hollyberryness
New Member
Hi everyone, long time lurker and learner here, and I finally have questions of my own! Be warned, I've got a long story ahead and it might be a bit graphic... But I'd like you to know the entire story of my little babes.
So I'm about a year and a half into rescuing single female rats - I wasn't expecting to fall so in love with them but I'm hooked. Alas, they have not been the "easy and cheap" pets my sister promised they'd be, lol. Maybe it's due to them coming from less than ideal homes but I've been to emergency vet several times in the past year: one case of pyometra for my oldest, Ashwood, that required emergency spay; my heart rat, Fig, nearly died several times due to an abscess that was very resistant to antibiotics, the vet kept saying it was probably cancer but I insisted it was an abscess, and it ended up rotting her from the inside out until a large part of her shoulder and face fall off! Well she ended up losing a top tooth, which grew back but then was somehow violently ripped from her face a couple months later - I woke up to her screaming and then choking on blood, I was sucking it out with my mouth so she could breathe and rushed her to emergency vet, we just barely made it, she was on oxygen a day and overnight and the following day. Well they discharged her too soon so I ended up rushing her back for another couple nights on oxygen and critical care monitoring. That tooth never grew back and the other top tooth ended up being taken out, now she will need biweekly bottom tooth trims for life. Now I've got a third one, Teak, on antibiotics for respiratory issues for about 2 weeks now, and AS IF THAT'S NOT ENOUGH, Fig and Ashwood are now suffering with what I suspect to be mites! Or maybe lice... Or maybe neither??
So, initially I thought my newest rat, Maple, who I got ~6 months ago, was being a little too rough - she came from an apparent rough home, she's so sweet but very scared, timid, and protective. The girls were introduced following guidelines I've read on this site, and they all get along quite nicely now, but Maple is still very skittish - every time I even move she dashes and hides away. She's never acted aggressive towards me, I've never seen her bite and she's very submissive, but often will thrash about when I'm holding her - we have been learning "up" and "hand" and "come here" - she's incredibly smart but still oh so scared, so sometimes if I'm able to "up" her she'll be fine a second then randomly thrash about to try and get away. Well, she also loves to karate kick the other girls, lol. She doesn't show much dominant behavior, it's all reactionary imo, so if one gets to close and catches her off guard she'll do that swipe kick at them, and this is what I thought was causing Fig and Ashwood some small scabs - same as I get on my hands if she gets scared while being carried.
However, I never witness any fights, and Teak hasn't had a single scratch, which is surprising to me because she's actually more playful and dominant towards Maple - I'll see them chase each other around and play, even though when Maple is foraging and Teak is being her usual persistent self, Teak will get a karate kick. But never a scratch! So after a while I figured if anyone was going to be "injured" by Maple, it would definitely be her... Then I thought maybe Teak was grooming too hard - she never had any cage mates, and was abandoned first by her owner with a pet sitter then the sitter turned her over to a shelter. No friends, her cage was pathetically bare, poor little baby had no enrichment at all. Anyways she really loves pinning Ashwood down and sometimes Fig to groom them. I'm not sure if it's a dominant thing or of she's just a little rough because she didn't have any mates to learn with.
Now several weeks later I'm starting to see Fig and Ashwood itch more often, and Ashwood has some tiny scabs around her eyes and face. I guess it very well could still be injuries from the others but after reading for hours last night I'm now thinking it's mites, or maybe even lice. I did my best to look for any tiny crawlies but found nothing that looks like lice, except some dandruff looking stuff - there's hardly any of that though, nothing like the pictures I saw online of egg infestations. There's just one or two little skin flake looking things near each little wound, and I tried to pick em off and look closely for movement or shape but it just looked like skin flake.
I called 2 vets today that have both seen Fig and Ashwood before, but they're adamant they need to see the girls before prescribing anything. There are no appointments for weeks, and I just absolutely cannot afford another $180 (x2 + cost of any testing and meds) emergency visit again. I've gone into so much debt over the last year... I should say: They both
already have an actual checkup + tooth trim scheduled in like 2 weeks, so I'll be sure to bring all this up at the doc when we go, but until then...
I got ivermectin from a feed store and am confident with the dosing. My few questions for you all:
1) Should I dose all 4 rats, not just the 2 with scabs? I imagine yes
2) If yes to above, are there any issues with giving Teak, who is on antibiotics, a dose? Will there be any adverse interactions? She's on enro atm, and I still have gentamicin for the nebulizer I got when Fig was real bad, I give her a treatment when it seems like she's stuffed up really bad. (Feel free to tell at me if this is stupid)
3) I also got diatomaceous earth - I'm not too keen on using it for anything except their cage, I know it's very bad to breathe. I'm going to power wash everything at my stepdads and clean it with the DE. My questions are, should/can I wash their (and my) linens with it? Not sure if that's smart or not...
4) I've spent a lot, LOT of time making my apartment a place they can free roam. They're so smart and well behaved and absolutely loathe being in the cage, so after each one was trained and watched closely for weeks, they now have full access to 80% of my apartment (only when I'm home of course.) I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed now, though, because I'll likely have to disinfect every inch of my apartment - should I be so worried, or will several treatments of ivermectin eventually kill them all and intercept the pests lifecycle enough so that I don't have to bleach/vinegar/apply DE in every single spot around the place?
5) lastly, when we go for our checkups later this month I'll obviously tell the vet everything, but I'm still expecting to need a script for revolution or whatever - is it too much to do both? Should I only give one treatment now then wait to hear what the doc says? I really feel bad they've gotten worse over the last few weeks and want to start treating ASAP, I shoulda brought it up at our last tooth trim but like I said I thought the little scabs were just Maple and her karate kicks. I am going to put olive/coconut oil on their bodies to try and help with itching, also.
