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DarkBlade

DarkBlade

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
400
Location
Dieppe(Moncton), NB, CA
Hey all,

I have a bunch of stuff happening in the last 24 hours. First of all, I got three new babies from a Miramichi Breeder. Patch, X and Cheese-Cake. All gonna be 4 weeks old the 10th of june.

Second of all, I went to the vet this morning and Zumi was PTed :sad3: I have her in a little box, I'll burry her with Mizu.

Third of all, before Zumi was PTed, the vet checked her and she has lices along with all my other females. She injected Kamchie and Yuki with a stuff for lices. She told me to clean cages every 10 days for eggs and they need to be injected again every 2 weeks. Along with every other rat I have.

Fourth of all, my babies cought them. And they are too young to be treated. What do I do?

Fifth of all, I got my Critter Nation. I put Loucky in it, our only clean rat left.

Sixith of all, when I was cleaning the babies' cage, one fell in the sink and I didin't caught her in time. I don't know if some soap went in her eyes but she seems fine now although when she was still wet, she was closing her eyes. Is that dangerous and what should I do?
 
I'm sorry to hear about Zumi :hugs: when it rains it pours eh wow. Lice is not fun we've dealt with that a few times.
For the young ones that can't be treated you can use Olive oil on them. There's a few posts on here with people using that for babies. If you do a search with lice and olive oil a lot will come up!
I'd keep a close eye on the baby that fell in the sink to see if she got hurt or not.
Good luck with everything!
 
Three weeks old? Your "breeder" is a byb that doesn't know anything!! :doh:
Those babies should still be with their mother!!! :redhot:
While a few people (and of course petstores) will take babies away from their mom after they are 4 weeks old, baby boys stay with mom until turning 5 weeks and baby girls until at least 6 weeks.

All your rats need to be treated for lice (with the exception of the babies as they are too young) What is your vet injecting them with? I'm thinking ivermectin but that is usually given orally as it can cause "fatal bleeding in rats if given by injection". (p. 23, Rat Health Care book) The usual treatment is revolution on the back of the neck. It lasts for 4 weeks, then may be repeated if needed.

As for those poor babies, if they have lice you can wash them if needed, pick the lice off them, and wipe them down with olive oil to try to keep the lice under control or kill the lice.

If she seems fine now, just keep an eye on the baby girl.

Very sorry for your loss of Zumi. Having a rat pts is heart breaking.

good luck
 
I checked. Ivermectin is what she gave them. The thing for the bleeding I did not know. Honestly, if she asked me, I wouldnt even knew which to get. But there was a bunch of revolution posters all over the office. I'm doing what you told me to. With a wet cloth, i make the back and side fur of my babies wet so I can see the red dots. There's barely any of them, I'm having a hard time finding some so maybe I have a chance to cleanse them. She said soap + water washed the eggs off of objects so maybe with luck, it'll wash it off of the babies too. Plus I'll pick the red dots out the best I can. I'll put some olive oil on them, small dose after.

Enyways, she weighted them and gave Yuki and Kamchie and gave a bigger dose to Kamchie since she weights 1.1 oz I think or pounce or err I'm not good at all with measuring stuff Y_Y'' Enyways, Yuki was 0.90 of whatever the measuring unit it was.

Enyways, the breeder gave the babies early because she her other little, the mom abandoned them so she put the mom with the newborn as a replacement mom. Enyways, she told me she would've wait 1-2 weeks more normally.

The booklet is on it's way. I don't have it yet.
 
The babies can have ivermectin at 6 weeks old.
But...I have to agree with SQ, a good breeder would NEVER let such young babies go early, no matter what happened to mom. A litter that stays together till 5 weeks is much healthier regardless if mom is there or not.
 
I must ask though, just to be sure because I always mess up, I put some olive oil on them and I'll kill the adult lice (thats what I read on another post) but do I wash it off of the babies after or do I let it on their fur to let the lice suffocate?

