Over the counter antibiotics for Myco?

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horselo285

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2012
Messages
126
Location
Long Island
Hi,

I bought 3 rats from the pet store about a month ago. One of them was clearly sick. I brought her to the vet and she is currently on antibiotics.

I am a bit concerned that my two other girls might have a less noticable myco infection. One of them is making some occasional sounds, which to me sound similar to what Sandy was making when I first realized she was sick.

The other, had some porpythrin crusties around her eye the other day but has no other noticable symptoms.

I would like to get them checked by a vet, but it will be nearly $100 per rat w/ meds and the vets around her dont give any breaks for multiple rats.

I was reading that if you cant find a good vet, you can buy TETRACYCLINE over the counter through the fish section of many petstores and that this is usually effective against myco. They said you just dose the rat accordingly.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 0760838836

I also read that, although not ideal, you can buy tetracycline capsules through feed stores and such and mix them into the water bottles.

Does anyone have any experience with either of these methods of treating myrco or any other over the counter ideas?

My girls are about 3-4 months old and are generally active and seem otherwise fine. The one who was definitely sick is on her 18th day of meds and has shown incredible improvement.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

Thanks,

Laura, Sandy, Bella and Ruby. :-D
 
Tetracycline is not a strong antibiotic and you will probably do more harm than good. Unfortunately, rats are not cheap but it is often cheaper to take them to the vet early than wait until their symptoms worsen and they need longer/more intensive treatment to recover.
 
victoria said:
Tetracycline is not a strong antibiotic and you will probably do more harm than good. Unfortunately, rats are not cheap but it is often cheaper to take them to the vet early than wait until their symptoms worsen and they need longer/more intensive treatment to recover.
Click to expand...


I am really not sure if either of the other ones are sick or if I am just over-worrying.

The one who had the eye crusties gets stressed REALLY easily and is a very nervous baby. I wonder if the ONE time I saw signs of eye discharge was from that? It was only one time and I have been keeping a pretty close eye.

The other one has no porpythrin and seems active, healthy and social. She just sometimes makes some noises that remind me of what Sandy was doing. I ONLY hear them when she is snuffling in my hair. I dont hear them if she is in her cage or if I hold her up to me ear (unlike Sandy.....where I heard them in different situations plus she had other noticable symptoms).

I do not have a lot of money and cannot spend another $200 just because thay could possibly be sick. :-/ I had no idea that I would have immediate issues like this when I bought them. I had rats for years when I was younger and only had to go to a vet a couple of times (2 different rats) and it was well into their life time.

I did spend the $100 on Sandy as she was clearly sick and the petstore wasnt treating her. She is doing great now.

I don't know what to do- I would like to treat the other girls incase but I can't afford $200 atm. I may be able to in a couple of weeks when I get my tax refund.


What about something like TYLOSIN? Although once again, maybe not ideal, RMCA.com says it's a Bacteriostatic Antibiotics — which prevents invading bacteria from reproducing, allowing immune system to kill them?

Would it hurt to try something like this? And then if any symptoms really pop out by the time I get my tax refund, ill take them to the vet?
 
Baytril, zithro, doxy, baytril + zithro, or baytril + doxy seem to be what works for myco,
And if meds are helping, then they need to stay on them for at least 6 weeks or they will not be better and the symptoms will return
 
SQ said:
Baytril, zithro, doxy, baytril + zithro, or baytril + doxy seem to be what works for myco,
And if meds are helping, then they need to stay on them for at least 6 weeks or they will not be better and the symptoms will return
Click to expand...


The vet had given me something else for the girl who was def sick. Azithromycin? Is that another name for any of those or is a completely different medicine? She told me 14-30 days on it. I opted for 30 days even before the recommended it.

Is 30 days definitely no enough on this specific medication? This is so stressful :-/
 
Azithromcycin is zithromax a good med and 30 days is a good length of time. If you are not sure about your other two girls, I would wait and not put them on meds until it is clear they are sick. At which time, you could call the vet and ask them to give you extra zithromax for your other girls who are showing the same symptoms. Sometimes a vet will oblige. sometimes.
 
jorats said:
Azithromcycin is zithromax a good med and 30 days is a good length of time. If you are not sure about your other two girls, I would wait and not put them on meds until it is clear they are sick. At which time, you could call the vet and ask them to give you extra zithromax for your other girls who are showing the same symptoms. Sometimes a vet will oblige. sometimes.
Click to expand...


Thanks for that advice!!! :-D

I do have 30 extra days of Azithromcycin for Sandy in case she gets sick again, so I guess I could use that for one of the other girls if it turn out either is sick?

They are all growing though- so they may need the dosage changed. I wish the vet would give me some sort of discount- I would have brought all three girls in the day I brought Sandy in to get them checked and on their records....but its $60 just to go in the office... extra for meds or any further tests or treatment. It was a bit under $100 for Sandy when all was said and done and I just don't have enough for both girls right now. :-/ I hope im wrong about any illness.

I have Ruby (the one who is really nervous and had the crusties in her eye that one time) under my sweatshirt right now for some nice calm shirt time. :) She really seems healthy- I hear absolutely no noises from her and no sneezing or anything.

Bella- the one who is acting healthy but I hear some strange sounds when she snuffles my hair does sneeze sometimes- but it only seems to happen when I take her out of her cage- actually any possible symptoms only seem to happen when she is out of her cage. When I watch her in the cage (even when I get really close), I don't hear any sounds.

Is it possible that she is allergic to something outside of her cage? I hear the most sounds when she is in my hair...which seems to be her favorite place to be. Could she be allergic to something in my hair? :gaah: lol
 
It is possible that it's an allergic reaction but more so it could be due to her over sniffing everything. Rats tend to do that and will get debris in their nose. If this continues, you could try giving her benedryl. If it helps, then you'll know it was some kind of reaction in the nasal passages.
 
What reaction would one be looking for with the benedryl? A significant decrease in sneezing being the main thing to watch for I'm guessing. How long can a rat be on benedryl and how much?
 
My mom had a rat who sneezed constantly. He would stop for a couple of hours with the Benedryl. Our vet told us to keep giving it if we wanted to. But after a while we stopped, he continued sneezing but still had a good long life.
 

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