Frail baby rat

hi all,

I'm looking for some advice. My baby Rex, Moraig, has been ill with a respiratory infection and abscesses. We've treated her with antibiotics. But I think she may be underdeveloped due to this. She is otherwise healthy- exploratory, eats, drinks, cuddles, and washes herself regularly. She just feels frail and lacks the same muscle development as my other rat,Maggie, who is the picture of a healthy baby. She is only 2.5 months but I was wondering if anyone had any advice- maybe supplements we could give her?

I've attached a few photos to help and also see how cute she is!
Thank you!

She's a cutie but I'm not surprised she doesn't look as robust as her energy has been put towards healing instead of growing. She might or might not catch up.
As for the respiratory infection how sick was she and is she better? What were you treating her with and for how long?
You mentioned abscesses, was she injured as a wee one?

lilspaz68 said:

She's a cutie but I'm not surprised she doesn't look as robust as her energy has been put towards healing instead of growing. She might or might not catch up.
As for the respiratory infection how sick was she and is she better? What were you treating her with and for how long?
You mentioned abscesses, was she injured as a wee one?

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We treated her with .05 ml of septrin twice a day for a week. Then she got her first abscess so we continued treatment for another week. Her second abcsess appeared about a month later in the same place on the underside of her neck. I'm not sure what caused them though. She did get better from the respiratory infection but still sneezes on occasion. She was pretty sick and we thought that she may not make it but has turned around incredibly. Unfortunately we got them with the infection. It doesn't seem to have impacted Maggie as it has Moraig and I'm scared that she'll just be sickly her whole life.

Hmmm where was the 1st abscess located? Also under her neck?

Yeah same place.

If they came to a head then burst and drained then it likely was a bite wound. Poor baby. How's her respiratory issues now?

Yeah they both came to a head and healed up nicely. If it happens again we are going to take her back to the vet. Her respiratory issues are better. The only symptoms she has now is occasional sneezing but not enough to be worrying. I think she's just going to be generally of a sickly disposition unfortunately

Any chance you have zithromax or amoxicillin? These are both MUCH better antibiotics for babies with respiratory.

Another recommendation for Zithromax. Good stuff, that. What lovely fuzzies you have!

Also, that third pic is priceless! I see you have Two Rats Syndrome. (It is characterized by the grimaces and pained sounds made when a pair of rodents crawl over your bare skin, generally down a shirt. There is no known treatment, as more shirts only means more burrowing fun. Fortunately, you have found a great support group here.)

How is she doing?