# Why vets in the UK need to sort their sh*t out and see rats as pets to!



## Ratnamedbuddy

I'm guessing there are a few people on here that agree with me right? 
UK vets are absolutely **** when it comes to rats unless theyre an exotic vet which aren't really around unless you live in big city's.
It's currently 00:31am in the UK right now and I was trying to sleep but had to get up due to my rat, which might I add had last seen a vet on the 31st of January, squeaking while breathing so fast and loud it sounded like a demonic laugh. 
That's a bad sign right? Well the vet told me hes fine, just by some probiotics. But he's not fine and the last time one of my rats made a noise like that it was to late. 2 days later he died because the vets didn't give him antibiotics when he had a slight crackle on his lungs because "he was acting his usal self" 

I've got vets today at 11:15 am at a different place, who's got someone who deals with rats regularly. I don't think I'm going to be able to get any sleep tonight, to worried that he's going to be gasping for breath and have to be put to sleep in the morning. 

I really wish rats were as popular here in the UK as they are else where in the world cause maybe then vets will treat them the same as any other pet.


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## moonkissed

It is the world over sadly 

i am sure there are some excellent exotic vets in the UK, same as in the US but it isn't always easy to find them or near by.

I can somewhat understand. The average person has cats or dogs. Much fewer people have pet rats and only a smidge of them ever even bother to take them to the vet. And it would be very difficult for a vet to really learn enough about every single type of pet to be very experienced.

Right now I just switched vets. None of the vets in my actual town see rats so I have to go out of town. And when i called to set stuff up the receptionist wasn't even sure how to fill stuff out in the system for them lol. And they see rats! 

I would highly suggest makign local rat friends, find a local rat group (check out facebook) and ask them for their vet suggestions. 


And while I highly suggest always seeking a vets opinion, many things can be handled ourselves. You can buy meds if it is a respiratory issue and treat at home.

I also highly suggest this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1684383241815171/ It has health experts in it who can help give medical advice and has good files on dosing of meds.
Just make sure to follow their rules.

I am sorry you lost your rat


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## Rattielover965

Sorry for your loss.Good luck!


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## BearNecessities

Tell me about it! Finding a rat vet in the UK was an absolute nightmare. It makes it incredibly hard to give other UK members on the forum advice about poorly rats that need veterinary treatment with the lack of specialists in England. I finally found Rivendell, they have two practices in Surrey, one in Ash and one in Guildford. I'm not sure where in the UK you're situated but if you're local I'd definitely recommend them. It is absolutely ridiculous though, you'd think with the popularity of small animals and rodents in this country that more vets would have the appropriate knowledge to treat them. I'm studying veterinary nursing and they're more interested in training us on the correct uses of bleach and how to deal with the clients (which i understand is a complete necessity but the lack of work we do regarding the animals is insane). Even the animal based training is literally dogs, cats and on the odd occasion rabbits and guinea pigs. Considering the amount of work we actually do around the practice, which is near enough everything except diagnose, you'd think we'd be given much more in depth, hands on animal training. Honestly though, they really do need to educate themselves on rodents, even the claimed rodent specialists lack the correct knowledge in some cases and do misdiagnose or miss obvious signs of illness which is an absolute pisstake considering the prices they charge just for you walking in the door.


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## Ckelly765

I completely agree, although we've got a semi-decent one in wiltshire I wouldn't recommend it.
It's only because I feel I can bully the vet that we stay with them as harsh as it sounds.

Also, not sure if all exotic vets are like this, but if anyone in the Swindon Area sees this - steer clear of the exotics hospital there unless you want to pay the £250+ cost just to get them to look at your rat. Ridiculous.

We've got a girl with myco, she's been treated twice and after the second flare-up persisted they told us to try the exotics hospital as they could only prescribe baytril, then comes the shocking price. 
I spent hours reading into it, called the vets back up, took her down and managed to twist their arm into giving me Doxy (To which she's now been clear of a flare-up for 5 months) 
Had to sign a form I assume releasing them from responsibility and listen to the vet tell me there's no research on it and she's better off being put down. But she's a picture of perfect health - It's my first time keeping rats and I never thought it'd be that hard to get a decent vet, but it is.

I've never tried this site, but I bookmarked it the other day as someone else posted it in the health section:
http://pigeons.mercasystems.com/ind...table-magistral-formula-pigeons-products.html
(as I said, I can't vouch for the integrity of the site, but it's handy to have a look at)

It's a UK site, supposedly no prescription required as it's for birds, but you can get Baytril and Doxy on it (And you can find tons of info on the forums about dilution of the antibiotics and doses) I've got it bookmarked because the amount of hassle (and emotional heartbreak) I went through with our girl to get her treated that if our vets pull another stunt like they did with telling us to put her down, I'm gonna treat her myself. 
It's horrible to go through, I hope your trip to the vets went okay x


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## HaggisWhisperer

I think I must have struck lucky...My local vet practice seems really good (Lanark, Scotland). it is a big practice and two of the vets there are really great - one was absolute rubbish, but the other two were great. One of the vets is a small, small animal specialist and has treated quite a few rats although she tends to specialise in rabbits and guinea pigs. It is a nuisance in the UK that you need a presecription for antibiotics (although I had heard this was changing in the US as well), but I do understand why it is necessary.


