Meds???

[bellazrat]

I just brought home a rat yesterday and awoke to find out its sick and has red stuff that looks like blood coming out of it nose. :doh: Good thing I QT her! The store gave me something to make her better but the guy that knew about it was gone so I don't really know what the medicine does, how to keep it, or if the dosages are right for the amount of water in the bottle. I wonder if anyone possibly knows what this is or could point me in the direction of someone who does.

The liquid is an orange-red, almost the color of sweet and sour sauce, and has the consistency of water. It also has no sent to it. If I didn't know any better I probably would say its water with food coloring in it. They gave it to me in a ziplock bag so there really isn't any directions except the ones the guy wrote which were : add three tablespoons to water dally for five days and change water every day.

Not bad direction but I just would like to know what I'm feeding my cutie pie. Better safe than sorry!

Also my other rat (not in the QT cage) has the sniffles too. Should I give her some?

 

[jorats]

Hi! Good preventive action with the QT!

The red stuff is porphyrin and this is most likely due to any stress she's experiencing right now. How would you describe her sickness?
Also, any meds bought at a store is definitely not good enough to medicate rats. If your rat truly is sick, you should see a vet and get the real good stuff. Anything else will be far too mild and probably is only an immune system booster, or bird/fish medication.

 

[bellazrat]

She sneezes pretty loud and does this weird squeaking thing that sounds like a really strong sneeze. Shes active running in her wheel all night and eating some food. She has red stuff on her nose that looks like she had a bloody nose then it dryed. Also her breathing is quite loud compared to my other rat. respertory tract infection I'm guessing.

Also I have this powder called multipet vitamin supplement that I'm giving to my other rat for her sniffles. does this stuff work and should i give it to the new baby too?

 

[lilspaz68]

It is a very old school thing to actually put meds into water, we now know that it doesn't work and can actually harm your rat. You cannot control the dosage that the rat is getting and often a rat will refuse to drink the "tainted" water and will dehydrate which is very dangerous for a sick rattie. You will read people saying things like " .05 cc's twice a day", etc...these are dosages calculated with the weight of the rat and the concentration of the meds. I would throw out what you have as well as the vitamins. If you feed a good balanced diet all the vitamins your rat needs will be there. Quality lab blocks are a very balanced staple diet.

How are you doing your QT? Different home/air space, different room? What are you doing between the 2 of them to prevent anything transmitting to the other rat?

The sneezing can be explained with NHS (new home sneezies) which often goes away in a few day. The red stuff is porphyrin, a reddish stained fluid that rats emit from their nose and eyes when stressed or ill. Does the dried red porphyrin stay on her nose all day or does she clean it up after a good grooming session and its gone for the day?

Is she making any crackling, gurgling, whistling noises when she breathes? She is eating and drinking well too? With the louder sounds you may want to take her to a vet that treats rats and see if she does have a URI (upper respiratory infection) and if she does they will put her on proper antibiotics.

 

[bellazrat]

The only way I could do a Qt is to have the new rat in the upstairs office with all of the vents covered and taped so no air could get through and a towel at the bottom of the door. my older rat is in the basement and both aren't allowed to leave the room their cage is in. I will not handle both in a row and make sure I change my clothes between rats.

The porphyrin was gone after her grooming and has yet to come back, so fingers crossed! she also was sneezing a lot less then yesterday when I checked on her this morning so hopefully it was just stress.

she isn't eating or drinking as much as my other rat, but then again she is also 1/2 the age and my other is an oinkers. she doesn't seem to know what the heck the lab blocks are and ignores them but I put in some of the seed food they fed her at the store and she seems to be eating some of that. I only keep the seed as a treat for my rats (it got my other one really fat) but I thought it would be better than her not eating during the transition. any tips on how to get her familiar with the whole 'lab blocks are food' concept?

also what kind of harlan would you suggest for a three month old (fatty) and a one month old rat?

thanks so much!!!

 

[jorats]

Your quarantine sounds good to me. Many of us can't even do it that well.
I bet your sweetie was just stressed out so this is good news that she's settling down.
You can try adding water to the blocks or even soymilk. A new rat will always be slow to try new foods but I can guarantee you they will never starve themselves. Some are real piggies and others just nibble, so don't be too concerned with that.
In my opinion the best Harlan is the 2014. But many do feed the 2018.

 

[bellazrat]

Today the red stuff is back but not too bad. She still wont touch the blocks so I kind of went overboard trying to get her to eat something more than the seed diet LoL . I went out and bought soy milk last night and nope wouldn't eat it with the blocks (but I did make my preggers friend sick). This morning I bought baby food and baby cereal and she refused that too...even cheerios! Then I tried veggies and fruit and she ignored that too.....man shes picky! Do younger feeder rats normally refuse goodies like this until their settled or something?

Also I have my other rat on felice because of her alrgies but the new one is just on some of that alergin free carefresh. Should I take her off of it because of her sneezing? Is felice ok if shes not litter trained yet?