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Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / July 2006What antibiotic should I try now?
Hello, fellow rat lovers. I could use some advice. I have three females, two that are about a year old (Darla and Buttons) and one that is a little over a year (Chewey). They are all pet store rats. They have been pretty healthy up to now. They all had some kind of respiratory infection. We treated 4 weeks, 2X a day with Zithromax (.25, it is 100 mg per 5mL) and Panmycin (2 drops). Then treated 3 weeks, 1X a day. Chewey is still a little congested, making that "berberber" noise sometimes. The little girls are still sneezing from time to time, maybe once every 5-15 minutes. Buttons has an irritated eye that gets the red gunky stuff, which we've read is usually caused by a respiratory problem. I'm most worried about her. We clean the cage 1X a week with vinegar water. I usually completely change the bedding once in between cleanings. We live in a rural area, so our vet just doesn't have any idea about what to do next. Do you have any suggestions? It's very frustrating. We want to give our rats the best care possible but just don't have any vet nearby with any kind of experience. Thank you for your input, Marlo You could try www.ratguide.com it give a rat meds chart and the ailments to use them on.  SignatureJackie - Texas <:_)~ and the Boys, Ronald, Scratch, Rupert and Wilbur, Toffee, Bonker and Chewy. http://community.webshots.com/user/mullins9 > Hello, fellow rat lovers. I could use some advice. > [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > Thank you for your input, > Marlo > Hello, fellow rat lovers. I could use some advice. > [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > Thank you for your input, > Marlo Usually Zithro works great but then you get one or two that just won't clear up. I would go back to the vet and ask for a high dose of Baytril. Do that for a couple of weeks, if no noticeable improvements then add doxy. They may need to be medicated long term. Baytril is a safe long term use drug and won't harm the rat. Myco sucks big time. :( Here is a good list of meds for rats: http://www.rmca.org/Articles/dchart.htm Keep us posted!! SignatureJoanne Owned by 22 rats. Webshots: http://community.webshots.com/user/joanneb70 ------------------------------------------------------- ~Ignorance is not innocence but sin. *Robert Browning* My rat started sneezing more and the doc put us on the baytril and it cleared up. But he got sick again and I asked the Dr. if I could give a maintenance dose of Doxycycline and Baytril (The Rat Lady I believe said she had done this with a rat and had good results.) So we used this two times a day for over a year and he never had any respiratory infections in that time. Unfortunately his age caught up to him and he passed away earlier this month. But I know that it did give him more time with me. The other plus was that it wasn't very expensive. About $11 every few weeks. Hope this helps. Lisa -I have rat kibble in my bed. > > Hello, fellow rat lovers. I could use some advice. > > [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] > http://www.rmca.org/Articles/dchart.htm > Keep us posted!! Thank you everyone for the advice. My sister-in-law is going to vet school and gave us a contact in the city she is attending school. We talked to this vet, who is quite knowledgeable, and he recommended Baytril plus doxy so that's what we're gonna try. He's nice enough to serve as a resource for our own vet. He has a compounding vet pharmacy that he uses that will put the meds in a solution called Orasweet, so hopefully it won't be too hard to get the girls to take it. It will take a few days for that to get to us. Unfortunately, we are going away on Sunday and won't be back til Saturday, but I think everyone will be okay. The guy that's watching our rats is probably not the guy to ask to give meds to our rats. On another note, Chewey developed what I presume is a mammary tumor, so I'm reading the other messages about that. Our vet said she can take that out. She did have success neutering one of our boys. Now I wish I would have had all the girls spayed. Is it even possible to just have healthy rats from beginning to end? I have to wonder if I'm doing something wrong. So any input you can give me on how to keep our rats super healthy from birth to old-time death would be much appreciated. > My rat started sneezing more and the doc put us on the baytril and it > cleared up. But he got sick again and I asked the Dr. if I could give a [quoted text clipped - 51 lines] >> http://www.rmca.org/Articles/dchart.htm >> Keep us posted!! > Is it even possible to just have healthy rats from beginning to end? I > have to wonder if I'm doing something wrong. So any input you can give me > on how to keep our rats super healthy from birth to old-time death would > be much appreciated. I'm afraid for us it seems to be just luck and heredity. The main thing I rely on is plenty of variety in food, and allowing elderly and thinning rats to have whatever the hell they want, just as long as it gets some calories down their necks. Rosemary |
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