Bumble foot
Bumble foot is another name for Ulcerative Pododermatitis.It is a bacterial infection usually caused by Staphylococcus Aureus. Bumble foot is a foot problem that is on the bottom pad on the back of a rat's foot (usually only on the back feet) and is caused by rats walking on hard surfaces, wire cages and in unclean living conditions. It is also suspected that Bumble foot can be caused due to the rat having sprained or injured their legs/feet earlier in life.It's very difficult to treat Bumble foot as creams that are applied rub off when the rat walks around again and is also licked off. One of the members and founders of Ratanooga, Viia, came up with quite a nifty solution to this problem and designed a hammock to hang her buck, who had bumblefoot, in during treatment for 20 minutes a day. The design was basically that of a normal hammock, though smaller, with 2 holes in the back for his hind legs to hang through. She would then apply an antibacterial cream prescribed by her vet and let him hang to let the cream set in. This worked effectively, although, as you can imagine, the rat did not enjoy this experience.