# Natural remedies. advice. Sneezing rat



## anglethatispurple (Jan 3, 2013)

Would like some advice please. I have a rat she's about 13 weeks old and has been sneezing for about two day. I don't want to really give her antibiotics because I'd don't really believe in them for my own health unless they are absolutely necessary. So I want to try and give her some natural treatments. So far i have tried giving her a little raw honey on a pea which she licked a little bit but wasn't quite sure about. I've put some colloidal silver in her drinking water about a cap full in a 120 ml bottle. I've been giving her parsley and have given her a little raw cocoa nib don't know if this is as good a dark chocolate but thought it might be better as it doesn't have the sugar or dairy in. I've read on the internet about grapefruit seed extract but have been able to find any in the local supermarket or pharmacy yet and going to try a health food store next. I haven't found any information about how to give it to them though and what dosage, I was thinking of maybe mixing it with baby food. Have also been wondering about what else i could give her ideas I've had are olive leaf extract and spirulina but I'd don't know if these are good for rats and wouldn't know what dosage to give. I also have so Irish moss in the fridge. If anyone has had any luck with natural remedies i could really do with the advice thanks. I don't have any natural vets near me and would like to help her get better. If she gets worse i will take her to the vet thought. She doesn't have any red around her nose or eyes yet and her chest sound ok to me but I'm not sure what it would sound like if it was bad. She's still active and pretty much normal behaviour apart from the sneezing. We've had her for about 6 weeks now so it wouldn't be due to I new environment. They have fleece bedding and recycled paper litter(breeders choice) There diet consisted of a mix of freeze dried fruits, goji berries, puffed millet kamut rice, Rolled oats, organic tri colour pasta, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, unhullled and hulled barley.And Biotic Plus weight control dog food. Sorry for the long post and thanks for taking the time to read and help


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

How long have you been trying the honey? natural remedies don't work over night.

Keep up with the honey, I normally mix some up in baby food, and the Parsley. I've never used grape fruit extract but I assume just mix it into some baby food. Or maybe you can mix it up with some Black or Green Tea (Tea will also help). I've heard of pine apple juice also helping, but I just read of that recently and not sure how well it works.

Along with that always good to use Detox herbs, so Cinnamon, Cilantro, and Oregano. Also Thyme helps with Resp.

If you can get Echinacea that helps too. Garlic is also suppose to help but I've only used it once.

I've never used Olive leaf extract, but from what I'm reading it goes along with the basis of giving the Detox herbs.

Spirulina is good over all in daily diets, so worth giving as well.

Not sure about Irish moss, I can't find much on it other then it's used to make beer and milk products. Can't hurt though.

Diet sounds fine.


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## anglethatispurple (Jan 3, 2013)

I also feed them fresh fruit and veg every other day forgot to mention. Also its been quite hot here for about two week so I don't know if that triggered it. Also she got into my broken couch which is a bit dusty which i worried might have caused it. I just hope I'm doing the right thing. What symptoms would mean I she's getting worse and i should take her to the vet?

I've got echinachea tea so i'll try giving that a go, just started giving her the honey today. Also I worried I'll go overboard and give her to many thing not sure how many I should try at a time. I started giving her the parsley and collidial silver yesterday.


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

Heat + the couch would cause this. Try to put stuff like ice cubes, frozen water bottles, you can even freeze tiles, to put into their cage to cool them off.

If she starts having sound in her chest, wheezy, or excessive mucus + wet sneezes, then it's most likely vet time.


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## anglethatispurple (Jan 3, 2013)

Its cooled down now thankfully is only 26[SUB] degrees Celsius.[/SUB] And I've been putting ceramic tiles in their cage from the freezer but they haven't really paid much attention to them apart from initially licking them. Also had an evaporative air conditioner on but they aren't directly under any of the vents. Also I have crickets in the house wild pest ones i haven't seen her eat any but there are some little babies ones and am worried they may have eaten one. could that make them sick?


