Baby rat has lice! any experienced help?

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Lunatchel

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Joined
Mar 23, 2013
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Oreagon
My boyfriend got me an adorable baby dumbo rat for my birthday but i have discovered that what i thought was just dander is really lice eggs! everything i have read online says that i should not use any harsh lice killers until she is 5 weeks and she is currently about 3. I have given her 3 consecutive Olive oil treatments(to drown any lice) and 2 dilute vinegar treatments (to unglue the eggs). her fur is too fine to remove the eggs with a nit brush so i am using a baby tooth brush, it is getting eggs but not all of them:-(

I removed and changed the bedding and cleaned the cage each time i treated her and i gave my other rat a single treatment and cage clean just to be safe. is there anything else i can do?
 
If she's 3 weeks old, she should really still be with her mom. Rats should absolutely nurse until they're 4 weeks old, females should stay with mom until they're 6 weeks old. Is she alone? A friend at this stage in life is crucial to her social development and psychological wellbeing.

You should speak to a specialized vet about a lice treatment. I think Revolution can be given at 4 weeks and it's much safer than Ivermectin that you can get more easily without a prescription. Otherwise, doing what you're doing. Make sure she keeps gaining weight, otherwise it can become an emergency very quickly. If you weigh her at the same time every day you should see some gain daily.

In addition to a good quality block (don't feed seed mix) you should supplement with soy based baby formula or baby cereal since she's missing out on mother's milk.
 
let's just say she wasn't in a place where being with mom for a few weeks wasn't am option, i have no clue why they even had a baby dumbo.

i have her on a mix of soy formula, replacement pro biotics, and my other rats oxbow. she has been getting bigger but how do i weigh her? im probably going to hold of on the vet if i can since she charges me 80$ just to go in and talk to her as a flat base fee, but don't worry if it comes to it i have the cash on hand to pay for any extra care that i cannot provide.for friends, she has my other rat but i don't want her to get lice so that's a bit of a issue.
 
Can you buy a digital kitchen or postal scale to keep an eye on her weight? The diet is fine, just make sure she's eating lots.

Don't introduce her to an adult rat until she's 6-8 weeks old, it's too risky for her.

I'll find out for sure when you can treat with Revolution. You can order some online (you should treat everyone) but it takes two weeks to get to you, so you'd have to do it now. One of the stores that sells it without a prescription is Pets Megastore in Australia, there are others but I don't know their names.
 
i may have a scale like that hiding somewhere ill go look. she has been eating a lot though so I'm not too worried. as for the revolution ill start looking for where to get some but probably won't be able to order till tomorrow, but i want to be sure the meds will do more good than harm.
 
Revolution is definitely safe at 5 weeks and the safest option for treating lice effectively. (You shouldn't treat a very ill rat with Revo though.) If you order it soon, you should get it at about the right time.
 
I can't seem to find any revolution for small animals, i found one for puppies and kittens though, is that the one? it doesn't say anything about killing lice so i want to be sure i order the right stuff :)
 
We use the cat dose my vet prescribed. Very small dose and can be hard to measure with the needle-less syringe but it helped our mite issue with two applications.
 
Sorry, I didn't specify. All Revolution is the same but cat and puppy/kitten are half the concentration of dog. Depending how many rats you have, a small box of kitten/puppy (1-2 rats) or cat (3-5 rats) is probably enough for 2 months of treatments + one vial left over for any future needs. You will need to know their weights to treat them, the dosage recommendations vary from 6-30 mg/kg. I usually use 6 mg/kg because it's a bit safer and just as effective but I know a lot of people use 12 mg/kg as well. If you need help figuring out doses, post their weights here when you're ready to treat and someone will help you. You will need a needle with a removable syringe to draw the liquid out of the vial (it's alcohol based and evaporates very quickly so it's not a good idea to just cut it open) and to measure out the dose.

Revolution is 'off label' for rats, meaning it's not intended for them. There is no parasite treatment specifically marketed to rats or rodents but many are tested on rats before they're used on cats and dogs so we have a pretty good idea of their efficacy and safety/toxicity.

http://ratguide.com/meds/anti-infective ... lution.php
 
ok i will probably do the lowest dose just to be safe. I just got home and she ate her pile of oxbow so that's good, but while i was brushing her for eggs i just noticed what looked like dried blood at the behind both of her ears at the base:-( i cleaned it of and looked but i can't find any cuts or scabs, any idea of where it came from?
 
I thought it may be porphyrin but i have never heard of it being behind ears, i looked again this morning and it's all clean and i can't find any irritation so it's probably nothing but ill keep looking for a while just to be sure.
 
I just ordered my pack of puppy and kitten revolution, which at 40$ is way less then It would cost to go in and just tell the vet my rat has lice so that is awesome, thanks so much. I got my dad's 3 beam balance and weighed her, she is about 80.77g currently, how much should she gain per day?
 
yeah she is pretty tiny, i tried to weigh oswin( my big girl) but she doesn't want to sit on the scale, she would much rather examine it lol. Baby played with my fingers this morning, it was so cute! lots of wrestling and jumping around her cage.
 
When I weigh my guys, I need a small box. I place the box on the scale, then I press the tare button to bring the scale back to zero and place rattie in the box. Works great for a few seconds. lol
 
I weighed her again and now she is 88.78g so she gained about 8 grams between today and yesterday is that good? too much? too little?
 

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