Kona - RIP 5/24/14

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911: you do what you feel will be best for him & you.

For Doodles - Prednisone was her lifeline & Baytril kept her from getting respitory issues. I feel some ratties respond better from some meds than others, They can very from rat to rat I guess. You know your Kona & what you feel is best for him. Best wishes to you both. I certainly respect your desicions.
 
Now I'm really confused again. The vet said they would do the same thing (Metacam and Pred) Bromo and Cabergoline how are these given - and why am I thinking they are injections? I will call around tomorrow - I guess I really don't have to if you are getting the from CVS I can too. He won't give the Dex shot because he cannot find any recent testing to prove it works. I went it with the information from this forum, but its not "proved testing"
 
2Rats said:
911: you do what you feel will be best for him & you.

For Doodles - Prednisone was her lifeline & Baytril kept her from getting respitory issues. I feel some ratties respond better from some meds than others, They can very from rat to rat I guess. You know your Kona & what you feel is best for him. Best wishes to you both. I certainly respect your desicions.
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I thought I had pred here to switch too if I decided to, but the hubby threw it out despite telling him not to! Had I known I might of fought harder for it.
 
Aida said:
Just a little afterthought:
My vet quoted me around $300 a month for the bromo and the cabergoline, which I was told on here was an insane price. That's if you want the lab to compound and send it to you, yada yada. Bromocriptine is used often for people too, so if you call CVS, Wallgreen's, any pharmacy and just ask them for a price quote on bromocriptine tablets, they will gladly give you one with no issues at all. For 10 tablets I pay around $20 at CVS. They are technically supposed to last me a month, but it's more like 20 days. Still, it isn't bad.
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My CVS wants 300 + for the Cabergoline, and $20 for bromocriptine
 
dspch911 said:
My CVS wants 300 + for the Cabergoline, and $20 for bromocriptine
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Yeah, Cabergoline is the more expensive option. Some people say it works better, but my girl is doing just fine on the bromo, as you know. Now the process is simple, your vet just has to call the CVS and say how many tablets of what concentration and they will just prepare it for you like for a person.
 
Aida said:
Yeah, Cabergoline is the more expensive option. Some people say it works better, but my girl is doing just fine on the bromo, as you know. Now the process is simple, your vet just has to call the CVS and say how many tablets of what concentration and they will just prepare it for you like for a person.
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How do you give it? Its just pill form right? I have the email into the vet I just hope he is there tomorrow. The other two I probably will not get the Rx from they are too holistic brain washed. I could get the cabergoline a pill at a time, but that is still something like $38/pill, but they were willing to give a pet discount or something like that. Anyway, I'm in a holding pattern again...

Hopefloats, I hope those videos are available cause you may have to sent them to my vet... I told them video proof was available.
 
dspch911 said:
How do you give it? Its just pill form right? I have the email into the vet I just hope he is there tomorrow. The other two I probably will not get the Rx from they are too holistic brain washed. I could get the cabergoline a pill at a time, but that is still something like $38/pill, but they were willing to give a pet discount or something like that. Anyway, I'm in a holding pattern again...

Hopefloats, I hope those videos are available cause you may have to sent them to my vet... I told them video proof was available.
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My pills are 1.5mg/pill, and the dosage is 0.5mg for my girlies weight per day. That means one pill split into three, once a day. 1 pill=3 days. However, I found that cutting the pill/mixing it always resulted in some waste, so I instead would give her half a pill everyday.

The way I do it is I crush the pill between two spoons, and then take in a small amount of hot water with the syringe(my girly was a real pain on taking meds, after trying to unsuccesfully mix it with foods to mask it, I just gave up and instead make it into a pretty thick paste, but a small amount), usually around 0.2ml or so. I push that water out onto the spoon, stir it until the crushed pill is all dissolved, and then take it all up in the syringe again. When I give her the meds I give her half, and the other half I give the next day.
 
Aida said:
My pills are 1.5mg/pill, and the dosage is 0.5mg for my girlies weight per day. That means one pill split into three, once a day. 1 pill=3 days. However, I found that cutting the pill/mixing it always resulted in some waste, so I instead would give her half a pill everyday.

The way I do it is I crush the pill between two spoons, and then take in a small amount of hot water with the syringe(my girly was a real pain on taking meds, after trying to unsuccesfully mix it with foods to mask it, I just gave up and instead make it into a pretty thick paste, but a small amount), usually around 0.2ml or so. I push that water out onto the spoon, stir it until the crushed pill is all dissolved, and then take it all up in the syringe again. When I give her the meds I give her half, and the other half I give the next day.
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Sounds easy enough - you had me confused when you said the pharmacy would prepare it for me.

