# Antibiotics?



## 20paws (Jan 29, 2007)

Hi all, Im new to the forum but just got a 3 month old female hooded rat. She is sneezing a little bit but her appetite is fine (shes eating like a pig already and havent had her 2hrs yet lol), shes drinking fine, and shes got plenty of energy. Shes on aspen bedding. She was with other rats previous to us getting her. My question is, we're planning on picking up some Tetracycline (250mg capsules) tomorrow. On rmca.org it says:

500mg of powder from capsules mixed into 1 litre of water

Treat for 14 to 30 days

& 

When tetracycline capsules are emptied into water bottle, be sure to cover the bottle as the drug is light sensitive. You can keep the mixture in the refrigerator for 3 days, changing the water bottles on the cages daily. Place once ounce per rat in the water bottle daily. Prescription/non-prescription available. Inexpensive, but treating in the water is not desired. Remove moist foods from diet while treating with medication in the water to encourage drinking.


Would this be okay to do or should we wait and give her another day or 2 to get adjusted to everything?


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## whiskey (Jan 27, 2007)

HI there,
so we are going to got out on a limb here and say our oppinion about this. I have had a lot of animals my whole life, including rats, and one thing that I have learned is NEVER NEVER NEVER make medicine yourself. Sorry when this sounds a little fresh, but this is why there are VETS!!!!! our smallest ("Gin"ger) had the same thing, we took her to the vets and got some medicine to help with her immune system. After around 2 to 4 days no more sneezing, and she is now the boss of the cage. LOL. Please do NOT do this, no matter what anyone says. It could cost you more than the medicine, could cost you your ratty. Please take the time and go to the vet. 
My oppinion on the sneezing is maybe the temp in the room is a little cold. Warm it up a little bit. 
I am open to anyone saying that we are wrong. 
Just my oppinion.

Glenn & Susann


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## 20paws (Jan 29, 2007)

She has been sneezing since she was put into the carboard carrier box from the petstore to home. It was cold out last night but we did have the heat on in the car so hopefully she wouldnt get sick. Thing is getting her from a petstore, we dont know if she was exposed to anything or not. What kinda meds did your rattie get put on? Im not sure if my vet is licensed to do small animals or even sees them for that matter but if nothing else we will take her to the vet I took my hairless girls' to back when I still had them. It was 1.5hr away but well worth it!


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## whiskey (Jan 27, 2007)

That was fast. Ok, our "gin"ger was also sneezing as soon as we got her home (have had them around 4 weeks now), and within the first 48 hours we were wt the first vet (who hated rats), so we went to a second vet the next day (who loves ratties). All vets should have a licence to handle small animals, but I will do you a favor, and later when I am over at my fiances I will look at the medicine and let you know what it is. It was amazing, really. You need a small syringe, and we use carrot juice and you place 5 drops in there and let the rat drink the juice. Worked wonders. I see you have hairless?? Check the temp and keep it warm. Hairless can catch a cold really easily. But then again so can any other rat. 
Like I said, I will let you know what it was (and I hope that it is not in German, as I am in Germany), but I will do the best I can OK??

Glenn & Susann


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## 20paws (Jan 29, 2007)

Oh sorry didnt mean to confuse you.. I used to have hairless females (2). About a year and a half ago the second one passed away from old age. Their names were Thelma and Louise. I loved them dearly and you couldnt have asked for more from a rat. I didnt plan on getting another rat but when we walked in the pet store and saw this lil girl thought well.. might as well get her and help her so she doesnt just pass away in a lonely pet store by herself. The vet I took Thelma and Louise to wasnt an overly friendly guy but he definately knew his stuff and saved Thelma's life. She'd lost a bunch of weight within a matter of like 2 days and turned out just to be an enlarged lymph node (sp??). Thelma ended up biting him  during the initial exam and they kept her overnight to give her IV fluids, meds and to make sure she ate (she ate like a pig when offered her favorite thing in the world.. yogurt). They sent her home w/some amoxicillin and she rapidly put her weight back on and lived happily till she passed away from old age sometime later.
Here are some pics of her:


