Intros

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Through a rescue, Huron Valley Rat Rescue - I found a vet that will do his sterilization for $66. Not too bad I'd say. So, I'll be making Spiccety (the name the previous girl gave him) an appointment soon. After that, he and the 3 girls will be living together pending a 3 week recovery, and intros in the bathtub. WOOHOO.. Sorry I haven't posted pics.. I had another wedding which was a 4 day affair, and various other things keeping me from posting them. Just picture the 2 dumbo girls, but 3 times the size LOL.... He's gotta be pushing 1.2 - 1.5 lbs, just guessing. I haven't weighed him.
 
Update on Curly and Lady; i've noticed Curly grooms Lady a lot more than Lady grooms her, hope that's not too bad a sign!

I'm also a bit anxious of the fact that Lady is so visibly older than Curly, curly's always so active, and Lady just wants to sleep and eat. I hope Curly isn't an annoying cagemate for her lol
 
LadyGray said:
Update on Curly and Lady; i've noticed Curly grooms Lady a lot more than Lady grooms her, hope that's not too bad a sign!

I'm also a bit anxious of the fact that Lady is so visibly older than Curly, curly's always so active, and Lady just wants to sleep and eat. I hope Curly isn't an annoying cagemate for her lol
Click to expand...

Has there been any more biting?
 
LadyGray said:
None at all so far! I think the space just wasn't neutral enough before, was silly of me.
Click to expand...

That's great news! Sounds like you are off to a great start, just keep taking it slow and it sounds like it will work out.
 
I've come to spam the post again :dance:

so, I've been moving at a very slow pace due to Mason (when I first moved him into the girls room, he was petrified of playing in the room due to the smells. which I expected. he's been a shy/skittish boy since he was a baby.). mostly because I noticed the stress of his anxiety over the new smells has made him start wheezing/sneezing again.

my concern being that he's only going to be about 10 months this month and has all ready been treated for a stress induced flare up. it pretty much seems any amount of intros is enough to induce a flare up in him (I'm not worried about a couple minutes to a couple days worth of wheezing, but more so a flare up that won't go away on its own). the current one has lasted a couple days so far. still not enough time to treat, but enough to make me think about the situation.

if this current flare up continues, might it be best to not intro him to the older girls?


(on the plus side, Mason and Daisy continue to thrive together. they just ADORE eachother. she really has brought him out of his shell. my Dad said it best, it's like a kid growing up and no longer wanting to be around mom lol. he used to be really reliant on me to feel secure. he'd always stick close during play time. now he's learning to jump off the bed and create terror in my room with Daisy. he even does the "nooo, I'm not done yet!!!" run at the end of play time! he used to be done with play time way before play time was done :dance: )
 
not for the current one since it's only been a couple days (was still waiting to see if it would clear up on its own, since the previous ones have been moment of stress sniffles/wheezes).

he DID have a 3 - 4 week round of Doxy in August for the original flare up. it cleared up fast and hasn't come back continuously again until now. otherwise it was just mostly moments of stress and then he was fine.
 
that's what I'm trying to decide. I don't want to dose him too much at a young age (my vet has always been very concerned about trying to avoid building up resistances, so all meds are available when they are older. so that's sort of drilled in my head lol), but it would be lovely for Daisy to be back in the RUUD
 
But at the same time, if Mason has an underlying condition that is not being treated will get far worse where some meds won't be able to knock it down. There is no cure for myco, only maintaining it and keeping it under control.
 
yes, exactly. that's why I am so hesitant to continue with intros. I really don't want to trigger a flare up constantly. he's been treated for the myco before, like I said in August. but Mason is a very nervous rat. I've had him since he was a little pinky (he's the baby of one of the girls I adopted who ended up being pregnant at the time of adoption) and this has always been his personality. while he's very happy and very friendly (no one gets away without a kiss!), he's very shy and nervous. he's at his most confident with Daisy.