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## LJ Green

It seems I got quite lucky with my Vet. I live in a small town, but it has a Vets For Pets. All the staff there have been very accepting of rats, and whilst only a couple specialise in them, they do tend to listen to any concerns. They're a bit expensive, but that's just part of it sadly.


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## Heyyouguys

LJ Green said:


> It seems I got quite lucky with my Vet. I live in a small town, but it has a Vets For Pets. All the staff there have been very accepting of rats, and whilst only a couple specialise in them, they do tend to listen to any concerns. They're a bit expensive, but that's just part of it sadly.


Really? I was with vets for pets and I was really unhappy with the rat service  I took them in to look at a neuter because I was going to add females to my mischief, and the female doctor I had kept having to leave the room before answering any questions. Then when she treated them for mites, she only weighed one of my boys for the dosage until I pointed out that he was considerably bigger than my other boy and that I'd like them both weighed. He was quite a bit heavier! So she almost dosed one of them wrong. And whenever she had to touch them she kept wiping her hands on her scrubs afterwards as if they were dirty. I know that none of these make bad service but I didn't feel particularly happy with it. She recommended against a neuter until they were older, so I just didn't bother and didn't add any more to my mischief. 
The male doctor who saw my boy when he had a bit of a poorly eye seemed pretty knowledgeable but still didn't want to touch my boy. 
So I changed vets, and before I did I rang up and checked that they had small animal vets, and they said that they didn't have specialists for exotics/small animals, but they did have nurses that owned rats themselves and they were more than happy to handle and treat rats confidently


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## Britastic Gremlin

Honestly I feel extremely lucky. I don't know where in the SW you are but where I am in Cornwall we have a particular veterinary practice group split between several branches and a hospital, and they couldn't be better. On a whole they specialise in all species, including reptiles, horses, cows and rodents, as well as the usual cats and dogs. The staff there are lovely and very compassionate, and are willing to work with owners so that everyone is happy.

But then again, I know there really aren't many other vets local that will deal with rats. Before they set up shop in my town a couple years ago finding a good vet that would deal with rodents was **** near impossible, especially for someone like me who can't drive and therefore can't go to the exotics vet 4 towns over. It really does bother me that overall though very few people will even give rats a second glance.


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## Nieve5552

This actually is quite surprising to me (not in UK) because i thought it'd be quite good there considering rats originated as pets in the UK  
Its horrible that the vet would give such terrible advice, that is just not good practice. I mean, no doctor of any sort should confidently tell someone that their animal is 'OK' when s/he obviously doesnt know much about the animal at all? So irresponsible 



Heyyouguys said:


> Really? I was with vets for pets and I was really unhappy with the rat service  I took them in to look at a neuter because I was going to add females to my mischief, and the female doctor I had kept having to leave the room before answering any questions. Then when she treated them for mites, she only weighed one of my boys for the dosage until I pointed out that he was considerably bigger than my other boy and that I'd like them both weighed. He was quite a bit heavier! So she almost dosed one of them wrong. And whenever she had to touch them she kept wiping her hands on her scrubs afterwards as if they were dirty. I know that none of these make bad service but I didn't feel particularly happy with it. She recommended against a neuter until they were older, so I just didn't bother and didn't add any more to my mischief.
> The male doctor who saw my boy when he had a bit of a poorly eye seemed pretty knowledgeable but still didn't want to touch my boy.
> So I changed vets, and before I did I rang up and checked that they had small animal vets, and they said that they didn't have specialists for exotics/small animals, but they did have nurses that owned rats themselves and they were more than happy to handle and treat rats confidently


They didnt want to touch the rats and kept wiping their hands?? Well thats just offensive. They touch animal feces and pus and all kinds of other bodily fluids and they think rats are dirty? Rats are obviously always going to be cleaner than dogs! If vets dont know that rats groom themselves how would they know anything about their medical care  Im glad you found a much better place!


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## crazyfoxmachine

Yeah the vets locally to me (Bristol) are quite variable. Whereas no staff have been in any way rude or cruel about the rats (most are quite taken with them NATURALLY) they can be relatively clueless and (not in any legally actionable way mind you) misadvised us about post-operative care of the only one of our gang to die of non-natural causes. Might be worth building up a google docs. of 'trusted rat vets' compiled by users actually - !


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## WelshRat

Has anyone tried the vets in Pets At Home? They sell rats and offer free vet appointments for rats that are bought there or have been adopted from their charity section so the vets there should have a lot of experience with them. I'm lucky that mine haven't needed an appointment yet but when I asked questions at the vet I take my cats to they didn't really seem to have much knowledge about rats so I'm on the lookout for someone more experienced.


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## WelshRat

Just wanted to update that I have found a good local rat vet. Www.originvets.org

The best thing about them is they have exotic pet clinics in other vet practices from west Wales to Surrey. The clinics are only on certain days so prob not so good for emergencies unless you're willing to travel but I've been told they are very good with rats. They've even been on bbc's vets24/7 programme.

