# Need help dosing powdered amoxicillin for my rat



## allisonj30 (Apr 1, 2015)

So I have some powdered amoxicillin that says it is 10% per 100 g. One of my rats is showing signs of an upper respiratory infection and I need help with how much water I add to the powder and then how many cc's to give her. She weighs 650g. Any help would be much appreciated!


----------



## Miss_Rattie (Jul 5, 2016)

Hi there. I am pretty certain that 10% is 100 mg per gram.

I usually use this site as a starting point for dosing:

http://www.rmca.org/Articles/dchart.htm

So if you want to give 10 mg/lb then your rattie is about 1.3 lb (1 lb = 450 g). So, you would need to give her about 13 mg per dose (I would give twice a day).

If you can weight out a 1g of amoxicillin, then I would make this up in 4 ml water to give you a concentration of 25 mg/ml. A dose of 0.5 ml would be about right. 

I wouldn't make up more than a gram at a time of amoxicillin as I am not sure how long it would last. I make up 5 ml at a time and keep in the fridge and it seems fine for the week or so that it takes me to get through it.

Amoxicillin can cause diarrhea, so watch out for this with your girl. Also, I think that the dose ranges for antibiotics in rats is pretty massive. I have been giving one of my girls with a severe URI Clavamox, based on the attached link. However, I found out from my vet yesterday that I can give her pretty much double the dose. So, I would start off with the stated dose and you may be able to increase slightly if required.

One other thing with amoxicillin is that I personally would be very careful about using it too much for mild URIs to avoid building up resistance. The problem would be if your rat was resistant and then developed a secondary infection/severe URI later in life then you possibly have lost the use of amoxicillin, which is generally the best antibiotic for secondary infections.


----------



## allisonj30 (Apr 1, 2015)

Thanks so much!! Very helpful


----------



## Hippie51 (Sep 28, 2021)

My boy rat is sick with upper respiratory infection I've been giving him powdered antibiotics I don't know how many milligrams and putting it in a yogurt and giving him a small amount twice a day for 3 days will that help him somebody please help


----------



## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

Unless you have the equipment to very accurately measure out very exact amounts of powder (like a gram), don't use powdered medication. Just don't do it. 

Using a liquid antibiotic is much safer and easier. Using capsules or tablets is also much easier.


----------



## Hippie51 (Sep 28, 2021)

Ok thanks


----------