I have to take Mini in for her teeth today, so I'm going to check with my vet about treating Mason again.

after sleeping on it though, I'm not sure it's worth triggering his myco every time I start a new phase of intros. I may just save up for a new R-680 (I've been wanting to get rid of the R-690 they are in for ages) and leave them together. after his round of Doxy before, he had no sneezes, wheezing, or anything. his lungs were completely clear before (it was all nasal), but today it seems like it's in his lungs.

thinking getting him on baytril or doxy for this flare up and leaving him with his new bff Daisy would make him happiest. plus, they love having their cage in my room. Mason loves the attention and Daisy loves to keep me awake by chewing on the bars for attention lol.

*edit to add, I suppose what I mean is that I think maybe the Doxy didn't knock down the flare up enough and that stress is making him vulnerable to flare ups. if treating him with another med isn't any more effective to maintaining the myco, not sure it's worth triggering a bunch of flare ups. especially in case when he's older if he needs to be treated more (ie as he ages the myco flaring up more). I tend to prefer groups over duos, but it's no loss if they end up just a duo. they are insanely happy together.
 
I would try a baytril/doxy combo twice a day for at least 4 weeks before you decide it is for sure myco and not just a persistent URI that partly went away when you treated him before.
 
good idea! about to run out the door to the vet for my little lady Mini, I'll have to ask my vet about Mason. was going to schedule him this week, then discovered Mini's teeth D:

edit:

I'm going to edit this post rather than spam the post :p

Mason is going to go in this week or next week to make sure his infection isn't in the lungs this time (before his lungs were clear, just nasal noise) and my vet is leaning towards suggesting I don't keep going with intros (to avoid stress) unless this next round of treatment helps him manage the myco more. but nothing confirmed until Mason goes back in.
 
Curly and Lady are now in a small neutral cage together. Curly is grooming lady a LOT now and they keep having lots of mini non-serious fights (boxing-style!), Curly is nearly always the one that starts them. They were fine together during intros so i'm just wondering if this is normal for their first time in a cage together?

edit:

lady does groom curly but very rarely and not for long!
 
We are still having trouble with intros to Obie. I can't even remember how long he's been living with us, it's been maybe 2 months now? (seems much longer) His cage has been beside the other 3 boys' cages since Christmas. Prior to X-mas we had taken a bit of break from intros because it was stressing Maz out (he's the friendliest, thought he'd be a good go-to guy for a first intro.) We're back at it now, using the bathroom as neutral ground. We've done about 7 sessions, ranging from 20 minutes to 40. I wipes down everything afterwards in an effort to preserve the neutrality of the area - seems to work, as upon entering every day Maz and Obie both run around bubbling with excitement and curiosity, exploring this "new" place.

There are no hiding places. I put out yogurt for them to share. Basically they will run around willy nilly sniffing all over the place and be just fine, it's only when their paths cross that it gets ugly. So far no blood has been drawn yet. For the most part Obie is being the agressive one (he is intact, Maz is neutered.) They won't share food together; one of them always has to push the other away. There's lots of scratching and batting at one anothers' faces to the point where I seperate them in fear of an eye injury.

My neutered boys were both open and accepting of Max, intact, when he arrived. Max was not at all aggressive, just shy and timid. Obie is the opposite. Very much the "leave me the heck alone" attitude, no matter what territory he is in. Both of the sweet, neutered, unaggressive little boys are obviously sensing his hormones, and that's the only time I ever see them act so agitated and aggressive. Obviously the next thought would be to neuter Obie. I have no idea how old he is, and despite his perky energy I feel he is older, and wouldn't know if it is safe to neuter him or not. I'm not sure I trust my vet to make the right decision about it either. What sort of criteria do we look at to determine if a rat is in good shape to have this done?
 
I'd continue with the neutral intros. Don't separate them for boxing. That's normal so they can set up who's going to be boss.
You say that both Maz and Obie are excited and bubbly when put down on neutral ground, how is Max about it?
 

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