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## whiskey (Jan 27, 2007)

Well...thats cute..  Dresses on a rat. I do not think I could ever do this, but its kinda cute. 
Here where I am, I do not think that they have hairless rats. It is or would be WAY to cold for them here. A question if I may. Do you have just the one, or more than one. I kinda got lost along the way. I am really hoping that my tip(s) help a little for you there. I used to have a rat (a being the operitive word) when I was in highschool, and she was the greatest. It was my proof that rats can live a long time alone. But (since it was a private school) she had the run of the room, and would not be seen for days, and just as me and my roommate would start to worry, there she was (by the way, her name was Athena) healthy and ready to cuddle. 
Anyways, back to topic, I will try and get the name of this medicine to you a little later (keep in mind, deppending on where you are located, that we have a 6 hour time difference to the eastern seaboard) and maybe you can get this there and it should help. If by chance you only have one rat, get her (or him) a friend...

Glenn & Susann


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## 20paws (Jan 29, 2007)

Right now we just have the baby brown hooded rat.


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## whiskey (Jan 27, 2007)

So..... after a phone call to my fiance, I have found out the we use a product called HM2000 from the company albrecht. Ok, now that we have ascertained that this product is not available in the states, lets try this. The main ingredient is "Propolis C6" which, as far as I can tell is a natural healing (inkluding antibotics) and is very good for the imune system. What I can suggest, is look on google, or yahoo for this product. 
As for your rattie being a loner, get her a companion to play with. It couldn't hurt, as everyone here has stated that rats need other rats. 
I myself want to get another female for the 2 that we have, but.... someone is against this at the moment, which is not all bad. 2 is a handfull sometimes. 
So, as stated, you can try this, or ask your vet about this product (Propolis C6), and we place 5 drops every day in carrot juice and it works. I hope that this has helped a little bit. Now I am going to go and make a suggestion about maybe putting together a photo contest. LOL..


Glenn & Susann


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

having only been with you for a a few hours it may just be the change in environment. a rat is nearly completely blind and relies heavily on its sense of smell and hearing. much like a dog a rat will sneeze out one smell to better get hold of another one. and if everything it is smelling is new the sneezing will be frequent. that doesn't mean that she couldn't have caught something from the pet store though. but take the rat to the vet and do not try to self medicate or diagnose. even the most experienced rat fancier will take their rat to the vet even something as common as a bit of sneezing, even if they know what medications and dosage is required before hand. having said that though do look up the different medications. not all vets know about them. if you can even just get a list of possilbilites to give the the vet they'll be able to do look into the best one for the rat. though i will give you my suggestion on medication to get you started with. the medication i recommend for your rat given its age would be Sulfatrim 20-4mg/ml. this is a milder antibiotic that won't stunt the growth of your rat and is less likely to cause other complications in a fastly growing rat. your dosage might be different depending on size but i was to adminster 0.06 ml every 12hrs. i used it for my young rat (approx. age 5-6 weeks, possilbly younger) and it cleared it up just like that. 

i hope this helps.


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## 20paws (Jan 29, 2007)

Thanks for the advice Twitch. I will probably have to write it down to remember it to ask/tell the vet about tomorrow. She (have yet to come up w/a name for her yet) has a vet appt tom. at 3:15 so I will let everyone know how it went and if shes put on any meds, what kind they are and what the vets diagnosis is.


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

Made a icon for you useing that picture <3 Feel free to use it or not


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

how'd the visit to the vet go?


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## fallinstar (Nov 26, 2006)

omg omg where did u get the rat cloaths from i would love some they are amazin (sounds very strange in deed but i wouldnt make the rats wear them its just a random rat acseroy to have) did u make them or buy them ? plz let me no!


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