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

Definitely keep up with the raw honey. Try mixing it into various things if she doesn't prefer it as is. 

Get ahold of that GSE, even if you have to order it online. GSE is bitter and must be diluted. Every rat is different, but a good starting ratio is 1:9. Usually, this is in terms of drops. 1 drop of GSE per 9 drops of juice or baby food.

Cacao nibs and dark chocolate are really "emergency" items as they help alleviate severe respiratory distress. I don't consider them to be particularly useful in general treatment.

I don't have personal experience with the colloidal silver, but anecdotally, it seems to be hit-or-miss.

If she starts getting worse after a week or so of honey and GSE treatment, we can talk about oil of oregano.


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## anglethatispurple (Jan 3, 2013)

My Husband managed to get some GSE this morning from the health food shop but it's called citrus seed extract instead but he was told its the same thing and that they use to call it Grapefruit seed exctract. So I started giving it to asap. She does seem a little better to me this morning, she doesn't seem to be sneezing as often and she still doesn't seem to phased by it. Thanks so much for the help . I keep you updated on how she goes.


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## anglethatispurple (Jan 3, 2013)

On the bottle it says it a water purifier and instructs to add 3-5 drops to 250ml water. Could I add it to her water or would this be less effective. Also should i treat her sisters as a preventative. As I've read if it's Myco it's usually transmitted from the mother during birth, so they could have it to or is just best to wait until they show symptoms.


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

I think it depends, normally it's less affective in water but when we had Storm (he had Hypothyroidism) I would put his Iodine drops into his water bottle occasionally and it did just fine.


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

It is not the same thing. Brands try to pull that same stunt with oil of oregano as well. Not all is created equal. I would take the product back if possible and order online if you can't find it locally. 

http://www.amazon.com/Nutribiotic-G...17305&sr=8-3&keywords=grapefruit+seed+extract

You CAN put it directly into the water bottle with the same effectiveness, but it is a bitter product and may put them off, which defeats the purpose and can cause dehydration from avoiding the water bottle. (It is, however, an excellent disinfectant for the water bottles themselves!)


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## anglethatispurple (Jan 3, 2013)

She's still sneezing but doesn't seem to be getting worse or getting any other symptoms. Wikipedia says that citrus seed extract is the same and I've already opened it, it wasn't cheap either $30 and can't find any GSE anywhere else. I'm going to order some of the other stuff from Amazon but use this until i get it. I wanted to get something locally because last time i order some melatonin for my ferret with adrenal disease to assist the hormonal implant but she died 3 days after the order and it took three months for us to get it here in Australia. But hopefully the citrus seed extract and honey will do some good while we wait. I've also bought her some oregano and coriander to go with the parsley. I'm having trouble getting her to take the CSE though as first she just licked it straight of the syringe, then she wouldn't touch it, I started putting it on a parsley left and that worked for about a day and a half. But now she just keeps trying to wipe it off her hands. Oh and I've mixed it with organic apple baby food. But she still seems healthy, active and eating normally apart from the sneezing.


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## Gannyaan (Dec 7, 2012)

In general, with myself and animals, i try natural remedies. If i don't see some improvement in a week, and get completely better in like 3 weeks, I go to conventional meds. To each their own, but just keep an eye on her since rats are tiny and can get sicker quickly.... ( but hopefully she gets better quickly and not sicker) 


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## trematode (Sep 8, 2012)

I also wanted to comment on the fact that you seem to be against antibiotics. My vet explained to me the reason why he wanted to get my girls on antibiotics when they had their first URIs. First of all, rats cannot tell us what their symptoms are. What appears to be mild sneezing could be harmless allergies or the beginning of something serious like pneumonia. I know you would likely get to the doctor and get on antibiotics before that happens. By not taking your rat to a vet when symptoms persist or get worse, you risk the worst happening. Also, since rats have a very short lifespan, the chances of them resistant or having problems is slim while the chances of a disease getting exponentially worse is great. Vet bills will get exponentially bigger as well.

