A Portland man’s federal lawsuit against the pet supply chain store Petco over a rat bite was settled Thursday, a company official confirmed.

Petco spokesman David Hallisey confirmed there was a settlement but said the terms are confidential. Attempts to reach the man who filed the lawsuit, Dominic Profenno Jr., were unsuccessful Saturday.

Profenno sued Petco in April, a month after he said he was bitten twice by a rat he bought at the chain’s South Portland store. Profenno said he contracted rat-bite fever, a rare but serious disease, and was hospitalized for more than a month.

“He could have died,” Profenno’s attorney, Thomas Douglas, told the Portland Press Herald at the time the lawsuit was filed. “He spent a lot of time at Maine Medical Center and then New England Rehabilitation Hospital.”

Profenno, who was 51 at the time, said in the lawsuit that the disease caused “multiple spinal abscesses, painful inflammation of his joints, extreme debilitation and pain and suffering” that left him out of work as a building cleaner while he was hospitalized. He has since returned to work, Douglas said.

In February, a 10-year-old California boy died of rat-bite fever after being bitten by a rat, also purchased at Petco.

Profenno bought the rat from Petco’s store at 220 Maine Mall Road to feed to his son’s pet boa constrictor, as he had done every two to four weeks in the past. Profenno kept the rat in a 10-gallon aquarium in his apartment until he tried to feed it to the snake, according to the lawsuit. The snake ate the rat and was not harmed, Douglas said.

At the time he filed the lawsuit, Profenno said he was still undergoing regular treatments for the disease and his medical expenses had exceeded $170,000. The lawsuit said Petco breached its implied warranty and was liable and negligent.

Profenno was seeking unspecified monetary damages and fees.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists rat-bite fever as a serious or even fatal disease if left untreated.