I'll tell the breeder that she's being bad.
 
Maybe not tell her she's being bad. You could educate her in how to make her babies healthier.
I PMed Lynds, she's done the olive oil on babies before. I'll post when she gets back to me.
 
Not sure how long you leave the olive oil on ... never done it.
It is to suffocate the lice.

There are no good ethical breeders breeding for health in Ontario, Quebec, the martimes, etc.
Just backyard breeders :sad3: breeding rats that should never be bred becauise of unknown genetic backgrounds, etc.

As jorats has said, hopefully you can educate her.
Hopefully you can convince her to keep the rest of the litter together until they are at least 5 weeks old ... hopefully with a motherly adult that will help them learn the things they need to learn and care for them.
 
She has GREAT rats background genetics though. Her oldest was Star, a lab rat. She died like 3 days ago and she was 5 the first of june. She's a young breeder but she got her heritage from a rat researcher that had pure lab rats. So the babies, including Cookie are half-lab rat, kinda.

All that IF it is true, of course. She takes genetics in consideration enyways. She picks her strongest rat with the best temperament. And her babies are truly beautiful and have very very nice personalities. She also told me she gets every baby vet checked before letting them go to a owner.

And I told her, sent her an email. Told her to keep the girls until 6 weeks and the boys to 5 weeks old. And that they have better health that way.
 
Lab rats are not necessarily healthier then other rats.
Sometimes they are less healthy. If it were true that they are healthier, people would be getting lab rats for pets or to use as breeders.
I would like to see the documentation on the rats age. A lot of people make claims about a rats age but when you investigate they end up being mistaken - off by a year or two.
If she really does have rats that are living to five years of age, I am sure a lot of people on this forum would be very interested in her rats.

Rats often do not develop serious health issues until they are older. Since they are bred long before most health problems would show up, it is important to know the health history of all the rats related to them, going back many, many generations. That will give the breeder an idea of what genetic problems they are carrying.

How many years has she studied rat genetics, and who mentored her when she was learning?
Do you have the written pedigree or health history of all of your rat's relatives going back many, many generations.

Not to be argumentative, but she obviously doesn't know much about rats or she would never have adopted out 3 week old babies.
 
Lynds replied back to me. She smothered them in olive oil and left it on. This killed the lice. I think you could wash it off in a couple of hours.
 
For SQ : I don't necessarily believe her or think she's a professional breeder but I'd rather buy rats from her than my local pet shop and Cookie proved to be a very good rat.

For jorats : Thanks alot! But um, does it kill adult lice or all of it, including eggs? If not eggs, what should I do about it?
 
It doesn't kill the eggs.
You are just tryoing to keep the babies lice free until they are old enough to be treated. Then you treat all of your rats. Lice can kill babies.
 
I seriously hope that she is not still breeding because she is the person we took our girls to and she told me that the litter that was on the way, that is now born, was her last and she was only going to be doing rescues. She adopted out 6 of the 8 of our girls we took to her and kept two girls for her because she said she fell in love with them. If I find out she breeds them I am going to be severly p!$$ed.
 
:? Thats kinda a bit disturbing news to me. But I know I talk to her alot on MSN. I know she rescued a couple rats (4 if I'm not mistaken) and she didn't bred them. I think she told me that they we're all adopted. Keeping two out of them rings a bell too.

Thanks to all! I'll wash the poor babies off now. I think the lices had enough time to suffocate threw the night. :giggle: *Renames herself The Lice Killer*

Oh err, does anyone know how to remove olive oil in one quick way? I know water isn't enough and I'm not sure if I should use soap. I'm afraid it's gonna harm the rats.

Oh and for the Ivec. by injection, should I ask my vet to use Revolution instead? Or ivec. by oral?

Oh, oh, oh *jumps, jumps* I finally got a bag of Oxbow Regal Rat. *Cheers*
 

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