I do not own the place I live. I had a rat climb out of my toilet. My landlord told me at first a valve could be put in to prevent things from being able to come out of the toilet. Now he says that such a valve is a hard thing to find. It has been three months since it happened. My questions are . . .
-How hard is this type of valve to find?
-The sewer lines into the building had rat poison put into them back when this happened. Is is likely that another rat could find its way into my toilet?

There are rats in sewers. They seldom do climb out of a toilet but it is possible as you have experienced. My advice is try hard and get over it as you have experienced something that has a pretty slim chance of occurring nevermind see it a second time.

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A back-water valve, (check valve) installed on the sewer main would probably prevent it from happening unless a rodent climbed or fell into a stack vent pipe on the roof, but the Landlord would probably not want to pay for one to be installed which could cost big $,$$$.$$

Keep the seat lid down!

A back water valve installed looks something like this:


e-plumber
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"The society which scorns excellence in Plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an
exalted activity will have neither good Plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water." -
John William Gardner 10/8/1912 - 2/16/2002

Repair your leaking Plumbing fixtures ASAP [www.theplumber.com]
This slow drip will waste 7+ gallons of water per day.

Can't put them on a main in mass...only a branch off the main.Ever get a snake caught in a brass backwater valve?

Backwater valves have their own set of possible problems among them sewer backups. I'd rather go with the 10,000:1 chance of a rat coming out of my toilet than a backwater valve.

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Amen.Unless one comes up the toilet when Red's on it!!!..

Zackly!

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If there are rats in the sewer, then yes. They crawl through the piping and are attracted to the light coming into the sewer through the toilet.

I'd reiterate redwoods advice; the chance of this happening again is slim to none. i did a search on this forum for your problem and the only thing i could find was your post. that should tell you something about how rare an occurance your experience is.

Once is enough to spook someone.

Many people around here had 3+ feet of water in their basements in late April '07, it happened 'once' in the past 40 years but that didn't stop them from taking precautions.

e-plumber
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The society which scorns excellence in Plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an
exalted activity will have neither good Plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water." -
John William Gardner 10/8/1912 - 2/16/2002

Repair your leaking Plumbing fixtures ASAP [www.theplumber.com]
This slow drip will waste 7+ gallons of water per day.

In the rat and snake dept (at least) spend the money on theropy rather than stuff like back flow preventers on the main, which may not even have anything to do with the rat -- who's to say the rat didn't come from outside and was getting a drink when she saw him come out of the toilet?

Maybe they need Terminix...

e-plumber
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The society which scorns excellence in Plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an
exalted activity will have neither good Plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water." -
John William Gardner 10/8/1912 - 2/16/2002

Repair your leaking Plumbing fixtures ASAP [www.theplumber.com]
This slow drip will waste 7+ gallons of water per day.

E-Plumber it looks like that guy it trying to flee into the sewer for a better life!

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Since 1995 (3 years before Google started) PlumbingSupply.com has been THE best plumbing supplier on the web. Please visit our sponsor [www.PlumbingSupply.com]