Dehydrated Boy - Not anymore! :D

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ryelle

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2008
Messages
3,427
Location
Cleveland, England
My Sid is dehydrated. I've been snuggling him for 5 mins on the couch, and i was playin with his fur, and realised the skin was barely going back to normal. It goes back a little bit, but not very much. He's still eating normally, and drinking as far as i know.

He seems to fight with his waterbottle's when he goes for a drink. He doesn't drink a lot (sometimes once a day - not sure about the night), but when he does, he can sit for atleast 5 minutes drinking. My mum is concerned aswell. She agree's that he looks like he is struggling to get water out of the bottle. The bottle is fine (brand new) and even drips a bit and has clean water in it every day, and is washed out thorougly once a month. He grabs hold of the metal stem bit of the bottle and wraps his hands round it and sometimes chews or puts his whole mouth in the bottle. I've tried putting a seperate bowl of water in the cage and he wasn't fussed. Patrick has no trouble with any water bottles in the cage

I've found Lilspaz's homemade rehydration formula (http://www.jorats.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=6261&start=0)which i am going to try tonight (its 00:14 so obviously i can't go to a shop). What else can i give him to make him more hydrated? And thinking long-term.. how can i stop it happening again :?
 
You can also give pedialite from the drug store ... my rats like the grape.

How old is he? Young rats are often not strong enough to get water out of water bottles, although it looks like they are drinking.

Rats needs several sources of water in their cages as water bottles can get clogged ... I would suggest a couple of water bottles and a water dish in the cage.

As for feeding ... dissolve lab blocks in boiling water and cool to make mush as it has lots of fluids, feed watermelon, etc.

Remember not to give rats water containing floride or chlorine.
 
I have three senior girls who can no longer drink from a bottle. They are inconsistent about drinking out of a water dish, so I make sure that all of their food has loads of liquid. I add extra water to their oatmeal, make their baby cereal very soupy, make up mushed lab blocks for them, feed them watermelon and baby food, and put some extra water in their peas. Two of the girls love to fish for pasta in a big water dish, so that gets them a bit of fluid.

One of them still gets dehydrated often, so I give her soymilk from a 3ml syringe with the needle removed. If she stops taking liquid by mouth I have the fixings to give sub-cutaneous Ringers Lactate solution (Shelagh has a great thread with photos & instructions).
 
You should be able to get
the fixings to give sub-cutaneous Ringers Lactate
Click to expand...
solution and a lesson on how to do it, from your vet.

Having this on hand is very important, especially if you are treating rats with lasix or rats with heart problems.
 
Sid is almost two. I will have to start adding water to his food i think. Ill get a carton of Soymilk tomorrow. Are fruit juices ok to mix in? or won't they help? I sometimes mix fruit juice into my birds food when he is being picky.


Also: I did a google search, and apparently you can't get Pedialyt in the UK. After readin up on a parent's forum i found this stuff:
Dioralyte
http://www.boots.com/webapp/wcs/sto...29&callingViewName=&langId=-1&catalogId=11051

I can pick some up tomorrow if it's the right stuff.
How do i know how much to give him of any hydrating formula? Is it just until he stops drinking or does he need a certain amount?

And, does Soymilk help a lot with dehydration?
 
When he is dehydrated, just about any liquid that he will take is good. If fruit juice does the trick, go for it. It would be handy if you knew roughly how much he is drinking, so giving him liquid with a syringe will help you gauge his intake. Try for at least 5 ml and if he keeps drinking more that would be fine.

Dissolving his lab blocks is a very handy way to get water into them.
 
Ive just got back from shopping. I got some Organic baby breakfast stuff (its like powder u mix in with milk or water), Complan - which i think is the same as Ensure, and my pharmacys version of Dioralyte - its exactly the same but half the price.

Patrick jumped in his Strawberry Complan and baby breakfast mix (it looked like a strawberry milkshake when i mixed it all up). It took Sid a little longer, but he was starting to eat it when i left the room. He drank a bit of the dioralyte stuff aswell :) My parakeet's face is covered in it too ><

I couldn't find any watermelon though. I'll have to look in the supermarket when i go.


Hope it all works :D
 
Im trying to sort him out. Hes not having a good time with his back feet lately. He walks more on his ankle than his actual foot (his toes are almost in the air and curled when he walks). I had to trim his toe nails the other day. They were growing wierd. Instead of the tip growing long, sharp and pointy, the whole nail was just growing dead thick without a tip. It felt brittle aswell when i trimmed it :? . He sleeps a lot aswell, and doesn't seem to enjoy moving around much. If he's out, he literally walks to a certain corner of my bed (just where my pillows are) and he curls up and doesn't move. im now questioning wether he is eating properly (his biscuits dont seem to be getting less in the bowl) and drinking properly. Its been a few hours so im going to go check the bowl in a bit and see if hes eaten any of the strawberry cereal mix. Im PRAYING i can get my spare cage over this week so that i can get him set up in his own cage properly
 
He ate the whole lot of his strawberry breakfast today :D I think he's getting used to the idea that it tastes good (i couldnt resist lmao had to mix up twice as much today). Im gunna drag him out for a smooch later and see how he's doing - he wouldn't come out for out time last night

The other two boys love it aswell. Sids the only one that doesn't go crazy. Patrick jumps inside the bowl, and my parakeet was doing his mating dance to the spoon this morning >< he loves it so much
 
Waahooooo!!!

I just got him out of his cage for out time, and checked his skin 'reflex' and its back to normal! I never realised how bad it was until tonight. His skin is like elastic today and just goes straight back, whereas the other day it hardly moved at all. I'm going to stick with the soaked blocks, and the baby breakfast mixed with these nutri drinks, and pick up some watermelon when I eventually find some :doh:

I'm so pleased :D He is a large guy, with a lot of skin, but it doesn't look so saggy underneath him today. He's more of a chunk :giggle:

Thanks a tonne girls!
 

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