl etc thoroughly.
 
Absolutly - rat waste can transmit nasty disease.

Feedbin wise ask at your feed store - we got a huge 4 compartment (each compartment takes 2 bags of chaff at least) one for £180 and they have small single ones which look like they'd take at least 1-2 bags of feed for about £40. Otherwise you'll get metal dustbins for £20 odd each
 
Yes, it can. Dump the feed. kill the rats, and secure your feed.

One tip about rat control. Set your traps BEFORE the rats arrive in the autumn. They lay trails to show others where it is safe to go. So catch the scouts before the immigrants arrive en masse!

Oil drums, plastic 45 gallon barrels, chest freezers? Ask at your local recycling centre and tell them what you want them for.

(They always laugh at me because I take away more than I take in!:D).
 
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