What to do about a brand new, sick rat from store

[vanna]

Hey all! So unfortunately, I finally had to put Vanna down about a week ago because she was in so much pain After growing up with two rat friends, Volta was not handling the loneliness well. I tried to get a rat through a breeder, but when I was at Petsmart yesterday, I saw the prettiest rat (white with a blue strip down his back, a blaze, rex fur/whiskers and dumbo ears.) Even though he's a boy, I got him to be a neighbor for lonely Volta until he is old enough for neutering in a month. However, as is common with pet store rats, he is super wheezy and sneezy. After all the vet bills Vanna's illness stuck me with (along with her euthanasia and private cremation), I cannot afford to bring him to the vet (only exotic vet nearby charges almost $100 for a rat exam and about $40 for meds.)

The back of the adoption contract from Petsmart says that if he is ill, he can be returned within 14 days with a full refund and they will treat him. I can request that they notify me when/if he recovers. However, not only am I nervous about relinquishing ownership and the possibility of someone else adopting him, I fear that once they got him back, he would just get shoved in a quarantine cage in the back, not receive any medical treatment, and then return to the floor after the mandated two weeks...(I used to work at a different pet store chain and that's usually what happened with sick animals.)

Is there any place I can get liquid Baytril online without a script? (Or any vets I could call who would prescribe it without seeing him?) Or should I just take him back to the store (even though he may likely get neglected and I could lose him forever)? Or, since he wouldn't be able to live with Volta anyway for at least a month, and since he's sick and I can't afford a vet right now, should I

 

[dspch911]

Someone just posted about that last month this is the thread, hope it helps
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=34757&hilit=petsmart

 

[vanna]

Just read the thread. While I am glad that that particular Petco employee witnessed the store properly caring for the sick animals, I know from experience that this is not the case with all Petcos. In my town, literally all that happened to sick animals was they would get isolated and almost forgotten about for 2 weeks. Even if they were brought to the vet (which usually only happened when cases were severe) the employees would rush through care at the end of the day and often half-ass or completely skip med distribution. In many cases, evidently sick rodents would stay on the sales floor--even if an employee informed a manager that this animal was sick. They were just lazy and assumed customers were too stupid to notice.

I am just worried that this boy wouldn't receive proper care if I brought him back...but I also cannot afford a vet trip right now either. Not sure what to do...

 

[dspch911]

Completely understand, my Petco experience from yesterday viewtopic.php?f=9&t=34930

 

[SarahA]

I would feel uneasy taking him back for vet treatment especially if you know the stores reputation etc.

A fellow Shacker Carol Weekes (thank you Carol) provided a useful link to a seller that sells Baytril that does not require prescription here's what she wrote

Go onto a search engine like Google and look up JEDD'S PIGEON SUPPLIES in California. You will find a phone number (not the 1-800 one; that's for California only) where you can speak directly to a fellow named Greg and order both baytril and doxycycline, as well as amoxicillin from them. This way, you can get the meds you need and bypass the vet. People here will help you work out the dosages; you'd just need to mix the meds with a simple syrup of some kind.
Here is the link for Jedd's:
http://www.jedds.com/StoreFront.bok

I personally haven't ordered from them as I'm over seas.

Hope that helps.

Good luck with your little one, sending healing vibes.

 

[Joanne]

I would become so attached I would not be able to bring an animal back to the pet store for fear of losing them forever.
If I were in your situation, I would probably try and borrow the money, and then pay them back with the money you were going to use for the neuter next month, and then postpone the neuter for another month...

 

[Joanne]

By the way, you know that they can absolutely not have any play dates until approx 3 weeks post-neuter, right? Rats can mate faster than a blink of an eye. :cheeky:

 

[LuvDaRats]

I personally couldn't take back a baby that I bought at the pet store however, he needs to be adequately treated for whatever illness he may have as well as making sure you now quarantine your whole colony (Im assuming he was not properly quarantined) especially since he is already showing symptoms. I do want to mention about Jedds Pegion Supply (linked above) in that while they do offer Baytril and Doxy for really cheap, the Baytril the sell is VERY weak, I have had to more than quadruple to 5x the stnd dose just to make it equal to the min dose of script Baytril and couldn't come close to a logical dose size for the min 10% Baytril. You will end up using up a lot of the Jedd's Baytril just to make it work and its not always been consistent in its strength either for some reason and you really don't want to under dose these guys in fear of drug resistance. On the other hand, the Doxy comes in 100mg pills and seems to be the same as the stuff you would get from a pharmacy or the vet script so if anything, you may want to be sure to have some of this on hand to try from Jedd's. (You can also ask your vet to call in a Doxy human script and it can be MUCH cheaper than their stuff they would give you).The Baytril though you really can only get it from the vet unfortunately since it was and is always been setup as a vet script only drug from the manufacturer. If there is absolutely no way to get to the vet then you may have to think about returning him for the best interest of his health so they can treat him or try to come up with the money to take him to your vet. In the meantime you'll probably want to go ahead and pick up some Doxy to start him on it asap and hopefully you might be able to knock it out with just that (though typically that's not the case, you'll need Baytril or Zithromax depending). Good luck, Im hoping this is a simple respiratory issue and not something more that you've brought home. I hope he gets better soon, you've got a hard choice to make here.