As for remedies, putting them in the bathroom and running the shower on hot for 10-15 minutes to build up the steam helps with dry coughs. If the cough is wet, steam should be avoided because it will make the issue worse. Vet said that a wet cough may be a sign.


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## drownsoda (Mar 8, 2013)

*Sneezing*

OP, first of all, I just have to mention... in your main post you say something along the lines of coco nibs possibly being "better" than dark chocolate since they lack the fat, sugar and "dairy"... This caught my eye because as someone whose been living with a strict vegan for almost 10 years now(I'm a vegetarian with a bit of a dairy aversion myself so I guess I can't really blame the bf completely, lol) I can tell you that your dark chocolate should not contain dairy. If yours does, you're buying something that has been either falsely advertised or it's EXTREMELY poor in quality and you're likely to gain no benefit from eating it. 

Alright, now...*

DISCLAIMER: *Since I'm fairly new to being a rat-mommy please be aware that others will likely know better than me. Although my post will likely provide a bit of a starting point for your research, in my opinion it would be best to look into/make your own decisions about these treatments since you're the one who knows your/your rats' situation best! Although I've had experience with both rats and an interest in herbalism throughout my life, it's actually only been about 2 - 3 weeksish that I've been interested in combining the 2. 

My new little baby rat had a wicked sneeze recently. I'll share the names of some herbs with you that seem to be consistently repeated during my researching, beyond honey and dark chocolate of course. Oregano, thyme, echinacea, cilantro, cinnamon, black tea, garlic, fenugreek, clover, astragulus, cayenne pepper, seaweeds/algaes, goldenseal, rosemaryyucca, slippery elm, marshmallow, tumeric, olive leaf. 

I think some are more helpful to the immune system, but yeah. I'm going to be late for work but I'll add a couple more when I get home! I don't have time to look through my notes at the moment. 

Hope this helped, at least a bit! Good luck with your ratty <3


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## anglethatispurple (Jan 3, 2013)

Its not that is don't beleive in antibiotics, i just think they can sometimes be used excessively and cause more problems down the track as they kill off all the good flora in the body as well as the nasties. I've also read that some people having giving their rats the antibiotics and it hasn't help or it just comes back and becomes resistant to the antibiotics. I uses natural remedies for myself and kids so i thought why not my pets, if I had a holistic vet in my area i would take her there. From the research i have done online may people have had success treating their rats with GSE and herbs (e.g. rose hip, echinacea) and posted to find out if anyone on this forum had had success with natural remedies. I'm not giving her the raw cocoa nibs any more and only gave them to her the once. I am making her a mix of spiritual powder, olive leaf, rose hip powder, fresh garlic and honey which she loves, giving her Citrus Seed Extract in apple puree and fresh herbs (cilantro, parsley and oregano) Thanks everyone for the help she is still sneezing but she seems on the mend and not sneezing as often.


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## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

I had a problem with a lot of sneezing in one of my girls and a drop of baby benadryl did the trick for her. 
BUT if that doesn't help I use oil of oregano olive leaf oil healx booster honey and dark chocolate( if it's bad) acidophilus and echinacea . Steam if not a wet sneeze.

My oil of oregano and olive leaf oil are highly concentrated and come in the same bottle so I only give one drop per rat. I mix all of the above except chocolate into baby food. Something with a lot of vit c. All my girls came down with the sneezies and a little hiccupy squeak and this cleared it up not instantly but it was a slow improvement.


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## anglethatispurple (Jan 3, 2013)

Its will be a week tomorrow since i started treating Fern and and she is still sneezing and now her sister daisy has started sneezing too. They are still active and their breathing if fine. I tries to order the GSE from Amazon but they won't ship it to my address. Found some rose hip powder in the cupboard so I'm adding that to their green mix for some vitamin C. Looking into getting some healx booster looks good just not sure what quanity to order and whether they ship to Australia, also I've seen some people use it every day to keep them healthy as a preventative I guess is this a good idea or best to keep it for when they are sick.


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