I'm sorry I didn't respond.
I have the 22.7 pills, that break into 4ths. The dosage for each rat is 1/4 of a pill 2X a day.
Bradford and Thayer were taking it on a spoon mixed in baby food until today. Their symptoms are getting a little worse day by day, following Raphael. He wouldn't take it in baby food from the start. Now Dijon (who is in the cage with Bradford and Thayer) has symptoms (as of yesterday). He's still at the point where he'll take it in the baby food.
Medicating them is stressful for them and for me. I don't know how to do it differently, I have looked at videos online, etc. They just don't like the medication or the process. They all fight the doxycycline. Most of the time I've been able to do a good job but a couple times it seems there was more on their face, my hands, and what I was wrapping with, than what ended up in their mouths.
Raphael has been sick since Saturday. He barely eats but as of last night was eating baby cereal. He hasn't been drinking enough. I did the dehydration test and of now he doesn't seem dehydrated. He isn't very active and seems cold. I do have the A/C on but it's not on high. I'm not sure which is worse for him, being cold or the horrible humidity if I opened the windows? When I was giving him the daytime dosage of medication today his testicles were blue-ish, but that went away, can stress from struggling against me giving meds cause that? Because it was there then gone within a half hour.
Thayer and Bradford (age around 8 months) have been showing symptoms since Monday. Until today they were eating and drinking fine. They're still drinking that I can tell but not eating that I've seen. They rejected the baby food but maybe they didn't like the kind? I don't know I doubt that's it, because Dijon took it. Anyway, they seem to be following Raphael's pattern (they're where he was 2 days ago).
Dijon was the last to show symptoms, yesterday (Wednesday). Still eating and drinking.
The symptoms are mainly sneezing and runny noses. No pyrphorin in eyes but sometimes in nose. Raphael SOMETIMES has a little whistling sound. But very rarely. None have labored breathing.
I know it could be worse but after losing Croix so quickly I'm scared
Also I have no idea how this happened. NONE of them have been exposed to a new rat nor have we been in contact with other rats. The newER rats we have (got the last maybe 3.5 weeks ago) are female and in the same DCN as my other girls (sectioned off from each other of course), and none of the females have any symptoms. Wouldn't they since they're actually in the same room & cage, if that was the cause of the outbreak??
My theory is it's because I changed to a different litter, that possibly needed changed more often than the other kind. It was a couple dollars cheaper but not the bad kinds everyone warns against. Perhaps though the change in litter caused a flare up because either it needed to be changed more often than the other kind, or they had a reaction to something in the bedding. That still doesn't make a whole lot of sense but I'm baffled.
Unless it is possible one of the little girl rats brought something in and the girls are just lucky. We do seem to handle the babies and the boys a little more often. So I don't know. It could've been that.
I guess I need to not obsess but I'm really scared the girls will get it too. I read under 12 weeks probably won't, but I have 5 older females to worry about next.
ANYWAY< when should I notice improvement in the boys? Not just improvement but how about not getting worse each day? They arent going downhill FAST or anything but it's certainly not getting any better.
ETA: Raphael actually ate the baby food off the spoon tonight with the Baytril in it. Surprised me but he struggled like crazy and I just set it down in his cage while I did the other boys and then when I was done with the other boys, he had eaten all the baby food off the spoon. Thayer ate off the spoon again tonight too. Bradford is the only one who doesn't really seem to feeling very well. Raphael does sometimes breathe heavily when we're working on getting him medication but it goes back to normal once we're done. He's still doesn't seem to be drinking but again ate the baby cereal as well that I mixed for him. And passed the dehydration test. I know he's not drinking much though because the water in his bottle isn't going down.