Ok that was a lot, I appreciate any help and input, thank you so much in advance and for being such a great source of knowledge so far!
Holly
So I'm about a year and a half into rescuing single female rats - I wasn't expecting to fall so in love with them but I'm hooked. Alas, they have not been the "easy and cheap" pets my sister promised they'd be, lol. Maybe it's due to them coming from less than ideal homes but I've been to emergency vet several times in the past year: one case of pyometra for my oldest, Ashwood, that required emergency spay; my heart rat, Fig, nearly died several times due to an abscess that was very resistant to antibiotics, the vet kept saying it was probably cancer but I insisted it was an abscess, and it ended up rotting her from the inside out until a large part of her shoulder and face fall off! Well she ended up losing a top tooth, which grew back but then was somehow violently ripped from her face a couple months later - I woke up to her screaming and then choking on blood, I was sucking it out with my mouth so she could breathe and rushed her to emergency vet, we just barely made it, she was on oxygen a day and overnight and the following day. Well they discharged her too soon so I ended up rushing her back for another couple nights on oxygen and critical care monitoring. That tooth never grew back and the other top tooth ended up being taken out, now she will need biweekly bottom tooth trims for life. Now I've got a third one, Teak, on antibiotics for respiratory issues for about 2 weeks now, and AS IF THAT'S NOT ENOUGH, Fig and Ashwood are now suffering with what I suspect to be mites! Or maybe lice... Or maybe neither??
So, initially I thought my newest rat, Maple, who I got ~6 months ago, was being a little too rough - she came from an apparent rough home, she's so sweet but very scared, timid, and protective. The girls were introduced following guidelines I've read on this site, and they all get along quite nicely now, but Maple is still very skittish - every time I even move she dashes and hides away. She's never acted aggressive towards me, I've never seen her bite and she's very submissive, but often will thrash about when I'm holding her - we have been learning "up" and "hand" and "come here" - she's incredibly smart but still oh so scared, so sometimes if I'm able to "up" her she'll be fine a second then randomly thrash about to try and get away. Well, she also loves to karate kick the other girls, lol. She doesn't show much dominant behavior, it's all reactionary imo, so if one gets to close and catches her off guard she'll do that swipe kick at them, and this is what I thought was causing Fig and Ashwood some small scabs - same as I get on my hands if she gets scared while being carried.
However, I never witness any fights, and Teak hasn't had a single scratch, which is surprising to me because she's actually more playful and dominant towards Maple - I'll see them chase each other around and play, even though when Maple is foraging and Teak is being her usual persistent self, Teak will get a karate kick. But never a scratch! So after a while I figured if anyone was going to be "injured" by Maple, it would definitely be her... Then I thought maybe Teak was grooming too hard - she never had any cage mates, and was abandoned first by her owner with a pet sitter then the sitter turned her over to a shelter. No friends, her cage was pathetically bare, poor little baby had no enrichment at all. Anyways she really loves pinning Ashwood down and sometimes Fig to groom them. I'm not sure if it's a dominant thing or of she's just a little rough because she didn't have any mates to learn with.
Now several weeks later I'm starting to see Fig and Ashwood itch more often, and Ashwood has some tiny scabs around her eyes and face. I guess it very well could still be injuries from the others but after reading for hours last night I'm now thinking it's mites, or maybe even lice. I did my best to look for any tiny crawlies but found nothing that looks like lice, except some dandruff looking stuff - there's hardly any of that though, nothing like the pictures I saw online of egg infestations. There's just one or two little skin flake looking things near each little wound, and I tried to pick em off and look closely for movement or shape but it just looked like skin flake.
I called 2 vets today that have both seen Fig and Ashwood before, but they're adamant they need to see the girls before prescribing anything. There are no appointments for weeks, and I just absolutely cannot afford another $180 (x2 + cost of any testing and meds) emergency visit again. I've gone into so much debt over the last year... I should say: They both
already have an actual checkup + tooth trim scheduled in like 2 weeks, so I'll be sure to bring all this up at the doc when we go, but until then...
I got ivermectin from a feed store and am confident with the dosing. My few questions for you all:
1) Should I dose all 4 rats, not just the 2 with scabs? I imagine yes
2) If yes to above, are there any issues with giving Teak, who is on antibiotics, a dose? Will there be any adverse interactions? She's on enro atm, and I still have gentamicin for the nebulizer I got when Fig was real bad, I give her a treatment when it seems like she's stuffed up really bad. (Feel free to tell at me if this is stupid)
3) I also got diatomaceous earth - I'm not too keen on using it for anything except their cage, I know it's very bad to breathe. I'm going to power wash everything at my stepdads and clean it with the DE. My questions are, should/can I wash their (and my) linens with it? Not sure if that's smart or not...
4) I've spent a lot, LOT of time making my apartment a place they can free roam. They're so smart and well behaved and absolutely loathe being in the cage, so after each one was trained and watched closely for weeks, they now have full access to 80% of my apartment (only when I'm home of course.) I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed now, though, because I'll likely have to disinfect every inch of my apartment - should I be so worried, or will several treatments of ivermectin eventually kill them all and intercept the pests lifecycle enough so that I don't have to bleach/vinegar/apply DE in every single spot around the place?
5) lastly, when we go for our checkups later this month I'll obviously tell the vet everything, but I'm still expecting to need a script for revolution or whatever - is it too much to do both? Should I only give one treatment now then wait to hear what the doc says? I really feel bad they've gotten worse over the last few weeks and want to start treating ASAP, I shoulda brought it up at our last tooth trim but like I said I thought the little scabs were just Maple and her karate kicks. I am going to put olive/coconut oil on their bodies to try and help with itching, also.
Ok that was a lot, I appreciate any help and input, thank you so much in advance and for being such a great source of knowledge so far!
Holly