Another one that looks good is one in London. They are rat specialists and even take referrals from other vets who are not as clued up on rats. Their rat page on the website seems very knowledgable 
https://www.alpha-vets.co.uk/rats/


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## Ratnamedbuddy

Ckelly765 said:


> I completely agree, although we've got a semi-decent one in wiltshire I wouldn't recommend it.
> It's only because I feel I can bully the vet that we stay with them as harsh as it sounds.
> 
> Also, not sure if all exotic vets are like this, but if anyone in the Swindon Area sees this - steer clear of the exotics hospital there unless you want to pay the £250+ cost just to get them to look at your rat. Ridiculous.
> 
> We've got a girl with myco, she's been treated twice and after the second flare-up persisted they told us to try the exotics hospital as they could only prescribe baytril, then comes the shocking price.
> I spent hours reading into it, called the vets back up, took her down and managed to twist their arm into giving me Doxy (To which she's now been clear of a flare-up for 5 months)
> Had to sign a form I assume releasing them from responsibility and listen to the vet tell me there's no research on it and she's better off being put down. But she's a picture of perfect health - It's my first time keeping rats and I never thought it'd be that hard to get a decent vet, but it is.
> 
> I've never tried this site, but I bookmarked it the other day as someone else posted it in the health section:
> http://pigeons.mercasystems.com/ind...table-magistral-formula-pigeons-products.html
> (as I said, I can't vouch for the integrity of the site, but it's handy to have a look at)
> 
> It's a UK site, supposedly no prescription required as it's for birds, but you can get Baytril and Doxy on it (And you can find tons of info on the forums about dilution of the antibiotics and doses) I've got it bookmarked because the amount of hassle (and emotional heartbreak) I went through with our girl to get her treated that if our vets pull another stunt like they did with telling us to put her down, I'm gonna treat her myself.
> It's horrible to go through, I hope your trip to the vets went okay x


Where abouts in Wiltshire? I've opted to going to vets for pets Now. It's the next town over from where I am and in my local pets at home and when I rang them and asked they said they had two rat specialists. I mean I was slightly surprised but it became obvious as to why they had them as they sell rats frequently in pets at home.


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## Ratnamedbuddy

WelshRat said:


> Has anyone tried the vets in Pets At Home? They sell rats and offer free vet appointments for rats that are bought there or have been adopted from their charity section so the vets there should have a lot of experience with them. I'm lucky that mine haven't needed an appointment yet but when I asked questions at the vet I take my cats to they didn't really seem to have much knowledge about rats so I'm on the lookout for someone more experienced.


I highly recommend vets for pets Now(aka the vets in pets at home), they have been a life saver. Although there is no charity by me that deal with rats that can help me out


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## Ratnamedbuddy

Think now is a good time to up date you all on everything.

I found a new vets  it's vets for pets and they have been so good to me. The first post was about buddy, he actually had pneumonia from stress of one of his new cage mates and both cage mates had hormonal aggression and had to be neutered. I couldn't afford both so one of my friends decided to take one on (got him some friends and neutered him) while I got the other one done. 
Mouse, the one I got neutered ended up with 2 abscesses due to a reaction to the stitches used and vets for pets coudlnt of been better. I owe them the life of buddy cause he woudlnt of gotten treatment for his pneumonia and he would of ended up alone again cause my local vets won't even neuter rats.


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## thepumpkinrat

It's so obnoxious, even here in the US a lot of "exotic" or "small animal" vets won't even see rats, yet they'll see hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, etc.


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## HobieFinchArthur

I've taken to single-handedly re-educating our vets on the treatment of rats lol! They used to be a bit skeptical about treating, but now 16 of my rats rats later, we're slowly getting there. A good vet will always make the effort to research treatment if they don't know things already. In my opinion if you can't travel to find an exotics/rat specific vet, try to get clued up - my vets might be different because it's quite a small local practice, but if I suggest a diagnosis or treatment they are always willing to listen and look into things themselves (I'll also sometimes refer them to the rat health guide)

Basically the only medicines that are _licensed_ for rats in the UK are antibiotics like baytril and doxycycline, and then pain relief (metacam/loxicom), and anything else is technically 'unlicensed' (or at least that's what my vets have told me?) So I guess it's down to the vet if they want to give you something not in the basic vet handbook. If they haven't had much rat experience they're often reluctant to do this for obvious reasons. However I sort of think that if a vet can say 'we can't really do much because it's such a small animal' or in other words 'its just a rat', it's sort of hypocritical of them not to try more experimental treatments if they've run out of options.


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## Lunchy

I mostly go to Vets for Pets inside Pets at Home and have never had problems with them, they've always seemed really interested whenever I've been in and liked my boys. However after having to go to the vet for the third time in a month tonight (all for different rats!) I wanted to try somewhere else that a friend uses and also happens to be cheaper for a consult, being the end of the month and all that. They advertise on their website that they look at rats, and my friend says they're good with his girls and are reasonably priced for treatment...so fingers crossed!


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