An 8-Year-Old Girl Fell Ill After Playing With Pet Rat As It Caused Her To Get 'Rat Bite Fever'

Children love to play with pets but what if the pet is a rat and playing with it causes your children a disease?

According to KNSD, an 8-year-old girl named Cali from Menifee, California nearly died from playing with her favorite pet rats and she is getting treatment at Rady Children’s Hospital.

With the help of Doctors Jane Burns, the girl is recovering and getting back on her feet.

Her mother Sabrina said: “She is 190 per cent better. She is walking now. She is moving and using her arms. She’s eating and drinking.”

“It was really scary and really hard to watch,”

On last Saturday, Cali started showing signs of Rat Bite Fever. Her body became covered in a rash, her temperature reached 104.6 degrees and she could not even walk as her joints hurt badly.

“We couldn’t even touch her because she hurt so bad,” Sabrina said.

Cali has been playing with her pet rats Shell and Onyx for two years. But she was not bitten somehow, but a break in her skin, either rat saliva or urine was transferred and it was Rat Bite Fever bacteria.

“They are like little dogs. They play with you, they run with you,” Sabrina said of Cali’s two rats.

Cali’s Doctors have recommended Sabrina to get rid of rats from her daughter to prevent any further infections. Now, the mother is on a mission to find someone to adopt the rodents.

“We didn’t want to do it,” Sabrina stated. “It’s not a fun thing to tell your kid you’ve got to get rid of your best friend.”

Doctor Jane Burns recommended knowing about the pet before buying it. “Parents need to know what the risks are. They need to know what the signs and symptoms are,” Burns said.

In 2013, the same case happened when a 10-year-old boy died of rat bite fever. His family sued the pet store for $20 million, claiming they didn’t warn customers of the risks of pet rodent.