Fancy Rats Archive forum: 2002 - 2011

With the baytril, have you tried various methods of hiding it in food (olive oil seems popular among my guys, but I've used a nice stinky meat or fish paste in the past, and a lot of people swear by chocolate mousse)? I ask because injecting baytril, while ok when essential, can cause a burn on the ...

Metacam's not a steroid :wink: There are a few steroids for use in rats - dex is usually the first go to for resp disease as it is short acting and doesn't depress the immune system too much, but in a brian tumour the vet might well have gone for something longer lasting. If it's likely to be a brai...

My vet is considering it on one of mine (we can't decide if it's likely enough to help to be worth the risk, as it's not an eyelash problem, but the rim of the eye-socket is rolled in in places) - apparently it's not very common on rats but can be done. I heard of it thanks to James Herriot as well...

Let's hope you get some answers on Monday then, and she continues to be conned by the syringe treats over the weekend. I really wouldn't be happy by a vet who treated me like that - I respect my vets expertise and I generally take their advice, but treatment is a team effort and I expect my views (a...

Could well be scarring then. I'd treat for the full course, then stopand see what happens - if he gets worse then it's an infection, and either needs different ABs, or is just one of these things that needs stabilising with ABs. If his chest doesn't deteriorate, then it's probably scarring. Rats wit...

Brand name for doxycycline is ronaxan. Doxy is a tetracycline antibiotic. I think erythromyacin is something else, it's a macrolide antibiotic, and is the parent compound from which various types ABs have been developed - zithromax for example is derived from it. Are there any other vets practices n...

Looking fluffy is, like not eating etc, a sign of serious ill health. I wouldn't usually expect it in standard resp disease, except in serious acute cases, and near the end. My respy lads usually look normal, and behave normally through out. It is possible to cure resp problems, although it is more ...

The only thing I got wrong (because it was wrong on my old bottle) was that the total dose (10 mg / kg etc) should still be per dose and not per day. Just to clarify this, when I say got wrong, I mean compared to the recommendation of my current vet. The original working was right according to the ...

I'm on (stayed as neotoma, as apparently it's now so well stuck that someone has just used it to refer to me in an NERS resuce fund application, despite both people involved knowing me in real life - no point in fighting it if it's that far gone :lol: ) However, I'm really hoping a few more skins wi...

Just had a chat with my vet about this as well as we;re thinking about it in an old boy - he says steroids vary alot in how much they suppress the immune system and how long they hang around. He suggests dex for resp issues in the first instance as it is short acting, and has the least effect on the...

I've been asked for this a few times by people who want to discuss using draaxin with their vet, so I just checked it with mine. The dose for draxxin in a rat that we are using 0.1 ml / kg. So if you have a 500 g rat, that would be an injection of 0.05 ml, for a 400g rat it would be 0.04 ml and so o...

I've just had a long (loooooooooooong) chat with my vet about this, in order to clarify things - we even got to doing trial calcaulations on bits of paper :wink: Basically my working before was correct, but unnecessarily complicated (perils of being an academic chemist :rollred: ), so we've sorted o...

Yes, they like it and it's harmless as long as it's not too hot and not in excess. if he likes dipping his head / paws in water it would be worth giving them a coop cup or similar sort of bowl of water in the cage - mine love it and use it in preference to their bottles. Some of them also dip their ...

I always let them pootle like normal as soon as I want to. The only bad things that have ever happened to their stitches have involved them and their teeth . Therefore I consider maximum distraction a good idea...

Glad she's doing better now. Tbh wads of stuff getting wedged under the eyelids in hairless rats is a well-known problem - again it's because they can't clear stuff away in the way furries do. So it's something you may need to keep an eye on in future.