HE ATE DURING THE NIGHT .... I had him in his own cage for the night since I was just to tired to safety proof his DCN (I think I'll take them down to a single CN) I gave him water in a bowl and bottle, a bowl of ensure, a bowl a baby food (all small bowl) and some greens/ 2 pieces of apple. He ate the greens and 1 piece of apple - that's a shocker!! He seems to have eaten some of the baby food too. He was resting in his favorite Petunia hammock when I left. I'll get some coconut water on the way home today. I also got 2ml of ensure in him yesterday w/his holistic powder.
 
jorats said:
I'll alert lilspaz to this, she knows bromo very well.
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this boy weighs 778 grams (as per Vickie) so 2.5 mg would be about right but I still prefer the lower dosing myself. 3 mg/kg is the recommended and he's close to 1000 gram (or a kg). BUT if you can get him stable on less I would do that. Malcolm who was 700 grams was getting 1.25 mg a day and was symptom-free for almost 6 months :D
 
My understanding is that 1/2 a 2.5 mg Bromo pill is the standard dose, assuming a one-pound rat, but Lilspaz's doses have worked well for her rats. I doubt that there is really a well-defined standard dose. One of my rats did well on a smaller dose per pound.

But it sounds like whatever you are giving is working!! I am so happy for you and your ratty. PT is a heartache, and I lost so many very fast before Bromo came along.
Wishing him a continued recovery.
 
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Yesterday Kona was started on 2.5mg of Bromo and I continue his metacam .25mg, and the holistic. He took it in 5 ml of coconut water over about an hour. He also ate some banana last night. I PT proofed the DCN into a CN so all 3 boys now live in the bottom half only. Not sure if I'll relocate Clark or the nakies into the top half. Anyway, he seems happier back with his buddies. And he is active in moving around the cage. I think I covered it well to catch any falls he may have and have hammocks through out to catch him.

So as of this am: we have very small progress to report:

He's blinking - might not sound like much, but he wasn't before. He responds very quickly when I put my finger toward his eyes. Before there was little to no response - especially in the left eye. Both eyes are responding.

He made poop, even though there are three in the cage I know its his. Its mouse size poop, but there were 3. Like I said very small progress.

Daddy was going out to get more greens since he ate all the greens I gave him the day before and both pieces of apple. We will leave food in this cage 24/7 (fresh food that is in addtion to the oxbow)
 
dspch911 said:
Yesterday Kona was started on 2.5mg of Bromo and I continue his metacam .25mg, and the holistic. He took it in 5 ml of coconut water over about an hour. He also ate some banana last night. I PT proofed the DCN into a CN so all 3 boys now live in the bottom half only. Not sure if I'll relocate Clark or the nakies into the top half. Anyway, he seems happier back with his buddies. And he is active in moving around the cage. I think I covered it well to catch any falls he may have and have hammocks through out to catch him.

So as of this am: we have very small progress to report:

He's blinking - might not sound like much, but he wasn't before. He responds very quickly when I put my finger toward his eyes. Before there was little to no response - especially in the left eye. Both eyes are responding.

He made poop, even though there are three in the cage I know its his. Its mouse size poop, but there were 3. Like I said very small progress.

Daddy was going out to get more greens since he ate all the greens I gave him the day before and both pieces of apple. We will leave food in this cage 24/7 (fresh food that is in addtion to the oxbow)
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That's good!
I hope he continues recovering. Even if it's at small steps each day, well, slow and steady wins the race, too. :hello: :cheering:
 
mamarat said:
That is good!
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He's in daddy's hands today. I worry though the boys will not like being confined to the one cage or like all the hanging (catch Kona) hammocks. There aren't that many, but just enough to catch him should he wonder off a shelf or ramp and I have two shelves in the one cage so the ladders aren't that steep for him to get from level to level. They do enjoy all the special food being placed in the cage though - there is no loyalty in rat brothers when it comes to food.
 
Kona just pooped on me - two big stinky poops! Yes, I'm happy about that! He is eating baby food, walking around and going up and down the levels of the cage, he comes to the door, and his back feet are responding to touch. He isn't however that far from where we started these are all very little things.

I was hoping to get the pred today when we took Clark for his follow up, but Kona's doctor wasn't in until later. However, we had to take Clark back for more pain management and were able to get pred at that time. Bad news, after not getting the pred and not knowing we were going to have a return trip to the vet we gave Kona the metacam.. Now we have to wait 72 hours to start the pred!! Dang it!
 
Good for Kona !!!:dance: -- I pray he keeps making progess .... Times like this you are happy to be pooped on with nice smelly poopies. Baby food poopies are stinky :sick2:

Yeah - when it comes to food the ratties each think they are #1 for the pickins !
 

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